Acadian woods recurve - opinions?

[Thorvald]

As you have seen in another topic I am seriously considering a Check Mate's Sabre. Now I have found Acadian Woods - and they make also extreemely beautiful bows.

So do anyone have some opinions about these folks and their bows. Are the people behind trustworthy? Are the performance of the bows as good as they look? I am considering the Three-Piece Carbon Reflex Recurve. How about smoothness in the draw and hold, arrow speeds, handshock etc.?? Is it possible to use these bows for Fita target archery with stabilisators, plunger and sight? Because if they can't be delivered with fittings for stabilisator, plunger and sight - they are not interesting.

What does static (or semi-static as Acadian Woods call it) limb design actually mean?

Another question that possibly is more general about custom bows: It seems like when ordering a custom bow, they want to know what draw weight I want at my draw length - in stead of the normal draw weigth at 28" draw. Why is that? Is it because they build the bow to give the absolute best performance at my draw length? So if another use the bow with a 2" longer draw length for example, then the bow will not perform as good??

[TJ Jones]

Acadian Woods has a very good reputation. Tim Mullins is the bowyer and I'm pretty sure he is a one man shop. When you call there, you talk to Tim. One of his TreeSticks is on my wishlist. The other question reguarding bow weight; they want to know that so they can build a bow to your specs. If you want 55lbs @ 26" that's what you get(within a certain margin of error).

[cajunbowhntr]

Tim is a class act and builds a good looking and shooting bow.One thing I found is that for me his 3 piece pulls very smooth,actually feels lighter than the actual weight and still has very good cast.I'm not sure if he will install inserts etc,you'd need to ask him.But you don't see many folks putting plunger holes in wood bows.His bows do have a ridged, grooved arrow shelf that does provide excellent clearance for shooting off the shelf.getting a bow tillered for your weight at your desired draw lenght is one of the advantages of a custom bow.However,unless it is tillered for a real short draw length there should'nt be any issues drawing longer.But let's say a bow is tillered at 30" then a guy pulling 26 will not get as much performance as one tillered for his draw because the limbs are not unfolding completely at the shorter length.


CB

[beachbowhunter]

Everybody here knows that I'm a shameless Zipper bow fan but I have a confession....I'm now a big Acadian Woods fan too. I  recently picked up a recurve on the classifieds and have been very impressed. Even though the grip was too big for me, I couldn"t sell the bow for two important reasons. It shot beautifullly, fast, accurate, quiet, dead in the hand. Tim has it right now (along with a Zipper riser) to reshape the riser to fit my hand. I can't wait!

His carbon reflex model is even better. It was very interesting talking to him on the phone. He uses carbon in the tip (curved) section of the recurve limbs to make it static (stays curved). Because carbon is lighter and has more torsional rigidity than wood, it is a good use for carbon. He says it is a few fps faster than the old version  and maybe a little more stable. I have no complaints over the speed of the older version. Get the Acadian. You won't regret it.

[Thorvald]

Thank you very much for your answers so far. I'll think about it and in the meantime other opinions are welcome.

[Panzer I]

I love my "Classic" recurve. I will have one of his takedown Longbows one of these days, one of the nicest looking bows out there. JMO

[Tedd]

The esiest accuracy I ever had. Yuo can't go wrong.

[Blue Moose]

I have a Treestick with longbow and recurve limbs. The recurve limbs are the "carbon relex" and they absolutely, positively scream.

The thing that really surprised me with these limbs is how dead in the hand the bow is...no residual vibration whatsoever.

Great bows, IMO.

TM