Choosing my bow weight.

[doublewhopper]

Ok, well today I went out to Cabela's to burn up some of my christmas gift cards and went straight to the archery department.  I tried out a 50# savannah, a 60# montana, and a 70# martin hunter recurve.  I got the best shooting from the #60 pound montana with arrows touching each other at their 13 yard range.  But my question is that the montana felt easy to pull and hold and I really didn't have to much trouble shooting the 70# recurve.  I know that the Bear Montana doesn't come in a 70# weight but should I purchase it anyway even though I can handle the 70# weight or should I look for a heavier longbow?

[MAC]

If you are just starting out in trad. go lighter and work on form, also wont bother your shoulders and muscles as much 60 is plenty 50 might be better, you wont regret it later.

[Shawn Leonard]

What Mac said. I am 42 and started out with bows up to 90#s. I now shoot bows in the 60# range and lighter. I did most of my hunting this year with a 48# recurve. I am surprised ya liked the Montana so much, the Savannah is a much better performer, equal to many recurves out there. If ya really like the Montana and shoot it that well, 60#s is more than enough fro most anything in North America if you are gonna hunt. Shawn

[doublewhopper]

I've shot my recurve for a couple of years, but its really old and the grip doesn't fit me well at all which aids in a lot of weird flight angles sometimes.     The savannah had a much more ergonomical grip but I really liked the block grip of the montana.  I guess at my draw length of 27 inches it puts me around 57#'s.

Does Bear archery make any custom type bows? The price of 280 bucks is hard to beat for me.

[Shawn Leonard]

DW, look for used ones. Ya can get some sweet bows for $300 and a Montana ya can pick up for $200 or less used! Shawn

[Whip]

Good advice from Shawn on the used route, especially to start with. Then if you decide to try something different later you can always sell the first one and get most if not all of your money back out of it.  And the used ones are every bit as good as new in most cases.  Once you figure out what you really like, then plunk down the cash for a nice custom job.