I purchased a Bear Grizzly 45lb 58" at an urban flea market ($45) on Saturday. The bow as some light surface scratches but is otherwise in nice shape. This is my first recurve.

The only concern I have about the condition is the string grooves near the limb tips are worn through the glass layer and the wood is exposed (about 1"). I haven't looked at many used or new recurves to know what acceptable and what is not.

If this isn't acceptable, is it repairable? I imagine I could fill it with 2 or 3 mm of epoxy and reshape or should I take it to my not so convienent bowshop?

Thanks for your help,

Jim

Are you sure it's worn through, or was it made that way? There is very little wear on string grooves on a bow. The string just lays in the groove and liftsout and in as the bow is drawn and released. There is no action the would cause wear. I'd tend to believe that is the way it was built. I can see the underlying wood on all my bow tips

Very common. The lightera bow'sdraw weight, the thinner the glass layers so, to get the grooves deep enough, it's very common to see the grooves cut all the way down into the wood. You'll rarely see a bow drawing over 55 pounds showing wood in the grooves but you'll almost always see wood in bows under 50.

Thanks for the reassurances! I'm sure I'll have some more Q's once I get a string.

Jim

I can't really picture it, but there is one way it could actually be worn and not safe to shoot--if someone had been using a Fast Flight string on it. I've seen two old bows with the tips literally sawn off from that. To be safe, get someone that has some knowledge of trad bows to look it over.

Chad

I had the bow looked over tonight and the groove is fine but there's some twist in one of the tips that's not OK. I bought a string and the guys at the shop said "shoot it, don't expect too much accuracy, and if it cracks, saw it in half".

I wish it wasn't twisted, but, I'm not out much and was just looking to goof around with it. And for less than $50 I'll know what to look for the next time