I recently bought an old bow, pretty much sight unseen, and for only a few dollars. When I got it I discovered that the upper limb tip had a fracture that went to the edge of the string nock. The seller was willing to take it back for a refund, but to send it back would cost nearly half of what I paid so I kept it.
I got to looking at it rather seriously a few weeks ago and saw that it was also a bit out of tiller....another whammy. So I figured didn't have a lot to lose, so out came the hacksaw.
I cut off the tip about the string nock, rounded it off roughly, and then cut a new string nock. To my amazement, when I strung the bow, the tiller was back where it belonged also.
Well, that made me feel better about the whole deal. The bow is a Shakespeare R-200, a semi recurve from the late 50's or very early 60's. It has a nice leather grip and good looking riser that fits nicely in the hand. Anyway, I set it up and took some arrows to the yard. The bow shoots very well indeed.
It was marked 45 pounds, and when I was done with it, the scale showed 48 pounds at 28". It is quiet as can be...not a recurve so the string doesn't touch the limb. I sprayed a little black and gray paint over the reddish colored limbs and shot it some more today. Photos are attached.
I nearly threw the bow away...
and that would have been a mistake. It's certainly not perfect, and I need to finish the tip that I cut down, but it would serve as a very good hunting bow, of that I'm sure.
Here's the cutdown tip...it needs to be sanded better of course:
Some more photos:
This photo shows my last shots from 32 steps...about 28 yards...arrows are 540 grain cedars, 55/59# spine.
Topic: Out of the ashes (Read 297 times)
