Shooting Longbows and Recurves of Heavy Poundage for Big Game |

Training to shoot heavy poundage bows like 55 and 60 pounds accurately, on the first arrow, takes dedication and perfect training daily or every other day… for my older bones.

In my case, in long years past, I have dedicated time for a heavy weight custom traditional recurve hunting bow of 68 pounds. Once I stopped shooting that bow for months, it was back breaking for me to get back to shooting it with accuracy.

The answer was to build up with lesser weight bows which I did not have, and could not afford, at the time. Moving forward to today, I am retired from quality assurance engineering and have access to inexpensive recurves and long bows at a fraction of the cost to train without muscle or shoulder injury. Recovery, from a shoulder or muscle pull takes months.

I wrote an archery article in August 2021 for hunters to get back to preparing for deer hunting. I was shooting a 45 pound Samick Sage takedown recurve that cost me $140 dollars. See photo below. Great bow for the price. I learned that I could purchase separate limbs for it for just $74 dollars. I bought 50 pound limbs and was happy to step up and begin training in my back yard in October moving from 45 to 50 pounds in draw weight, but I did not stop there.

Recently, I purchase a Bear Montana longbow, shown below, in 55 pounds and training indoors in my basement on form, draw, anchor and release. I used to shoot instinctive but found my overall accuracy improved by shooting 3 fingers under the arrow. I created the leather quiver 20 years ago, and gave it a coat of polish.

Below is a 42 pound hickory self-bow recurve backed with deer sinew I have just completed. It started as a long bow stave in my office for 20 years collecting dust. Nice to have it finished. Shoots smooth!

I walk the string an inch lower than the nock for better eye alignment with the arrow. I am having so much fun indoor basement shooting at 10 yards in training that I purchased a 60 pound set of limbs for my takedown recurve and just began shooting it. I am working up slowly on the 60 pound limbs but shooting the 55 pound long bow regularly. The arrows fly like darts! Wow! I think 60 pounds is enough.

Good Hunting!