Native Son, the original 53 inch recurve! 57# at 29 inches draw

[twilightandmist]

Alright, so here is my original 53 inch recurve! this is the first static recurve i did in this length, so i figured i would post it here. This one was done a good while before Matilda. Here's the original post from PP:

The need for a shorter bow was brought to my attention when I was out small game hunting this past fall. the area I hunt in is a thick forest densely filled with even thicker underbrush. thus, it is very hard to use a 68 inch longbow for rabbit in cover where i can barely manouvermy own body, much less effectively use a longbow. So, after a lot of debating with myself, I finally decided that i needed to make myself a short bow that i could carry through the brush, but still get a full draw out of. So I designed this: This bow is a fully static recurve with a 4 inch static handle, and 4 inch static tips with pin nocks. i knew osage could take some demanding profiles, so i determined this would be the wood i use. It seems incredibly quick shooting for its draw weight, and the draw is sweet and non-stacking. please share your thoughts.





the last picture is the unstrung profile after about 500 shots. it wound up with about 3/4 of an ich of set when just unstrung, settling back to between 1/4 to 1/2 an inch after an hour or two.

[twilightandmist]

As a side note, i would like to say that the handle seems to be something of a curiosity to most of the people that see it, so i'll explain it right now. what i did was to take the handle and the fades and essentially combine them into one, so what you have is a compact handle that is perfect for a pinch grip shooter like myself. however, if i were to put my entire hand on the handle, there would be no room for the arrow to pass by. so it works very well for a pinch grip shooter, but not so well for most others. which is fine, since i am the only one that shoots this bow when i made Matilda, i put the more traditional handle and fades on it.

[adb]

Another nice one! Looks like you've found your niche!

[toomanyknots]

Man, I love every bow you make.

[JW_Halverson]

Innovative grip/fade, can you describe how you hold the bow to compensate?

Amazing how little set this bow has taken when you consider draw length and working limb!  That's the proof in the pudding if you ever care to brag about your tillering and design skills.  And brother, it ain't braggin' when it's the facts!

[twilightandmist]

thank you to all who have commented!

When i grip the bow, i form a tight ring around the grip with my thumb and index finger, just above the center. then i press the rest of my fingers on the back of the bow, rather than curling them all the way around the grip like a fist. this allows for less contact with the bow, and a more comfortable release with less jarring of the hand, improving accuracy and grouping. it also allows for a much smaller grip, as seen here.

[twilightandmist]

you can see what im describing in the head on picture above, even though its a little blurry.