Samick Red Stag?

[ripforce56]

I had a 45 pound 60in Red Stag takedown, great bow for the money! I sold it to George Stoudt a member here on trad Gang! The only reason I sold mine as that I wanted a long bow! My son Limblover has  62in Phantom that is a real nice bow! He has his up for sale as he also got bit by the longbow bug! My longbow is USA made by Bama bows but I would not hesitate to buy another Samick bow or their guitars, great products!

[NDTerminator]

Justin, you have just stumbled onto one of my pet peeves, something that just frustrates me no end, that being the lack of affordable production Trad bows.  It's a touchy subject as many of our brothers here build & sell very fine customs for a living.  I have my share of customs and love em' but most all carry a custom price which discourages newbies and in this economy, even us old farts.

This is one area where the compound bow makers have Trad bow makers beat all hollow.  Almost all make an affordable, good quality, entry level bow or two.  After they get you hooked, then you buy the $900 Z-Flash or whatever the compound du jore is (and I find the cost of those things, obscene too).

Yes there are a very few entry level recurves around (the Bear Grizzly and Martin X-150 come to mind) but no affordable american made producton TDs and by & large the current production bows by Bear & Martin are ridiculously expensive.  I swear, the Martin stuff must have 10 Carat gold limb cores...

Which brings us to stuff imported From S. Korea, bows like Samick, Chiron, Geatree.  I could be wrong here but I suspect all are made by the same outfit and sold under one of these names.
I have a Chiron Volcano that is also sold by Greatree, hence my belief.

I imagine I'm not alone in that I've been at this awhile and love my customs, but am not thrilled to or can, in these times, justify dropping $700-$1000 or so then wait 9 months to a year for it every time I get a yen to pick up a new bow.

So being, last go around I figured I would try a Chiron Volcano, which was in stock in the draw weight I wanted, and cost $240.  I wasn't expecting much, just a decent basement bow.  I was absolutely floored by the quality & beauty of the recurve I pulled out of the box upon delivery. Nice multi-wood lam riser, clear glass over wood limbs, phenolic, FF capable tips, I mean just a very pretty bow.

It shoots too, and handles just fine thanks much.  Yes, it went w/o complaint to it's assigned duty as a basement bow, but I would be confident taking this nice 58"er up a tree or in the brush.

Based on my experience with this import, I've been thinking real hard about one of the mid-upper level Samick TDs next go around.  Sure I would rather pick up an affordable american made production TD recurve, but they just don't exist.

There is a good thread going about non-customs you should read.  Back when I and many others here started archery, compounds didn't exist, customs trad bows rare, and really good production bows to fit any budget ruled the day...