Buying Guide for the Best Recurve Bow: Samick Sage vs. Spyder

Introduction

So you are interested in recurve bow? We have great news for you. You are at the perfect place today where you will know everything related to the best recurve bow around. Let us warn you very seriously at the beginning. This is going to be a huge article as we want to cover a lot in this one article. We want this to be the ultimate recurve bow guide for anybody who does not even know what a recurve bow is. Recurve bow is not a new concept by the way. Though a lot of people think that these versions of bows such as recurve bow, compound bow, crossbow etc. have come out recently, it is not necessarily to be true.

Yes, these concepts got familiarized in recent times due to different companies who came up and started providing professional services and products regarding bows. But the basic concept and the structure of these products have been there since ages. Well, this is not our topic as we are not here to tell you the history. So, let’s just stop here and simply focus on the best recurve bow article which will tell you everything that you need to know about recurve bows.

What is a Recurve Bow?

So what basically is a recurve bow? That is the first question that we should ask before moving ahead with the article of best recurve bow reviews and all. What exactly is a recurve bow?

According to Wikipedia, a recurve bow is a bow that has an away curve (from the body of the archer) while he or she is unstringing the arrow. Why is this special structure awesome? Well, it is awesome because in this special structure, the recurve bow can actually store a lot more energy than the regular version. It obviously does not only store the energy, it makes sure that the energy is effectively released at the right time which will provide immense speed to the arrow. Speed is one common thing that we all want in our bow. On the other hand, that same thing is offered by recurve bows. Isn’t that an awesome combination?

Things to Look For While Buying a Recurve Bow

Now, this is another important section of our best recurve bow article as we want you to know about the things that you should look for while buying a recurve bow. Though recurve bows are not Ferrari, you certainly do not want to buy a new one every other day. To make sure that you don’t, there are things that you can cross check before you attempt to buy one. Though these are not the only things that you should look for, these cover almost all the basics which will keep you safe with the purchase.

Good Company

The first thing that you should look for is that whether it is from a good company or not. Remember, we are not talking about big brands here. Obviously, if you choose one of the big brands in the world of recurve bows, chances are high that you will end up getting an awesome model but you will have to pay a lot too. That is not our point here. We are telling you to choose a company that does not have a bad reputation. A lot of people now buy recurve bows online from trusted companies in Amazon and it is easy to find out whether the company is good or not there. Simply have a look at the reviews. Reviews are hardly manipulated in sites like Amazon or Ebay and you can actually depend on those words. Also, as you are reading reviews from sites like us, these will also help you in choosing a good company.

Your Purpose

It is very important that you understand the purpose of using the recurve bow before you actually use it. There are two basic purposes for which someone uses a recurve bow as we mentioned before. These purposes are either to go for a game of shooting or to do it as fun in home or because of the hunting requirements. With the invention of guns and other hunting equipments, it is a rare venture now but there are people out there who love to do it the old way.

How is the Body Weight?

The first task for you is to measure or at least try to figure out the body weight before you approach to buy the recurve bow. Remember, we are not taking about the draw weight or anything else here. We are simply taking about the weight of the recurve bow here. The lighter the weight is, the easier it is to carry the bow around. Apart from that angle, there is another point of view about this issue. A lot of experts say that if you are going for a slightly heavier bow, it becomes easier for you to hit the target. Now it is up to you to determine whether you need to choose a lightweight product which will be easier to carry or a heavier product which is easier to hit the target.

What about Draw Weight?

The next thing that you should think about is the draw weight. What is a draw weight? It is nothing but the force that you will need to pull the string. In other words, the full strength potential of the bow is the draw weight. There are different draw weight types around starting from 40 lbs and up to 60 lbs. You should not choose a bow with a draw weight of less than 40 lbs because it will be tough for you to generate enough force if the weight is less than that. Take your time when you are deciding the draw weight because this is one of the most important parts of the whole process. If the draw weight is not chosen properly, you will never be able to be comfortable with your bow.

