My first bow was a used Blackhawk Avenger 52" 40 lbs @28" recurve. I hunted with that bow when I was 12 years old (1969), the first year I could legally deer hunt in Michigan. After that first year I bought a brand new Browning Fury I 54" 45 lbs @28" recurve. I'm not positive but it seems like that bow sold for around $140 or $150 back in 1970, which was a lot of money for a 13 year old kid. I still have both of those bows hanging on my wall. The Browning looks just as it did when I last hunted with it: cloth camo limb covers, brush buttons & Kwikee silencers on the string and a Kwikee Kwiver with 4-Browning fiberglass arrows, two with Super Hilbres & two with Bear Razorheads. I'm so glad I kept those bows. I've got lots of fond memories hunting those bows even though I never did shoot anything with either one.
Anyone else have memories of their first bow?
Absolutely! I picked mine out of an outdoors magazine ad. Nothing special; an el-cheapo solid fiberglass 60", 45@28. It was just like Ralphie's BB gun Christmas. All the presents were handed out, I was a bit down because my Christmas bow hadn't come in when Dad spotted something standing behind a chair in the corner.
We had 2 city lots back then In Farmington, MI. My buddy and I shot that bow every afternoon across both lots into some hay bales we had piled up. Wow, now that I think of it, that was back in 1956!
I sold it a couple of years ago after shooting it a few times to make sure it was still safe. Not a special bow and I don't regret selling it, but it sure was special when I got it :)
It was a green fiberglass bow with no writing on it, my grandfather bought it for me at a garage sale back in the mid 1980's (I was about 5 or 6 years old at the time)he paid 5 cents for it. He went to Jamesways and bought me a half doezen wooden kids arrows and I shot the heck out of that thing! I kept losing strings, so I would just make one out of baler twine. The pigeons in the hay mow hated to see me coming with that in hand. Don't think I ever killed one with, but sure did pester the heck out of them. Fast forward to today, and that's the bow my daughter is learning on :archer2:
YEP!
A white flat piece of fiberglass with a little red and blue accents.
Shot wood arrows with rubber suction cups for points.
...till I taped nails to the shaft..lol
Sure do. Little white fiberglass job from Wallmart, even had 3 suction cup arrows that I would shoot onto the fridge. I latter mover up to a brown fiberglass recurve of about 20-25#, and then a 40# K-Mag, which I still have.
33# 62" Bear Tigercat. Dad bought it for me at a pawn shop for cheap when I was around 12.
Not really. Pretty sure that it was a Browning but have no idea what model or length. I started when I was 14 in 1958.
Hap
My folks took us school clothes shopping one late summer/early fall day. My dad and me were in the sporting goods section. I was prolly 10. I saw this awesome little compound bow. I loved it. My dad just knew it. He said "Well if I get you that,you've got to wear the same old tattered clothes to school" I said.."THANKS DAD!!" That was the start. Bless his heart,Mom was not at all happy with us,but that was my 1st bow. rat'
I was three, a branch from a lilac bush. I have foundthat a short chunk of bamboo backing with a longbow handle glued to it and properly tillered makes a great first bow, but be warned, that little arrow will fly further than you think.
My dad got little fiberglass bows for my brother and myself back in 1966... I was ten, my brother seven years old... Dad took us "hunting" at sunrise on Sunday mornings for rabbits and pheasants at the shore line between the Throggs Neck and Whitestone Bridges in The Bronx... Yea! Talk about how things were back then... My favorite time of day is still and will always be at first light...
... mike ...
First REAL bow, Damon Howatt Coronado, 1972. I had fiberglass bows before that.
ChuckC
I was 4 in 1958 solid red fiberglass, with 2 target arrows and one arrow with a whistle on the end.
First trad bow was a browning cobra. Wish I never sold it.
Oh yeah, I do remember it--like it was yesterday, but it was 58 years ago! :eek: I had been shooting bows made from cut off tree limbs with twine strings. My dad took me to Beards Sporting Goods in Evansville, Indiana to get me a "real" archery set. They had a lemon wood longbow set made by Indian Archery there in Evansville--had a 35# model and a 50# model. I wanted a manly bow--figured from bows I had shot at scout camp that a real bow should be hard to pull back! :D It was! I couldn't string it but dad did. he set up some hay bales and let me go at it. Neither he nor I knew how it was supposed to be done and I didn't care--just hauled back and let fly. Got maybe a 15" draw with that thing! It came with a finger tab, arm guard, target face, and three arrows with field tips. I thought I was somebody!
