I recently had a bowyer make me a long bow out of action-boo and purple heart. It has large buffalo horn tips that make it hard to string and it's 69" long. I have a stringer, but stringing and unstringing it is a hassle. How long can a leave it strung without affecting its performance? Thanks!

Apparently with the modern materials you can leave then strung indefinately. I'm having a longbow made and when I went to the bowyers house, there were longbows strung and hanging all over the damned place! I've heard lots of other people saying it doesn't hurt a bow at all.

the chef

Thanks for the help. What the longbow your having made like?

If the bows has fiberglass on it yes you can leave it strung. EXCEPT in a hot car or in the sun on a hot day...THAt will affect the limbs.

The advice I got from several bowyers a few years ago was that if you were gonna be shooting your bow regularly leave it strung. If it is gonna be sitting for month or two they said undtring it. One of the things they said was that they say much more damage from stringing and unstringing than from leaving a bow strung!

-phil

EXACTLY what akperrydog said[QUO
TE]The advice I got from several bowyers a few years ago was that if you were gonna be shooting your bow regularly leave it strung. If it is gonna be sitting for month or two they said undtring it. One of the things they said was that they say much more damage from stringing and unstringing than from leaving a bow strung!
[/QUOTE]!

Glass backed composite bows are less affected than selfbows that would weaken under the constant stress. As stated in a prior post, temperature extremes, (heat soaking in a car or cold soaking outside) will invariable have detrimental affect on the performance if not the life of the glued laminations. If your bowyer permits it then follow his guidance. Have you tried one of the stringers that have a rubber dvice that sits mid limb on the upper limb, thereby enabling you to use the leverage of the stringer and allow you to engage the upper nock when stringing. Most longbow stringers do not have leather cups that can either can fit around a thicker nock, or on the other hand, if the nock is too thin, the cup often covers the string nock and denies access for stringing. I have bows that have these types of nocks and have had success with the mid-limb stringing device. I never leave a bow strung when not in use, but the decision is yours.