Archery Recurve Bows

Now archery per se is anything to do with a bow and arrow in my opinion but there seems to be a unsaid line between what we call archery and bow hunting. Archery feels like target shooting, the Olympics and weekend shoots. Bowhunting is well, hunting. So is there a difference in archery recurve bows and hunting bows? I personally think there is. Let’s take a look at them.

Archery recurve bows for the purpose of target shooting are not the bare bones bows (that was cool to write) of traditional recurve hunting.

There are many features that can be seen on archery recurve bows and here are some of them along with a little about them and what they do.

Archery Recurve Bow Features:

Sights: Here is a big bone between target shooters and instinctive shooters. However almost all archery recurve bows will sport a sight of some sort. Hunters sometimes do not use sights and opt for the quicker instinctive style shot which leads to more opportunities in the field. In archery however where time is not the biggest concern, the archers can take the time to line up a sight and concentrate on the highest possible accuracy.

The sights on archery recurve bows are limited by certain rules like the fact that they cannot have lenses or electronics. For other bow applications the variety and materials are staggering. However for archery there are generally three styles of sights and they are ring, pin, ring and pin. Yes, they are just like they sound. A single ring to sight through. A single pin with a coloured dot to line up or a combination of both.

Stabilizers come off the front of the bow and hold the weights which I cover below.

Stabilizer Weights on archery recurve bows are mostly for evening out weight distribution and vibration dampening. While you will see them on hunting recurve bows sometimes, not very often because something sticking out that far is a pain in the butt for bush bashing and looks really wrong on a traditional recurve bow made of all wood. You will however see shorter versions with the compound guys.

V-bars are located on the front of an archery recurve bow and help stabilize the tilting of the bow to better help you stay on target.

Riser Materials: Aluminum, Magnesium and Carbon are very common on archery recurve bows whereas with a hunting recurve you’ll usually see a combination of exotic woods. If you do see the more modern materials they are usually camouflaged to fit in with the surroundings. The archery recurves more often than not are some cool metallic colour.

Arrow Rests are not only found on archery recurve bows but are almost always on them. It’s generally agreed that an arrow rest allows for more accurate shooting although there are still hunters that would like to keep it traditional and shoot off the shelf or in other words, off the bow itself. An arrow rest is elevated and minimizes contact with the arrow and thus effect the arrow flight less and in a more predictable way.

Some Of The Top Archery Recurve Bows

Right now there are a few companies that have risen to the top in making archery recurve bows through a combination of great performance and heavy endorsements. The majority of the pie seems to be going to Hoyt and Samick in recent Olympic presence. The chinese and Korean Olympic archery teams both use Samick recurve bows if I’m not mistaken.

If you have any extra information regarding archery recurve bows, please share it with out readers by entering it below. Much appreciated!