Well i was looking to get into trad. hunting this comming fall. When i was helping my girlfriends grandmother clean out her attic we found a few recurve bows. One was a fred bear bear cat #45 and the other was a fred bear kodiak magnum at #50. For the help i gave her she gave me the bows along with the 2 dozen cedar arrows with them. Needless to say i was pumped. Now im all set, except for the whole learning how to shoot them deal......any tips?

Nope. I don't give tips to guys that are more lucky than I am.

First thing to invest in is a bow stringer. You don't want to run the risk of twisting the limbs on those oldie but goodies. Never use fastflight on them, only B-50 or B-500 dacron strings.

Be sure and do a flex test on every one of those cedar arrows before you shoot them. If the feathers are in good shape, then they've been stored properly and they should be okay, but you never know what time has done to them. They'll probably need some straightening, but that's no big deal.

And go back and give that lady a big hug!

Those cedars maybe valuable. Personally, I'd put them aside for a while and get some low priced aluminums to start out with. More then likely you'll go though a few of them quickly. I know I have and still do (especially since I would never back down from 70 yards shots).

Also I'd take the bow to a knowledgeable person and have them checked out. If they were stored properly, they should be fine.

Practice a lot! And don't get discouraged. It takes some time to get consistant.

do you guys think 180 feet per second (122 miles per hour) is fast on a 68" 55 ibs draw weight longbow?

Depends entirely on the wght of the arrow and the actual length you draw.

Steve

The bow I'm looking at (new) comes with FF strings.

OK....is that alright for a new bow?

Do you need to string/unstring a longbow if left idle for a week or two at a time?

I have plenty more questions....lol.