Fun with Old Bows

[Dick in Seattle]

Just had some real fun... I got to renewing Ol' Buck's web site this morning.  He's a 50 year old exchange bow moving on another site.  Anyway, I got a yen to shoot some old bows. I had my own duplicate of Ol' Buck... late 50's or so York lemonwood longbow, and a comparable age Ben Peason lemonwood that i got last year... painted barn green! My foster son has been working on refinishing the Pearson, and has it down to lovely original wood, but no new finish on. Both bows are approx. 65# or a bit under at 28", and pull 48 - 52# for me at 25".
I strung them up and grabbed four wood 40 - 45# arrows that were still in the quiver from last year's NALS that Ol' Buck and I went to.

Man, what a pleasant shoot I had! The arrows grouped a bit left from the Pearson, but all four struck each other from 14 yds right out of the quiver. The York was better centered, but I didn't seem to group as tightly. I shot the two bows for about 1/2 hour and it was a pure joy.

Bottom line, if you think you might be interested in old bows, go for it! There's a lot of these old bows out there, and if you string them up and bring them back careful... don't pull all the way right off, they still have a lot of easy shooting in them.  I'd take either one of these off to a 3D shoot any weekend, and I don't have $50 in either one.

Dick in Seattle

[woodchucker]

This year I was lucky enough to win the "Joan Leonard Memorial Bunny Hunt" memorial bow.

It is a 1957 Bear Kodiak Special 64" - 51# @ 28"

Every year this bow is raffled off and the "winner" gets to use it for a year,then he brings it back to the next years JLMBH where it gets raffled off again to another lucky "winner"  

[Stone Knife]

I'm starting to discover how much fun they are, the best part is finding them and talking with those who owned them for years. In the past week i have heard a lot of good stories and met some interesting folks looking for a cheap used re curve. Now i consider them vintage bows. I found one for my daughter now I'm looking for the right one @ 45# for myself i don't want to find it too quick having a blast just looking.

[schnitz]

hey i was wandering i got a Wards Westernfield standard hunter recurve just an all around         nice little bow do you have any idea when these were made thanks

[Dick in Seattle]

no idea on that one, except that it would have been made for Wards under contract.  I'm not sure, but i think Pearson did a lot of this, and a company named Indian Archery (who probably got absorbed by someone else along the way, so may have just been a contract outlet themselves).   Maybe someone will know and give us the answer.  By the time recurvesand glass were getting common, there was a lot of contract stuff going on.  In older bows, my own interest stays with the lemonwood longbows, which continued to be marketed as low end bows and to school and youth programs.  they were the cheapies of the time, but as is often the case with older stuff, still quite good.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hey there Dick,

Great post Here. I just recently bought an old Pearson 7050 recurve. I haven't got my tiller tree set up yet, but roughly got 43# at 27". It was in pretty fair condition with a few dings and scratches in the finish when i got it, but the top limb was really twisted bad! i bought it from some gal in Arkansaw on **** for $53.00 in an auction.....I took my time with it and let it aclimate to my Orgon weather, twisted up a new string. and had real good luck straightening the limbs. i hit the boys up for ideas here on line for ideas, then just played around a bit. Boy have i found a great way to straightn limbs!

I'm curious......How dou you go about refinishing a laminated bow with fiberglass overlays? I'm affraid to do any sanding on the fiberglass not knowing how thick it is or how to polish it back out again. I'd love to be able to sand the belly a bit and adjust the tiller....but i dont want to ruin this old girl....any sugestions?