HighSierra, is it a recurve or longbow? If it's a longbow, you can sight down the belly of the bow and see if there is any warping or twist to it. If there isn't any twist it should be alright. If it's a recurve it will be harder to tell but if you have a bow shop locally the guys there should be able to tell you if it's ok. The two major problems with older bows are: 1)if they are made of wood and aren't stored decently they have a tendency to twist and 2)if made of fiberglass they become brittle and crack. Take heart though, my uncle has two lemonwood longbows madein the late '40's or early '50's. He "stored" them in his barn for close to 15 years before my brother and I found them last year. Both bows were dirty and the bow strings were long gone. We pulled them out, got new strings and both were fine, though they could use refinishing.