Traditional bow

jlane35

Well-Known Member
My father bought a Sage traditional bow and I’ve been messing around with it the last two days. Here’s my best group so far at 14 yards.

This is so much more fun to shoot then a compound.

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Indeed, lots of fun. I picked one up for my boys and I to play with a couple years back. We particularly enjoy shoot targets far away....:). Even with having had both of my shoulders rebuilt, there is a limit on how long I can shoot from a pain perspective. I have no illusions of replacing my stable of Bowtech and Mathews bows we use for hunting.
 
Welcome to the dark side. Just wait until you kill something with it. You'll be hooked.

I’m starting to look at bows for myself. And I think, with enough practice, I’ll be proficient enough to hunt with it next year.
 
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I’m starting to look at bows for myself. And I think, with enough practice, I’ll be proficient enough to hunt with it next year.
ANYONE can become proficient enough to ethically hunt with trad gear. Its just a matter of accepting that you will have to get close. Isn't that what bowhunting is all about?
 
ANYONE can become proficient enough to ethically hunt with trad gear. Its just a matter of accepting that you will have to get close. Isn't that what bowhunting is all about?

What draw weight do you think is acceptable for deer hunting? Is it like a compound bow and 40 pounds is sufficient?

I remember seeing some pretty plain 2 blade broadheads recommended on here. Do you know the name of them? What do you use for arrow and broadhead?
 
What draw weight do you think is acceptable for deer hunting? Is it like a compound bow and 40 pounds is sufficient?

I remember seeing some pretty plain 2 blade broadheads recommended on here. Do you know the name of them? What do you use for arrow and broadhead?
There has been many thousand whitetails killed with 45# trad bows. The proper arrow build is the key factor.

If you want to learn about arrow lethality, there is no better source than Dr Ed Ashby. Dr Ed lived and guided in Africa for many years. He also hunted while he was there and killed literally thousands of critters with bow and arrow and he recorded a huge amount of data on arrow performance. He often killed hundreds of animals PER MONTH and fed natives with the kills. The guy is probably the most experienced and knowledgeable person on the planet when it comes to arrow lethality.

He now heads the Ashby Bowhunting Foundation whose mission is to educate the hunting world on arrow lethality.

"The Ranch Fairy" (Troy Fowler) is also well known on the subject and he is also at the Ashby institute. He has many Youtube videos on the subject.
Go to ashbybowhuntingfoundation.org to learn more.

Ashby has an absolute TON of reports published.
Many of the reports are found on the Grizzlystik.com site.

Dr Ed advocates heavy arrows and high % FOC, along with heavy duty, durable single bevel boadheads.
With arrows in the 650 gr + range and FOC over 20% (closer to 30%), large African game can be ethically killed with trad bows in the low 40 pound range.
You may not be hunting Africa, but there is no such thing as "overkill" on building an arrow for even game as small as whitetail deer. Plan for eventually hitting the heaviest bone structure because if you hunt long enough, it will happen. Strive for an exit wound thru the offside shoulder because you will most likely be actually aiming for it on quartering away shots. For superior blood trails, an exit wound is priceless.

My personal set up...
55#@27" recurve shooting tapered Grizzlystik Momentum shafts. 200 grain Samurai single bevel heads. Ethics insert/outserts. 664 gr total arrow weight and 28% FOC.

Draw length will have an effect on your arrow performance. The longer your draw length, the longer your power stroke will be. Two guys shooting 50 pound bows, one guy has a 26" draw, and the tall guy has a 29" draw. The guy with the 29" draw will produce much more arrow momentum with 50# than the 26" guy. And momentum is more important to penetration than KE is. KE is not the best indicator for how well an arrow penetrates.

Check out Ed Ashby. He has some videos, podcasts and dozens of reports on real world arrow performance shooting thousands of live animals (or freshly killed animals in order to observe arrow behavior). Some of the demonstrations with single bevel on heavy bone are very enlightening. Ed Schiff also has some good videos on that ( on the Grizzlystik website).

Dr Ed is a pretty colorful guy with a long and interesting history. I find him entertaining and interesting to listen to.

The Ranch Fairy is definitely a "unique" guy. Some like him and some are annoyed by him. Forget about his personality and focus on the information.
 
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What draw weight do you think is acceptable for deer hunting? Is it like a compound bow and 40 pounds is sufficient?

I remember seeing some pretty plain 2 blade broadheads recommended on here. Do you know the name of them? What do you use for arrow and broadhead?

Several states have different legal minimum draw weights for compound vs. trad. 40 is certainly enough with the right arrow/BH and shot selection. Fred Eichler killed all 29 NA big game with the same 52 pound recurve, including grizzly/brown bears.


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Longer bows are more forgiving than shorter. I have a 46" and a 60". The latter is much simpler to shoot tho 5 # more. Doesn't make much difference when you have a separated rib tho. LOL. Trad takes lots of constant practice as oppose to a bow with sights. Regardless, they will amazingly let you shoot your compound even better with its sights should you choose not to use the trad. Good luck. You might just want to get a cross bow, they all the same anyhow. :)
 
There has been many thousand whitetails killed with 45# trad bows. The proper arrow build is the key factor.

