Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the Black Widow I've been shooting for the past couple of years. I shoot it great and I feel it was worth every cent that it cost. The one catch, I can't shoot it out of all of my ground blinds. It's a 62" bow and I shoot with a near vertical bow. In a smaller blind it just doesn't work. I've wanted a short bow for a while to try and take advantage of being able to hunt from my smaller ground blind. Some of you may be familiar with Kramer Ammons on YouTube. He does a lot of bow reviews, typically on budget bows. I watched one of his videos a few weeks ago and got intrigued: it was a 56" Amazon-available take down recurve from Top Archery.
No BS...it could be bought for $79/free shipping. Less than a Benjamin. His review wasn't flattering, but here's the deal...his complaints were the chincy supplied rest (which I wouldn't use) and that it was loud. I noticed, in the video, he shot it with zero silencers or any vibration dampening at all. I figured for $79 I'd give it a shot and I could surely quiet it down. Is it a cheap Chinese mass produced product? Sure it is. That doesn't mean it's not useful. I took a rattle can of matte black paint to the limbs and covered up the ugly graphics on it.
It's 45/28" (so it is supposed to be, I don't have a scale), just like my other bows I often shoot. I test shot three arrow builds I have used on those other bows to see what it liked. Sort of gives new insight into the old saying, "it's not the bow, it's the Indian."
Was it loud? Yes, it was a loud bow, in my opinion. Almost everything I used to silence the bow I already had. I settled on two sets of string silencers (wool and rubber legs, already had them), Stiktamer's (already had as backup for the Widow), and Limbsavers (didn't have, bought). Looking through old compound stuff, I also had an old Limbsaver stabilizer that I stuck on the new bow to add a little weight. My biggest complaint is honestly the light mass weight, so adding the stabilizer helped. It's now a very quiet bow to shoot.
Is this bow as pleasurable to shoot as my Black Widow? No. It is light, and it does start stacking at the end of my draw. Is it shootable? Abso-friggin-lutely. This little bow is going to be lethal as a blind bow for me at some point, whether it's this year or next. I shoot it very well, much better than I expected. Last night, I went golf ball hunting and center punched one at 18 yards after a couple of near misses.
Broadheads also fly well with this setup and arrow. This is the ultimate cheap-o combination: a $79 bow and a $10 broadhead (Crimson Talon Cleaver). I can't wait to kill a deer with this little bow.
If you're on the fence about getting into the trad game, you may not find a cheaper "gateway drug" bow to get yourself started.
No BS...it could be bought for $79/free shipping. Less than a Benjamin. His review wasn't flattering, but here's the deal...his complaints were the chincy supplied rest (which I wouldn't use) and that it was loud. I noticed, in the video, he shot it with zero silencers or any vibration dampening at all. I figured for $79 I'd give it a shot and I could surely quiet it down. Is it a cheap Chinese mass produced product? Sure it is. That doesn't mean it's not useful. I took a rattle can of matte black paint to the limbs and covered up the ugly graphics on it.
It's 45/28" (so it is supposed to be, I don't have a scale), just like my other bows I often shoot. I test shot three arrow builds I have used on those other bows to see what it liked. Sort of gives new insight into the old saying, "it's not the bow, it's the Indian."
Was it loud? Yes, it was a loud bow, in my opinion. Almost everything I used to silence the bow I already had. I settled on two sets of string silencers (wool and rubber legs, already had them), Stiktamer's (already had as backup for the Widow), and Limbsavers (didn't have, bought). Looking through old compound stuff, I also had an old Limbsaver stabilizer that I stuck on the new bow to add a little weight. My biggest complaint is honestly the light mass weight, so adding the stabilizer helped. It's now a very quiet bow to shoot.
Is this bow as pleasurable to shoot as my Black Widow? No. It is light, and it does start stacking at the end of my draw. Is it shootable? Abso-friggin-lutely. This little bow is going to be lethal as a blind bow for me at some point, whether it's this year or next. I shoot it very well, much better than I expected. Last night, I went golf ball hunting and center punched one at 18 yards after a couple of near misses.
Broadheads also fly well with this setup and arrow. This is the ultimate cheap-o combination: a $79 bow and a $10 broadhead (Crimson Talon Cleaver). I can't wait to kill a deer with this little bow.
If you're on the fence about getting into the trad game, you may not find a cheaper "gateway drug" bow to get yourself started.
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