Inexpensive Recurve/Long Bow

By the time you add the components for a "ready-to-hunt" package you're in the $500 range just for the most basic of bows.

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Uh, close. The Bear Legion and the PSE Brute X are legitimately great performing compoounds and both are $399.00 ready to hunt. Now, after arrows and releases and a case, yes.

Back to the question, you can find good deals on used recurves and longbows, and I will echo that the Samick Sage is a great first choice. I shoot an old Bear Grizzly that is old but 100% servicable and I paid nothing for it. My dad, on the other hand, paid $15.00 for it at a garage sale twenty years ago, lol. You can buy a new Grizzly for around $350.00 or so, which if cared for.

TimboKhan said:

Uh, close. The Bear Legion and the PSE Brute X are legitimately great performing compoounds and both are $399.00 ready to hunt. Now, after arrows and releases and a case, yes.

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Yeah I meant from nothing to hunting. I was including arrows, broadheads, release, etc. Now that I think about it, all that would probably run more than the extra $100.

I'm typically leery of buying used as I don't know how it's been taken care of.

I know that a bow needs to be unstrung, and stowed horizontal.

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My two bows have been stored unstrung and horizontal since the 1970's.... that's 40 years. Amazing really. If I get back into archery hunting now, it will be with a crossbow. Thanks for reminding me about them.

Personally if I were going non-crossbow, it would be a very good compound bow.

You know. Sometimes you just have to take a chance. Even if you bought a brand new recurve, it could break the first time out or the next year. I've had that experience after a summer of practice. The difference is you might be able to get your money back depending on how much time elapsed. No guarantees in life.

45# or higher is a generally accepted draw weight on deer. With mule deer, you might want to consider a compound bow as just sometimes you may well be shooting at the limit of your comfortable shooting distance. You can get a stronger draw weight with a compound and it is easier to manage than a recurve in the same weight due to the let off. You also add velocity with the stronger draw weight.

Plus 1 for Bear (Grizzly I think was the model). I had a 55 pound recurve, and loved it! It got destroyed, shattered actually, when we were moving some years ago. My steel weights fell down and well, it "broke" the fall. I replaced it with a compound. It's okay, but I learned to shoot with a recurve. Anyhow, these are running currently right around $339.00, which as I see it, for the quality, it's a good price.

Geno

Stick bows, recurves, longbows, horsebows

I own about a dozen bows....not one of which is a compound.
Most of them, I made myself...out of cherry, black locust, osage orange. They are fine shooters......and there is the satisfaction of making your wn stuff.
That being said.....I got interested in horsebows earlier this year and am sold on them as useful, powerful, accurate, etc.
Some of the fun discoveries - if you are looking for an inexpensive bow - are various Chinese horsebows available on eBay. Many/most can be had for less than $100. They ship quickly, are quite nicely finished and shoot well. I have three in 45#, 50#, 60#. The 60 I bought for one of my sons. I also have a Korean Kaya horsebow from Three RiversbArchery....it is my favorite.....more $ than the Chinese bows. It is only 48" long when strung (50#)....looks like a toy but it ain't.

horsebows

Horsebows....I understand about the not buy from China attitude.
In any case, here is a link to one of many sites about horsebows.
The bows are a product of societies that fought their wars on horseback, as opposed to longbows which were weapons of foot soldiers by and large.
They are generally short for their pull weight, designed to be handled by a soldier riding on a horse and shooting while doing so. They are generally very heavily recurved....an unstrung horse bow may well look like the letter C (my Kaya does)
http://www.horsebows.com/index.htm

or try these videos of Lajos Kassai......12 aimed shots (and hits) in seventeen seconds at moving targets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLFqZSWjbZg

The trouble with non-Chinese horsebows is that the European versions of the bow are more than the $100 that the OP wants to spend.
At least the Chinese versions are related to their history and not stolen technology that they have acquired.
These are a few in the price range - by Toth:
http://www.eastern-archery.com/tothframe.html
Pete

I have a dozen or so bows without wheels that I hunt with and shoot various types of targets with. Also have owned several short horsebows that I shot with fingers and a thumbring. Thumb release allows for a longer draw and faster loose but it's difficult to master and hard for me to switch back and forth with fingers.

I have several Saluki's (salukibow.com) and they are second to none in performance and craftsmanshsip. Wood/glass bows and hybrids start at about $1000 with a year wait. True Saluki horn bows start at $2500 and have a 2 year wait. They're expensive but on another entirely than the Chinese bows or Kassai bows. I don't have a horn bow yet but it's on my wish list.

Chinese made Samicks are a good value but hey are made in China and owned by a Korean company. Plenty of old Bears and Martin/Howatts are available on Ebay for good prices. They hold their value and are better bows than most archers will ever notice.

I hunt everything from rabbits to elk with my bows and usually have an elk or muley in the freezer from a trad bow. They are all fun but take a lot more practice that a compound or crossbow.

I could never warm up to a compound, tried one in the early 80's, they're just not for me.

I bought a Bear Montana 45# long bow< 350$ a dozen carbon arrows from BassPro 80$,and retaught myself to shoot.

Don't over bow yourself (draw weight) they all will differ by the length arrow you shoot and your release point, so those numbers on the side of the riser are just a rough guide.

If you shoot a 45# bow long and often enough ,you will find a bunch of muscles you didn't know you had !

A 45 # bow will shoot a cut on contact tri blade broad head through both sides of a white tails boiler room at 25 yds.

I have cedar arrows now that are 355 grs with a Wensel Woodsman broad head. But the carbons are great for practice especially with flu flu blunts or Zwickey Judo points for small game , squirrel, rabbit.

I also have an old Locksley (as in Robin of Locksley) recurve in 45#, that bow was the cheap line produced by Pearson. I found it setting in a flea market stall with a $9.00 price tag. Took it home and after a little TLC and a new Flemish string got it shooting.

I thought it would be an easy task to go from the longbow to the recurve, but I found myself challenged and am not confident in my ability to shoot the recurve at deer.

3 Rivers Archery's web site and catalog have several quality entry level bows and a wealth of knowledge. Check them out.