If you want to learn about arrow lethality, there is no better source than Dr Ed Ashby. Dr Ed lived and guided in Africa for many years. He also hunted while he was there and killed literally thousands of critters with bow and arrow and he recorded a huge amount of data on arrow performance. He often killed hundreds of animals PER MONTH and fed natives with the kills. The guy is probably the most experienced and knowledgeable person on the planet when it comes to arrow lethality.

He now heads the Ashby Bowhunting Foundation whose mission is to educate the hunting world on arrow lethality.

"The Ranch Fairy" (Troy Fowler) is also well known on the subject and he is also at the Ashby institute. He has many Youtube videos on the subject.
Go to ashbybowhuntingfoundation.org to learn more.

Ashby has an absolute TON of reports published.
Many of the reports are found on the Grizzlystik.com site.

Dr Ed advocates heavy arrows and high % FOC, along with heavy duty, durable single bevel boadheads.
With arrows in the 650 gr + range and FOC over 20% (closer to 30%), large African game can be ethically killed with trad bows in the low 40 pound range.
You may not be hunting Africa, but there is no such thing as "overkill" on building an arrow for even game as small as whitetail deer. Plan for eventually hitting the heaviest bone structure because if you hunt long enough, it will happen. Strive for an exit wound thru the offside shoulder because you will most likely be actually aiming for it on quartering away shots. For superior blood trails, an exit wound is priceless.

My personal set up...
55#@27" recurve shooting tapered Grizzlystik Momentum shafts. 200 grain Samurai single bevel heads. Ethics insert/outserts. 664 gr total arrow weight and 28% FOC.

Draw length will have an effect on your arrow performance. The longer your draw length, the longer your power stroke will be. Two guys shooting 50 pound bows, one guy has a 26" draw, and the tall guy has a 29" draw. The guy with the 29" draw will produce much more arrow momentum with 50# than the 26" guy. And momentum is more important to penetration than KE is. KE is not the best indicator for how well an arrow penetrates.

Check out Ed Ashby. He has some videos, podcasts and dozens of reports on real world arrow performance shooting thousands of live animals (or freshly killed animals in order to observe arrow behavior). Some of the demonstrations with single bevel on heavy bone are very enlightening. Ed Schiff also has some good videos on that ( on the Grizzlystik website).

Dr Ed is a pretty colorful guy with a long and interesting history. I find him entertaining and interesting to listen to.

The Ranch Fairy is definitely a "unique" guy. Some like him and some are annoyed by him. Forget about his personality and focus on the information.

Thank you, this just saved me from a lot of wasted time researching and reading in the wrong spots.
 
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Longer bows are more forgiving than shorter. I have a 46" and a 60". The latter is much simpler to shoot tho 5 # more. Doesn't make much difference when you have a separated rib tho. LOL. Trad takes lots of constant practice as oppose to a bow with sights. Regardless, they will amazingly let you shoot your compound even better with its sights should you choose not to use the trad. Good luck. You might just want to get a cross bow, they all the same anyhow. :)

Yeah, I can see how it needs to be consistently practiced or ability will diminish some. Shooting my compound from here on out will be like riding a bike with training wheels.
 
Longer bows are more forgiving than shorter. I have a 46" and a 60". The latter is much simpler to shoot tho 5 # more. Doesn't make much difference when you have a separated rib tho. LOL. Trad takes lots of constant practice as oppose to a bow with sights. Regardless, they will amazingly let you shoot your compound even better with its sights should you choose not to use the trad. Good luck. You might just want to get a cross bow, they all the same anyhow. :)
Draw length should be taken into account when deciding bow length, though.
A very short draw length will get better bow performance with a shorter bow.
Check out the Black Widow site and you'll see that they recommend different bow lengths based on the shooter's draw length.

I believe the concept behind this is limbs should do a certain amount of work in order to throw arrows with the most energy. The limbs of a bow of long length just don't get flexed enough when shot with a very short draw.
Conversely, a short bow drawn long, will tend to stack.
There is a sweet spot in choosing bow length in relation to draw length.

But yes, a longer bow will be more forgiving to shoot.

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Yeah, I can see how it needs to be consistently practiced or ability will diminish some. Shooting my compound from here on out will be like riding a bike with training wheels.
And there are different ways to shoot without sights. I like the videos these guys do and his discription of different types of Trad bows is good also for those new to the sport.
I've used this tech in practice for the fun of it and it works well but I've shot instinctive so long I still just use that technique. The link is embedded in this thread....
http://deerhunterforum.com/index.php?threads/aiming-without-a-mechanical-sight.5201/
 
This looks like a great video to watch. Thank you for sharing. I don’t know how many more hobbies my wife will put up with but I have a feeling this one is going to stick.
 
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