Barebow Bow Length Recurve

Chipyluna

New member
Ok wonderful minds I need your help with this very newbie question.

So I am currently on a beginners course and have my final lesson this coming Saturday, exciting stuff!
My question is about Bow Length.
I'm using at the moment a 68" bow (taller than me lol) my draw length is 28 inches, so I looked on some charts as you do to begin with and it clearly states that at that draw length my bow should be 66"-68" in length, I'm totally fine with this, so then I started to look online on certain archery equipment sites, now I know, I'm not buying just as of yet, but when I look at their field recurve bows they seem to range in sizes only going up to 62". For anything longer I was looking at flat/long bows. I would have thought that 28 inch draw is probably common, we dont have orangutans arms or anything, so baffled as to why you cannot get these bows in that kind of length. Would it be then that I would need to buy riser and limbs separately, or is it that I actually dont need a bow this long after all. I have read things about peak performance when the bow is the correct length etc etc.. So wondered if you could de-confuse ;) my brain.

Thank you in advance
Charlotte
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
I think some archers shoot field archery with a shorter bow because they like the idea of using a fast bow and shorter ones can be faster. Some, though use a standard target recurve bow at standard lengths. The shorter bows are often described as hunter bows; the hunter needs a fast bow and doesn't need the long riser as their sight marks are closer together for shooting distances that are not so far away.
 

Chipyluna

New member
Ok so all this stuff about peak performance etc is all just nonsense? Good if that is the case, excellent I will continue to browse a bit more freely now, Thank you :)
 

Rik

Supporter
Supporter
Ok so all this stuff about peak performance etc is all just nonsense? Good if that is the case, excellent I will continue to browse a bit more freely now, Thank you :)
Not exactly... Some designs of bow or limb will work best at a particular draw length. But the way to choose in that case would be to ask the mfr what combination thay recommend for a particular draw. If they are sensible, the information will be available on a data sheet or on-line somewhere.
I'm thinking of some of the extreme recurve designs here, but there may be others.
 

JohnK

Well-known member
Your draw length dictates the length of limb you can use, not the overall length of bow. So an archer with a 31in draw would shoot long limbs on a 25in riser for target, and on a 21in riser to make a nice compact hunting-style recurve.

Now, for target, there's no particular advantage to shooting a very short bow. You need a large sight window in the riser so you can sight in at short distances.

For field, you're likely to use a higher anchor point and shoot at a smaller range of distances, so a shorter riser isn't so much of a problem.

Also, as Rik said, it's always important to make sure you check with the limb manufacturer.
 
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