Riser & Limb Quality

The next thing to worry about is the riser and the limb quality. You should always make sure that the riser has a comfortable enough grip so that you do not face a lot of vibration while you are releasing the string. Vibration is not good when you think about hitting a target and it is also bad for the health condition of your hand. You know they say that cell phone vibration is bad for your legs if the phone is inside pocket? It is the same philosophy here. Therefore, make sure that the riser quality is perfect.

Now it is time to think about the limb quality of your bow. The limbs should always include fiberglass if we talk about the best recurve bows. What will be the benefit of fiberglass? They will bend properly and they will not break down eventually.

Think about the riser and limb quality properly and carefully before you take the next step. It is important you spend enough time in doing your research so that you do not regret later. A recurve bow might not be a Ferrari at the end of the day but you are still spending money. You should make sure that you are spending the money wisely.

10 Best Recurve Bow Reviews

Now this is the awesome section that we all were waiting for. This is the section where we will cover the 10 best recurve bows that is around us in this market. We will not be taking recurve bows into consideration that are not currently available in the market. We will only be talking about the products that are currently available out there in the market.

A Short History

This is pretty interesting and though we are mainly talking about the best recurve bow and their reviews here in our page, we thought of including this interesting section of the history of recurve bows. If you are not interested in ancient topics, just skip this part (we are sorry).

The first invention of recurve bows were in the eighth century BC by a group of scholars. A guy named Adam Clarke (not a famous person scholar wise) found out that if someone who is not as expert as others in bows tries to bend and recurve bows, they spring back and takes an interesting position. It is harmful and obviously, it can break the user’s arms anytime.

This is when everyone understood that though the structure of recurve bows are interesting, they need set of different materials to make sure that the bows work fine. You obviously should not be harmed while you are the one throwing arrows around, right? That was the concept and it was only a few months when a group of people discovered to build recurve bows with some composite materials that are safe and sound.

The concept of recurve bow quickly became so popular that the whole Egypt along with many countries of Asia started to use recurve bows. These were faster, these were perfect in hitting targets and these were lighter to carry. People at that time didn’t want anything else. Do you know that ancient people had better shooting powers than today’s people? Yes, they used to hit targets better and from a lot more distance from today. That is why, whenever we did our research on recurve bows of the ancient times, we found out crazy numbers. Don’t worry. We know the reality and we will not be publishing those numbers here in this article or in anywhere else.

Anyway, we guess you are bored already, aren’t you? Let us make your life a bit easier. We will now head towards an important section. This section is called, how to shoot a recurve bow. Again, we will be talking from the basic level up to the advanced one so if you are already an expert, you might find a lot of things unnecessary. Please cope with us.

How to Shoot a Recurve Bow

This is probably one of the most important sections of our complete article on best recurve bow reviews. We have divided this section into different steps, while mentioning every detail pretty clearly so that it becomes super easy for you to understand how to shoot a recurve bow. Let’s start.

So what is the first step? The first step is to select the bow. We will talk details on how to select the perfect bow for your needs in the next section so let’s not go deep here right now. One good way to decide which bow will be the best option for you is to simply select a bow based on your requirements or purposes of using the bow. There are two basic reasons that why anybody will need a bow. The first reason is target practices or gaming where the second reason is hunting. Depending on your reasons, you will find a lot of options around and you need to make sure that you pick the best one for your needs. This is going to be the first task.

Now, the second task is to choose that perfect draw weight that you need to throw arrows. What is a draw weight? Many people think this is tough to understand where the basic is easy as cake. A draw weight is how hard you can pull the string of your recurve bow. This is measured in percentages so for example, some people (the good ones) may have 75% of draw weight where a newbie may get 50% initially.

It is easy to understand. If you choose a recurve bow that is low in terms of draw weight then it will give you less speed where the better draw weight models come with better speed or power. As the draw length increases, you will also need to have better strengths on your upper body to handle that pressure so again, if you are new, you should not choose a bow with super tough draw lengths.

There is also a simple math to calculate the draw weight. Stand straight and span your arms to both sides. Now ask one of your friends to measure your arms from one end of a hand till the other hand’s end. Now simply divide the number with 2.5. You will get the draw length that you need.

