Palmer

[Scattergun2570]

A friend of mine has a Palmer Recurve for sale. I had never heard of these bows before. Wondering what kind of reputation these bows have,any thoughts?

[STEVE R.]

Very good bows.

[ISP 5353]

I love mine.  It is my number 1 hunting and 3D bow.  Smooth draw, great grip, and excellent speed.  If you can get one at a good price, go for it!

[djohnson]

Very nice recurve... just ask Fred Eichler.

Palmer makes good bows, a lot like Bob Lee Bows, but maybe a little faster.

[OBXarcher]

Very nice bows. Build to last a couple lifetimes.

[Cold Weather]

you will be happy. Mike Palmer used to work with Bob Lee Archery.

the bows he offers and theirs are similar.

He has been running ads on Trad Bow Mag listing his website-but when you go to it lists under construction.

[jackdaw]

Yup....Fred Eichler used one for a while, as stated earlier...!!! Good stuff...!

[njloco]

I had a double carbon, very fast and accurate bow, but switched to r/d lb's so I sold it. If you like RC, but it !

[jackdaw]

Yup....Fred Eichler used one for a while, as stated earlier...!!! Good stuff...!

[Jack Hoyt 75]

Fred took the North American Grand Slam; all 29 animals with a Palmer.  Palmer's shop is in CO near Fred's ranch.  Palmer did very well in a bow test done couple years ago.  Nice bow, smooth and nice finish.  

Just not right for me but I'm not an expert.
I test shoot them at K-Zoo two years ago and grip did not feel right for my hand but nice bows.

[wasapt]

Fantastic bows. Very few used ones for sale. I bought a Trad Slam model and it is one of the fastest bows I've ever owned

[BD]

Nice shooting bows. Horrible customer service and questionable quality. If you get a good one, they are nice.

[ISP 5353]

Originally posted by BD:
Nice shooting bows. Horrible customer service and questionable quality. If you get a good one, they are nice.

I have had great customer service from them and the quality has been top notch.

[BD]

I have had horrible customer service and terrible quality of work. He's the only bowyer I have ever had a problem with.

[ISP 5353]

Sorry you had a bad experience.  I had that with a bowyer one time and it really bites.  I met Palmers at Kalamazoo, loved the bow and he built me a beauty.  Nancy was easy to work with and communication was great. MIke even called me a few times to make sure the specs were right. Maybe I got your good karma with this brand of bow...

[Cold Weather]

BD

what problems you have had?

had mine 14 years and no problems.  I debated between Palmer and Bob Lee.  Wanted FF so got the Palmer.

I will admit Mike is not as personable as some other bowyers I have talked to but he certainly has never done me any wrong.

[BD]

I purposely didn't buy the tradslam as I read online about many that had quality defects and was warned about giving Mike so much cash for a high end bow. I had a used Palmer Classic that I liked but it was a bit too short for me and was extremely loud. When he came back to offering a bocote riser with brown limbs for $695 I couldn't resist. The bow showed up on time with a huge 1//4 inch x 1/4 inch hole where the wood was missing in the bocote riser with visible saw marks in the riser as well. I contacted them immediately and was told that: "Mike was using harder riser woods now, so an occasional missing chipout occurs". This riser had a big black hole in it!! I immediately asked for a full refund and Nancy asked that I send it back. Mike did repair it but you can still see the outline of where the hole was and the shoddy work and very visible saw marks on the riser. I thanked them and told myself it was time to move on as I love the performance and overall feel of the bow. A couple months later on a whitetail trip, I noticed a hairline crack above the string groove of the bottom limb. I slept on it, and the next morning it had went from roughly an inch to 4 inches. I emailed Mike and he said to send it in. This is in November of 2012. After sending it in I hear nothing for a few months and then email Nancy telling her I am not an expert but it certainly appears to be a crack in the limb. She responds in a snippy fashion (obviously irritated by my request for a full refund for the original bow due to the enormous hole in the riser)that Mike is the expert and it is just a surface finish issue and I will have the bow back in 3 months at the latest. After dogging them repeatedly for almost a YEAR!!!, they tried to charge me for fixing the cracked limb. The bow was sent back 11 months and 3 weeks after I sent it back. When I finally received the bow back, there was major paint flaking at the seam where the brown and black part of the limb meet. It was so bad that I sent the limb to an independent party to fix it as I have zero confidence that Palmer is even capable of a simple repair or paint job at this point. I have purchased roughly 20 custom recurves in the past and have never seen any quality issues or had any customer service concerns. I would be embarrassed to send out the junk that Mike sent me. It is partly my fault as I was warned....

[Tajue17]

thats pretty wild, I have a Palmer classic that shoots better than the 3 widows and 2 shafers I had, hmm think it also shoots better than the ballistic and hummingbird I had,, grip feels better but I think my pittsley preditor has the edge in performance though.

I did here some negative stuff a while back but also heard mike got caught up in his hunting buisness and was taking too many trips with fred resulting in people not getting returned calls and bows not being finished on time, but similar stuff like that.  I personally know 7 other guys ( the Scagnoli boys if any are here) that all shoot palmers and love them..  theres also another group I bump into every now and then who all shoot Palmers and seem happy because they always have Palmers.

Personally me I'd buy every carbon limbed Palmer I could find used,, but they hardly every come up because most people who have them don't want to sell them.

my opinion is the brace needs to be higher than recommended my 60" is 7 3/4"  but I "Hush" all my hunting bows too so they are usually very soft sounding anyway,, but no recurve will ever be as quiet as a well tuned selfbow.

not sure about the current models but my experience is the older ones are very sweet bows.

[dnovo]

I hunted in Texas with a group of guys on Mike's place about 10 years ago and really liked him. A couple of guys ordered bows from him. The problem they had was getting the bows. It took about 9 months longer than he told them. Once they got them, the bows were everything they wanted. They love them and still have and shoot them to this day.
Mike is a great guy and a top shot but his customer service is lacking. If you know that up front I think you will love his bows