Recurve Bow Maintenance
Proper recurve bow maintenance will simply help keep your arrow slinger around for next year’s hunt or archery tournament. Before every article I write I often lookup online to see what other hunters and archers have covered and what they have not covered. A few things I don’t hear much on are bow storage, nock care and concise string care.
The latter topic which is bow string care you hear a lot of. Most will tell you how to properly keep your string waxed to avoid excessive wear of the strands. Although that is excellent practice which I do regularly there is more to it than just that. Each bow string is not created equal if you take a Fast Flight bow string for example not every type of wax is intended for them. It is necessary to get a bow wax that does not have silicon in it or otherwise you risk the chance of the string coming part were the loops are tied off. The right bow wax for the type of string you purchased is necessary and worth researching.
Fast Flight bow strings should also not be used on a non-Fast Flight bow. If the bow manufacture does not state your recurve bow will handle Fast Flight strings then I highly recommend you go with a Dyneema or a factory bow string. The Dyneema string is more forgiving and allows more stretching to occur at full draw. I will go into more about this in a future article because each bow string type and its advantages and disadvantages is beyond the scope of this article.
Although many archers and I wish to shoot our recurve bow all year round like Frank Addington Jr. Simply put for most archers their bow is only taken out of storage a few months each year. So that means an unstrung bow sitting in the corner collecting dust. First I would like to note if your bow is sitting their collecting dust then unstring it for the year and tightly wrap you string away so the serving does not fray and come part.
I invested in a bow sleeves for my older bows that sit longer. Although I get more practice in than the regular archer I use the sleeve to save on space. If you are going to store your bow most of the year I would suggest keeping it out of the basement. Excessive exposure to mildew and moisture can play havoc on any bow. Keep it in a fairly warm dry spot of the house. I have mine hanging over my headboard bed but maybe that is why my ex-girlfriend is now an ex! Some women don’t understand us die hards!