Now let’s talk about the bow length which is our third criteria. These things will again be discussed later in our next section but we just want to let you know that you need to consider bow length too before you plan to fire that first arrow from your recurve bow.

The next task is to find out arrows that will go with your style. There are different types of arrows out there and all of them have different qualities and issues. At many times, you will find a few set of arrows are working well with your bow and vice versa. The best idea is to try different arrows before you finalize one model.

The next task is to get the other necessary equipments that you need to make sure that you are in the right path. You must need a target to practice shooting at your home or backyard. It may look easy to shoot arrows from a distance, it is actually a difficult task and you need patience and practice to be able to make it.

A lot of people go for armguards to make sure that their arms are not harmed while shooting. Depending on whether you are new or not, you might go for an armguard too. We definitely recommend that you take all the safety measures before you take that first shot. A lot of people do not realize that recurve bows are dangerous to handle. These are as effective as guns at times and you need to take care of the machine and the equipments in that same way to be safe.

After you have found the perfect equipments for your first shot, it is time to bring perfection to your stance. Stance is very important before you take that shot. You won’t believe that one of the biggest reasons that why arrows do not hit the target is the stance of the shooter.

If you are a right handed shooter, you will have to stand in a way so that your left hip is targeting the target. Obviously, it will be a mirror opposite if you are a left hander person. Always remember that you will have to stand in a perpendicular way towards the target. The body should always be in a vertical mode. Make sure that you are not leaning in an angle because if you are leaning in one leg, the arrow will also move towards that direction when you shoot it. Also, make sure that your shoulders are wide open and you are strong on the upper body area.

Now it is time to focus on your target. A lot of people do not put enough importance on this part of shooting which is why they fail to hit the target. Always remember that you should go slowly while you are shooting with a recurve bow unless you are hunting. Simply, take a few deep breaths and calm yourself. Now slowly turn your head and look at the target. Remember, you are not supposed to turn your body in this stage. You are only allowed to turn your head and that is it. Do not ever hunch up the shoulders of yours while you are preparing to shoot. This is a bad practice and there is a high chance that your arrow will miss the target if you do so.

Now it is time to hold the bow that you have in one hand. Do not spend all your power in holding the bow. A simple gentle grip will do perfectly fine. If you are buying a good recurve bow, you will see the handle in the middle area of the bow. Simply grip using that handle and you will be fine.

Now this is the time for actual fun. It is time when you will shoot that arrow to the target. The first task is again to load that arrow to the bow. Load it properly to the string and make sure that the arrow struck perfectly. Do not first lift the arrow and then do the loading. Loading should always be done when your bow is leaning down. The technical term of this is ‘nocking’.

Now slowly take the bow up while your hands are straight. This is the position where different people experiment with different styles. Famous archers all have different styles of lifting their bows up. If you want to be in sports and want to build up your style, this is the time to do so.

Now it is time to aim. Take your time while you are aiming for the target. The most common mistake that people do in this section is that they use their non-dominant eye to aim for the target where it should always be the dominant eye. There are some advanced recurve bows out there which definitely fall under the best recurve bow categories that have special sights built for your aim. If you have one of those bows, use that sight to aim for the target.

When you think the aim is perfect, keep the aim at sight and release the string that you pulled earlier. Make sure that you are not shaking the bow while you are releasing the string. It should be natural and calm. If you shake the bow while releasing the string, the arrow will never hit the target.

There is one last thing that you should know before we move to the next section. Do not ever lose your posture till the arrow hits or misses the target. Again, this is another common mistake done by a lot of people. If you are losing the posture before the arrow hits the target, the chances are high that you will make the arrow change direction. Keep practicing and train yourself so that you do not move. It is not an easy task but if you practice well, you will be able to make it.

Final Words

Hopefully, this article was helpful enough for you to decide the exact recurve bow that you need. We want to make sure that you get the best recurve bow at the end of the day and we are here to answer all of your questions if required. Though we discussed a lot of stuffs here in this article, we know that we missed many points but the good news is that we are here to answer all your queries. Simply knock us if you need any answers and we will get back to you as soon as we can.