I recently purchased a RER TD recurve (62" 56 lbs @ 28") from DesertDude aka Mark Gibbons. Mark gave me a tremendous deal on a great looking bow that was just like new. Not only that, Mark expedited the shipping because he knew I was anxious to get the bow. When I first got the bow I was pleasantly surprised ... it looked even better in person and after shooting it I could tell it was a real performer. I chronoed the bow at 197 fps shooting 600 gr arrows! This is a picture of the RER when I first got it.
While I liked the bow a lot I was having trouble shooting consistently with it. I tried changing out the sideplate and reserving the string, both of which helped some but I just could not shoot it nearly as well as my other bows. I finally decided that it was the small grip that was causing the problem for me. I did not see any solution for that problem so I listed the bow for sale in the classifieds. While there was some interest luckily enough no one bought the bow before I received a suggestion from Tim Zeigler. Tim suggested that I try wrapping the grip with leather. I figured it was worth a try but really didn't think it would make that much difference. I was wrong! I found a self adhesive leather grip (bow saddle)I had purchased from 3-Rivers some time ago and put it on the grip. My shooting immediately got much better! I still am adapting to the smaller sight window but all in all I think this is going to be my goto bow this year. This is a picture of the bow with the leather grip installed.
This is one of the 1st groups I shot after installing the grip ... I shot all 16 of my practice arrows because I was having so much fun shooting. The spots on the bag are about the size of my fist. This target is in my basement of my office and is approx. 17 yds.
Since I knew my field point tipped arrows were flying well I decided to try shooting my hunting arrows. I put my block target up at about 16 yds (just in front of the bag) and shot approx 15 arrows one at a time. About half the shots I was using 170 gr Zwickeys and the other half were 185 gr Snuffers. The vital zone on this target is smaller than on a normal 3-D target but all my shots were in the vitals. Most of the shots were dead center so I am very confident to hunt with either setup. I am posting a picture of one of the arrows and one showing my hand on the target to show the scale.
I would like to update this thread to show the bow along with the 1st deer taken with it but tommorow is the end of the season here in SD. The deer have grouped up and most have left the area I hunt for now. On top of that the wind tommorow is projected to be out of the worst possible direction for my existing ground blinds and treestands. Of course I am going anyway. It is tough to be a tradtional bowhunter without being somewhat of an optimist! I will let you know if anything happens.
Topic: My RER, Thanks to DesertDude and Tim Zeigler (Read 485 times)
