Recurve

Terminology of Recurve Bows:

General Information:

You can trace the history of the recurve bow back to the time of the Mongols around 1206, certainly even older due to further archaeological discoveries. Even back then the recurve bow consisted of composite materials and not only of a single piece of wood. Especially horsebows were mainly built with a recurve form, because the additional curve (re-curve) ensured a smaller bow length with the same efficiency. The "recurve" on the limbs is a crucial difference in efficiency compared to straight limbs. With the same material, draw weight, arrow and string, the "recurve" provides additional energy that can be transferred to the arrow.


Example: Draw force curve profiles - recurve and longbow
The draw force curve of the longbow (with straight limbs) has more of a linear (straight line) structure. That means that the longbow archer feels less "pretension" compared to the recurve archer. As already shown in the diagram, we can only observe that while shooting with recurve or longbow, there has to be a slightly different way of exerting force, respectively that this is the reason for a different feeling in the muscles. Nonetheless, you will still "feel" the entire draw weight of the bow at full draw.

The „recurved" limbs cause the visible ‚bulge' of the recurve line in the diagram, while straight limbs, as is the case with longbows, for example, pass less energy to the arrow under the same conditions. For this reason alone, the arrow can fly faster with a recurve and therefore has a flatter flight curve over a longer distance. However, this does not mean that a recurve bow can offer a "better" shooting experience. In the end, it comes down to one's personal taste that determines which bow feels best.
 

Olympic Recurve

The "Olympic Recurve(bow)" is the name given to the bow type that is allowed at the Olympic Games, or in tournaments of an olympic discipline (WA 70, old FITA, etc.). The bow can be completely disassembled (takedown bow) and accordingly consists of more parts than the core elements. The core includes a handle, a pair of limbs and the string. Additional, partly optional components are: Button/plunger, arrow rest, stabilizers, sight, additional weights, damper, clicker.

In addition to the components that are needed directly on the bow, most recurve archers also have an arm guard, chest guard, but in any case a tab for self protection. Of course, you'll also need a quiver and suitable arrows.

For beginners and the question of "the right arrows" there is an introductory article on the BSS blog if needed.
 

Bare Bow

Bare bow archery is a discipline of its own according to the rules and regulations of the WA (World Archery Federation). A bare bow is most clearly characterized by the fact that it has neither sights and nor stabilizers. Only the attachment of weights directly to the bow is allowed and these are primarily to ensure that the bow does not tilt after the release of the shot, but remains in an upright position. When participating in a tournament, it is important that the bare bow together with its weights fits through a 12.2 cm Ø ring.
(Possible) Elements of a bare bow are: handle, a pair of limbs, string (with max. two nocking points), arrow rest, button/plunger, possibly additional weights (for bare bows). The archers may also use a tab. Arrow regulations are the same as for the Olympic Recurve.
 

Product demonstrations, reviews and more:

On the BSS YouTube channel we constantly prepare archery-related content. There already have been a few of things to say about products from the category "Recurve". Where you can see all the recurve-related videos? We just linked the playlist! The BSS-Crew is talking in German, but you don't speak German? No worries, we got you covered. Just turn on the English subtitles.