Awesome New Recurve Bow!

[suttoman]

I had given up archery last year because of pain in my right shoulder.  Doctors said it was the old rotator cuff and a few other things - caused by too many years of shooting heavy bows.  I very sadly sold off my last bow which was my final keeper - a really lovely Pittsley Predator bow.  Long story - somebody got me onto turmeric - a daily supplement with a few other things and man, I have been reinvented.  After 6 months of supplements, there is zero pain and after getting back into weights and exercises, I'm feeling 20 years old again.

I was deadly hankering to get back into archery, but nearly died of shock when I tried to buy another Predator bow here in Australia recently.  With all of our bush fires last year and now this crappy virus - our Australian Dollar has gone down the toilet and disappeared out the 'S' bend.  It was around 1,400 AUD - my wife would have killed me if I'd spent that kind of money now on a bow.  After a very long story (I ordered another bow off a dealer which turned out to be rubbish so he replaced it with this new bow), I have ended up with a very lovely little JunZing bow.  Yes, I understand you laughing because I've always despised anything made in China as cheap rubbish.  As I mentioned, I didn't choose this bow (and would never have done so),but kind of ended up with it by default (as the dealer tries to sort out the warranty on the original bow I bought).


I can honestly say after having over 25 expensive custom bows over as many years, this is one of the best absolutely beautiful bows I have ever shot.  I had several Bob Lees, 3 Firefly bows, Montana Whip, Fox Royal Crown, Turkey Creek, Renegade by Dave Neidigh, 3 Predators, Bear Super Mag, Martin Savannah/Vision/Gail Martin 50th Anniversary recurve, and lots of others I've forgotten.  If I was given a choice to choose one bow from all of them as a keeper, the only bow that is better than this little JunXing bow was my Fox Royal Crown.  All of the others I believe are not as good as this Chinese bow (yes even my beloved Predator).  It defies logic and just doesn't make sense how the Chinese can make something like this for about 1/5th the cost of the new Predator here in Australia. The JunXing model is the F175 - it is the latest model that has just been released.  I think in the States you boys have a similar one called the 'Black Hunter'.  My bow has bamboo limb cores under black glass.  The riser is the dense dymondwood, which gives a nice solid feel to the grip and some weight for good balance.  At my nearly 30" draw there is zero stack and this bow has the most smooth draw out of any bow I've ever shot.  The bamboo laminations are faultless and the overall finish is very good.  The bow is dead in the hand and the arrows go right where I'm looking.  You can see from my group at just over 20 yards.  As I'm just getting back into archery after a lengthy layoff, it is only 35# at my draw.

I'd appreciate any feedback from you guys in the States if you have this bow.  However, I do envy you, you have so much choice of many beautiful custom bows for a fraction of what we have to pay here in Australia.


Happy shooting!

Suttoman

[Jim Wright]

Suttoman, if almost anyone in this country is laughing over Chinese products they must be finding humor in every room of their home, the clothes on their backs and over something pretty much everywhere they go. As far how can the Chinese make a product that costs 1/5 what an American made bow there does? Do you not know that the Chinese craftsman/craftsmen who constructed your bow work for far less than 1/5 of what a living wage is here in the U.S.? Your bow's riser is made of a laminated product and there are no wood veneers or overlays. And I suspect that a large majority of your bow's construction is done on a machine in a factory, not a workshop that a bowyer had to buy the equipment for and set up himself. I have no doubt that you have a nice bow that shoots well for you and I'm glad you like it but I suspect there was more profit margin on it than a bow produced by a craftsman in this country would have realized. And to me it doesn't defy logic and makes perfectly good sense that you paid 1/5 the price for it than a similar bow from an American Craftsman. 

[Broken Arrows]

I am a quality manager for the company I work for. I am also involved in new product development. Most of the products from China are developed by others or copied. In my experience the first few are very good but as time goes on the quality starts to fail because of the inferior products replacing what they should be using to bring up their margins.
I am happy for you and hope this bow lasts as long as need to get you back to the sport you really enjoy.

[hybridbow hunter]

You mentioned that bow being close to the " black hunter "
Few monthes ago there was some buzz about how good were these black hunter bows, being even better than many customs.
A friend of mine got a 45# black hunter recurve, another one in LB and a samick Lightning, all 60" recurve. We made Draw force curves and ran the bows under chrono on shooting device. And to be fair we changed the crappy stock string with an SBDbowstring 10 stands. As I am a longdraw guy I just have one 60" recurve to compare: a Toelke Lynx 60" .
Long story short the BH Recurve started to stack on measurements from 30" DL and 29" for the LB While the Toelke started to stack past 32"
Beside none of these "bargain" bows were scaled at the written poundage, the best being the samick 2+# heavier.
Speedwise, both of the recurve were in the high 160's fps with the sbd string for 10 gpp and below 160 fps for the LB for 10 gpp and 28" on hooter shooter
on the other hand the Toelke hit 183 fps @ 10 gpp/28". After 3 years of use the Toelke was scaled 0.6# lighter than written.
The truth under objective trial, is those "Wonderfull" chinese bows were dogs speedwise, false weight and were stacking 2 inches before the custom. Far from the custom but I guess for that cheap price it was not too bad.
Enjoy the new bow and I wish you a nice journey with it

[Alexander Traditional]

Congrats on your new bow! You can shoot it too.

