New Bowfishing Rig

[CCWhitetail]

A freind gave me an old Bear Polar Bow that I set up
for Bowfishing.  It is 51# but I don't know at what draw length.
It also can be shot left or right handed.
( Anyone have any info on this bow )
Anyways I sanded it down and refinished it:

 

 


It has a really narrow shelf so I cut a piece of metal, and bent
it to fit the grip, sprayed it with a rubber coating, and taped it
to the riser with tape which also serves as the grip.

 

 

 

 

[CCWhitetail]

Than I added the "Retracto-O-Blade reel which I also added 2 faced
tape, and taped it to the riser.

 

 

 


Then I added a felt shelf pad, and its ready to go.
I can easily add a cup for a floating bottle on the front
of the rig now for heavier fishing such as skates.

 

 


Rainman is making me a black and red string for
it also.  I figured that way the fish wouldn't see the red string
and give me a better chance at missing them.
And it shoots those heavy bowfishing arrows very nicely.
What do ya think fella's?

[HuntTrapFish101]

Very nice! Im getting all my bowfishing stuff ready also!! That is always a good time.

[OsageYellow]

sweet!  That is great!

[Jeremy]

That's a 1956 Bear Polar and looks to be in great shape for it's age!  Unless otherwise marked, all the old Bears were scaled at 28".
I'll be hunting with my '56 next year  

[Guru]

Nice bow, but it looks like your brace height is very low and your reel looks to be taped on too close to your arrow...might just be the pix though...

Good luck!

[CCWhitetail]

The picture and new finish make it look in better shape than
it is.
Guru, what should the brace height be?
Does anyone know?
Also there is good clearance on the real.
I couldn't drop it anymore because I was
getting too close to the shelf pad.

[Jeremy]

The brace on that bow should be the good ol' fistmele: 6.5-7".  You could go higher if needed, but all of my early Polars seem to like that range.  I was going by the glass condition - I see lots of the old Polars with pretty bad stress cracks in the glass.

I hope Rainman is making you a B50 string, b/c anything other than that (or linen or silk) on the old bows is asking for trouble.

[Shaun]

Brace height of 6 1/2 to 8" would be my guess. Polars are fine old longbows. I think they referred to them as "semi-recurve" what we would now call a reflex/deflex longbow.

Fine looking set up. Good Hunting!

[CCWhitetail]

6 1/2" huh?
That would explain why the string slapped
the the base of my thumb when I was shooting
regular arrows.  There are some long streaks
that rum the length of the limbs in the glass.
Would it mater if I leave the longer string
on it, and keep the short brace height.
I should measure that when I get home.

[Jeremy]

A really short brace is going to be uncomfortable (string slap) and make it more difficult to tune.  It won't hurt the bow though, just your wrist  

The Polars were 'semi-recurves' from '55 through '58.  It's all reflex in the limbs, with a bit of an extra flip at the tips.  Before that they were just straight reflexed longbows and in '59 they became a recurve (just barely a recurve) with a deflexed riser.  In the 60's they became true target recurves.

My favorite Polar is the '59-60.  Handles like a good longbow and looks great.  The '55-'56 double shelf 'semi-recurve' takes a close second though.  

I need to take a picture of my Polar rack: '54, '55, '56, '57, and '59  :D  Missing the '58