Well Jon, I' ve owned a BW of one sort or another for several years & have shot/owned lots of other bows in the meantime. I' m shooting BW these days, so that says much about my comparisons. DISCLAIMER: The following are my (honest) opinions of the BW recurved bows, some of which doesn' t relate (again, my opinion) to their longbows. Much of it is fairly subjective, & certainly may not be shared by everyone. Of course your mileage may vary >>grin<<.

First of all, I' ve noticed that the BW recurves I' ve shot have been very consistent (bow to bow). I believe this consistency is due to the materials & processes used in building the bows.* All have had a fair amount of limb preload coupled with a very smooth draw force curve, quality fit/finish, & very good downrange performance. Norb Mullaneys testing (in 1994, I believe) of a 62" MA II showed an AMO rating of 196fps. BW redesigned their recurve limbs in early 2002, & they show a marked improvement in performance.

The bows are easily tuned, but show a great tolerance for arrow spine in untuned set-ups. The [T.D. models especially] provide an ultra stable shooting platform, & in general seem (thank goodness) very forgiving of shooting form errors.

Each BW recurve I' ve shot has possesed an inherent, yet undefineable ' shootability' which I have yet to find surpassed, except in the metal risered ' target style' bows. While certainly not a beautiful bow, it' s ' work-horse' appearance suits my eye to a tee.


In summary, the BW recurve is a top-notch example of modern bowcraft. While not suited to everyones taste, it is most definitely the hunting bow of choice for me.



**[I have had very little experience w/the ' X' series, which are made w/different woods, & would expect a little more variance in these.]