Guys what is the bigbore class for recurves? Is anyone making 80-90lb plus recurves standard? Or even larger as a custom job?


Regards,
KArl.

largest ive seen was a 90 lb long bow but ive heard of much bigger. I think if you are looking for big bore you have to go custom.

I know a guy who used to shoot 115lbs in a recurve...he's an older guy now and still can shoot 90 lbs. It's a great way to do serious and permanent damage to your shoulders.

I think Howard Hill used to shoot some real heavy bow's.
As I recall the Howard Hill bow company offered heavy weight long bows. My brother had one back in the 70's but his was a 60# not one of the heavy weights.
I was searching for a long bow a couple years ago and found a Howard Hill 85# on ebay or craigslist I don't remember wich. I just can't pull a bow like that anymore.
I still have my old Red Wing pro 70# recurve that I got for my 16th birthday in 1975.
I never could shoot that thing but I did ok back then because I could muscle my way through shooting it. I do about as good now by using good technique and thinking about the shot before I pull the string but I'm still not very good with it.

Maybe if I would have had the technique back then as well as the stringth I could have mastered it but in the real world this is just another example of that old bull young bull thing.

I can find longbows easily enough. Pip Bickerstaff in the UK makes them up to 100lbs standard, and 130lbs plus special order.
The current world record draw at 200lbs is with one of his bows.

But wanted something with more 'twang for the buck' and compact etc.

Karl check out an adcock reflex deflex longbow. They are fast, quiet and extremely efficient.

I'd much prefer using an efficient bow to one that's simply heavy. I compared penetration just before I went to Africa. Buddy shoots a 100lb howard hill longbow and the adcock had just as good penetration and I only shoot 53 lbs. If you have a good arrow match and it's properly tuned for perfect flight you gain a lot more than just looking at "horsepower"

the chef

Custom bowyers will make whatever you want but generally shy away from bows over 70lbs or so.Hill used 110 lbs on elephants but his favorite longbow ("Granpa") was only 90lbs.

Heavy bows are easy, I can make a call to Black Widow(or several others)and have them make whatever I want and sometimes the already have some in stock. I bought an 84# recurve that way a few years ago. The HARD part is ARROWS, regardless of what they say, nobody makes a shaft for the HEAVY bows,(unless you have a really short draw length), so you will have to use duplex shafts.

Good to see some people are still talking about Howard Hills. The heaviest poundage recurve bow that I have come across was 70 pounds. Anything bigger and you got to be careful about hurting your shoulder. The old English long bows were often much heavier.

quote:

Originally posted by Trigger Steve:
Good to see some people are still talking about Howard Hills. The heaviest poundage recurve bow that I have come across was 70 pounds. Anything bigger and you got to be careful about hurting your shoulder. The old English long bows were often much heavier.

When I first began learning of Hill I bought his book "Hunting The Hard Way".I loved reading about his exploits in his own words.While I agree he was perhaps the greatest archer of all time I did lose considerable respect after seeing his film Tembo.Shooting that Leopard tied in place with a cable on it's leg was as disgusting an act as I've ever seen.