[suttoman]

Thanks guys for the replies - a lot of common sense in there.  Also 'Hybrid Hunter' thanks for the technical stuff - I found it interesting.  Yes Dan does make a nice bow - I had his Whip bow way back and it was very well made.  Yes you are probably correct about the speed - I forgot to mention this bow is certainly not the fastest I have ever had and would not be as fast as the Predator.  However, it being so smooth and quiet and shooting so well, with the very low price, it is certainly good value.  As I build back into things with my shoulder and when this virus crap is over and we can all get back to work - I will order another bow from the States.  It will probably be the Fox Royal Crown - that was the nicest bow I ever had and I should never have sold it.

Suttoman

[Sam McMichael]

Sometimes, we get imported stuff that is not good, but sometimes we get really good stuff. If your bow is one of the good ones, congratulations and keep on enjoying it. From the looks of that arrow grouping in the picture, I'd say your bow shoots just fine.

[David Mitchell]

Suttoman, I have the Galaxy Ember from Lancaster Archery which is the same bow as the Black Hunter and I assume made by the same company that made yours.  The lines are just like yours but the riser is one piece of the laminated dymond wood type of material.  Like you, I have owned a whole bunch of bows--something over 70 at last count and mostly were customs--and got this bow just to get a bow with lighter limbs to work on my form with Jim Casto's TP program and didn't want to spend a lot on one. Was I ever surprised!  The bow is more than I would ever have expected.  At my 30 1/2" draw it is smooth as can be with no discernible stack. I liked it so well that I now own two risers and three sets of limbs.  Lancaster Archery will scale the limbs for you to be sure you are where you want to be weight-wise. I find I enjoy shooting it more than any bow I own. It has the most comfortable grip of any bow I ever had. I am not into speed particularly, but the speed of this bow is just fine.  I have killed some mighty nice hogs with it. I am very glad that quality, reasonably priced bows are available for those just getting into shooting or who can't spend a lot on a bow. A man can outfit his whole family with those bows at an affordable price.  And that's good for the sport of archery.

[Possum Head]

What game will you hunt?

[Friend]

Very nice...Congrats1

[A Lex]

Hey Suttoman,

Fantastic that you are back in the game!

Having to give up something that gives you great joy, because of actual physical pain doing it, is certainly one of the bad things I've experienced. Really does a job on your mind hey.

So your news is awesome.

Yeah, our dollar is certainly stuffed at the moment, but I'm really glad you've ended up with a bow that suits you and where you are at right now.

Best
Lex

[hawkeye n pa]

Nice looking bow and glad to hear your able to shoot again!

[kennym]

I'm just glad you have a bow again and are shooting well it looks like!!

[stevem]

sottoman, good to read that your shoulder has allowed you to get back into shooting, even with a light bow.  Hope you will find the shoulder holds up and allows for you to reach the draw weight you would like to use.  Best wishes on getting back into the game. 

[suttoman]

Hey guys - some lovely kind remarks here, thank you so much.  Yes my shoulder is just fine now.  Even though I'm so excited to be back in archery, I pace myself.  Though I want to shoot every day, I only ever shoot every other day - just giving my shoulder a day off as I ease back into things.  I used to be very active on T/G years ago, but had to have a long layoff.  It's really great to be back in this community again. 

Great to hear your story David.  Sounds like just like me you had a stack of expensive bows but just happy to be shooting a good quality bow that does not empty the bank.  With our Australian dollar the way it is, and the expensive shipping on a one-piece to Australia (then government tax when it arrives), for me to get the Fox Royal Crown again, it is going to cost me about $1,800 AUD.  In these tough times with the virus and stuff, that is too much for me right now.  This little Chinese bow is probably 90% as good, so that will do me for now.  I'm just really pleased to be back flinging some arrows again.

Somebody asked me about what will I hunt.  I live in the desert here in Western Australia and we have thousands of square miles of wilderness with feral animals.  We have loads of goats everywhere.  My wife is Vietnamese and goat meat is a delicacy.  When I am happy with my accuracy and get my broadheads hitting the mark, I will probably go after some goat meat for her to put into the freezer.  All of our animals here - the goats, pigs, rabbits, donkeys, camels, etc - are all feral animals that don't belong here so there is no tag or season.  You can shoot as many as you wish all year round.

Suttoman