So I was given a Black Widow longbow....but...

[solobowhunter]

It's the Autumn Gray model.  It's marked 62" and 40#@28".  The problem is this bow is only 54 1/2" nock to nock.  Other than that, it looks to be in real good shape. I haven't strung it up yet.   I can't hazard a guess as to what the weight is now.  My question is-Do I have anything here or just a paper weight?

[Archie]

Yep.  Just a paper weight.  I'll PM you my address, and pay for shipping from your house to mine...

[Cyclic-Rivers]

How does it shoot?

[sore fingers]

I have a feeling your about to get sent alot of addresses to send that "paper weight". Sounds like you might have a real nice longbow there. Just check it out real good and if it checks out set it up and shoot it. You can always call Black widow and tell them the serial number and they can tell you about it. How old and such. good luck.

[solobowhunter]

Really??? this thing has obviously been modified from its original specs.  I don't know even know who or why it was modified.  It's probably only gonna fit someone with a pretty short draw and I have a feeling it's going to be pretty heavy on the draw weight.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

You are right, it is shorter than the marked length.  Maybe you can find someone with a bow scale to see what weight it is at 28 or if it would tolerate such a draw length.

At least this way you can stand back if it blows.

[Brock]

i wonder if they shortened the limbs to increase the weight....i would put on bow scale to find out.

[KSdan]

Something really strange. . . .????

[dhermon85]

Let's see it...

[sore fingers]

Sorry bud, I guess I blocked out the N2N length. That is short! How do the tips look. Did they do a good job? Might be pretty darn stout. Got any pics?

[JRY309]

I didn't think BW made a longbow shorter then 60",it sounds as if someone may have shortened the bow.Maybe it had tip damaged and was shortened?

[tradhunter]

Why wouldn't you just give the boys at Black Widow a call and see what they have to say?

[Burnsie]

We're talking about an 8" reduction in length here.  Taking 4" off the end of each limb would have you into a pretty wide meaty part of the limb.  That would then require re-tapering the whole profile of the limb,  unless you formed some new nocks on some big stubby ends.  Some pics would be interesting to see, how someone handled whacking that much length off?

[AR RidgeRunner]

If it was cut down from a 62" 40#@28" bow to a 54", I'm guessing it's probably going to be around 80#-85#@28" now.

[Sixby]

Kent, Unless the person was a bowyer that re-tapered the limbs and made the bow a deep core and the weight that they desired. I would speculate that someone closed a door on a limb tip or some such thing and either had to reconfigure the bow or throw it away. What would be interesting is to see the bow and find out what they did. I have done this even before I started building bows and turned out a good bow out of a broken bow. In fact I killed my first elk with a stickbow with that reworked Grizzly.

God bless, Steve

[Matty]

Very interesting.  I'd bet it's been modified. Pics would really help.

[solobowhunter]

I'll try and get some posted with closeups of the tips...standby..

[solobowhunter]

here's a couple of the bow itself
 
 
 

[solobowhunter]

here are the tips
 
 
 

[solobowhunter]

Looks like I made a mistake.  The original specs were 40#@26" not 28".