I discovered a fantastic way to ship a bow. It takes some messing around, and cost me about $8, but was worth it.
I went to a home improvement store (Lowes?) And bought two of the 4' long, cardboard tubes that are used for forms to pour concrete in, for concrete posts. I made one full-length lengthwise slice in each of them, so that I could curl them more tightly. I then took the first one, tightened it to fit the bow, causing an overlap, and taped it in place. After a little dinking around, I slid the other one inside the first and taped them at a good length. After making a couple of end caps, I had a super strong, somewhat light tube that was big enough for a recurve. (A carpet roll tube was too small to fit the recurve inside safely.) Hope this makes sense.
Archie