New long bow purchase.

[troutbum1]

Hi, I'm looking to get a Long bow. I have recurve's and a Leon Stewart long bow 65@28 i can no longer pull back. I'm looking at three bows in my price range. Bear 64" Montana, Sky 66" trophy hunter. and a Cabelas 66" Long bow made by Fleet wood archery. All at 45#@28" draw. Any opinions or knowledge of these long bows , appreciated. Thanks.    

[Zradix]

I don't have experience with those bows.

I know you didn't ask for more options...but maybe you haven't heard of these.....

I would recommend you take a look at maddog archery.
He makes a full size custom longbow in 60-68"for  $425.
He also makes custom mid-sized longbows in 52-60" that'll pull to 28" for $225. I think only the 60" goes to 28 just ask.

[Friend]

Wishing you the best of success in your
quest!

[troutbum1]

Thank you all. I'll check them out, I want to stay around $350.00 or under .

[jhk1]

A nice custom option that's well within your budget is a custom longbow "blank" from 7 Lakes Archery (Mike Ballenger), a Tradgang sponsor.  Mike's price for a basic custom longbow blank (actionboo or hard rock maple limb laminations, black glass, black or brown actionwood riser) is $300 shipped ($275 plus $25 shipping).  I recently had Mike build me a reverse-handle Hill-style ASL blank that I finished-- it turned out great and is a great shooter.  Mike was great to work with and built the blank to my exact specs.

I also just bought another 7 Lakes used-- a SF (string-follow) Carolina Night 68" 52#@28" Hill-style longbow that was bought as a blank in 2013 and finished by the original owner.  He sold it because it was just a little heavier that he liked to shoot regularly.  It's a beautiful bow, with 3 Eastern Red Cedar lams and 1 walnut lam in the limbs, black glass, and walnut riser with a cedar curved accent stripe in the riser.

Mike's build quality on my reverse-handle bow and the cedar/walnut bow is excellent.  Both are perfectly tillered for split-finger shooting.

Finishing a 7 Lakes blank is easy-- the info on Mike's website on how to finish his blanks is spot-on, and doesn't underestimate or overestimate the amount of work needed to finish a blank.  If anything, I thought it was easier than Mike explains on the site.

For a finish, I used Minwax Wipe-on polyurethane (I used gloss-- it really makes the black glass and black/charcoal actionwood riser pop).  It's easy to use, and gives a nice smooth finish.  I don't have a spray-gun setup for my little compressor, so my polyurethane options were the wipe-on or spray can.  I've used both on various bows, and I get nicer results with the wipe-on.

[Stump73]

Become a sponsor and check the classifieds. You can get a better deal there plus better bow for the money. It will be money well spent. Which reminds me I need to update my sponsorship.