Same here ChuckC, 1972 Damon Howatt Hi Speed 47# plus my first 4 fletch arrows. Could not stop looking at it and dreaming of adventure. Still have it and still shoots. Howatt was it for me and my cohorts. Before that hickory.
Hunted with a 35# Paul Bunyon green fiberglass longbow in high school. My 'pap' wrapped electrical tape around the upper limb when it started to get slivers. Arrows were green woodies with hilbres on them that we bought for $1.00 each. Used that bow until I went in the service and bought a Wing Gull when I got back from overseas in '68. 64" 40# and it was a shooter. Still have it and shoot it now and then. That was a lot of bows ago.
Shick
I believe it was 1970, my first right handed bow was 40X Bear Grizzly. My second first bow was a left handed 49# Black Widow PSAX that was 2004.
My first real bow ( other than the solid fiberglass jobs )was a Martin Rebel bought for me by my father in 1975 0r 76. I was 16 or 17 years old. It came by way of a half dozen fiberglass arrows with field points and three blade ( real razor blades ) Wasp broad heads. My Dad bought a Martin Hunter also, at 5 or 10 lbs heavier. His Martin was 50 or 55 lb draw and bought the same fiberglass arrows with the six blade Wasps. I don't remember what came of the Rebel, whether I sold it or traded it, but I sure wish I still had it! :knothead:
My first bow was a Bear Polar compound with a silver magnesium riser and wood limbs that my dad bought me at a pawn shop when I was 9 or 10. I did not get my first trad bow until way later but it was a Bear Montana.
1967 Browning Stalker, bought with money I made washing dishes at the local diner. Wanted a Bear Grizzly but they were $48 and the Browning was $37. Missed my first deer with it in 1971. By the way......the diner is still there run by the same family.
My first bow was a Native American horse bow made for my Dad when he was a kid. As far as I know the bow is about 80 years old. It has been a wall hanger for the last 40 years because I'm afraid it will break.
My first bow was made from Moma's shade stick I took from the living room. My first real hunting bow was a Ben Pearson green fiberglass takedown, came apart in the handle. My cousin still has that bow.
It was a Ben Pearson Gamester at 45# that I got in 1969 or thereabouts. I killed my first deer with it. I still have that little bow and hope some day that my grandson will hunt with it.
For me an old bear longbow 52@28 passed down to me by my uncle late 70's, thanks Uncle Ben. After 2 years of practice I hunted deer for the first time in 1980 in Michigan and was fortunate enough to harvest a 120# doe on my second sit with that bow, I watched her fall. Still can visualize that hunt like it was yesterday and see the sun setting over the hill top. I was hooked for life. Passed that bow on to a younger cousin.
I was 6 or 7. My Grandpa, who I idolized bought me a little red wood bow with several arrows, some with broadheads. Before we visited so he could give it to me, he shot a rabbit in his garden with it. He wasn't a bowhunter, but he was the kind of hero who could pull that off! Grandma and Mom scolded him and made him put those "dangerous" broadhead arrows away before I could damage something with them! (he did show them to me!) He fell over dead when I was 10, so this was before 1956! The bow and arrows disappeared then.
I became a broadhead collector in 1976. I've often wondered since about those broadheads, which have appeared in my dreams as the rarest of the rare!! In the late 80s, I was living in Michigan and acting as the family caregiver for my Grandma in Ohio. As we cleaned out her very old home before it was sold, I crawled every inch of that crawl space and attic and searched EVERY millimeter where that old stuff might have been!
Even digging in the dirt floor of the crawl space hoping it somehow was covered by a service guy or something!
Thanks for the memories!
A 40# Indian Archery Senaca. I bought it new at a flea market for $12 when I was 11. Still have it as a wall hanger.
An old man by the name of Don Grey mentored my dad as a budding gun smith and maker of fine muzzle loaders. Don's son's where older than me and I inherited much of their outdoor gear. When I was 9yrs old Don gave me a 52" lemon wood long bow that pulled 32lbs. That was in 1969. I shot that bow a million times and terrorized every living thing within walking distance of my home.
I love hearing all these stories and reminiscing with everyone. Back when I started (late 60's) I didn't know anyone that hunted with a bow. My Dad had always deer hunted with a shotgun. He took up archery so I could deer hunt. Back then you had to be 14 to hunt deer with a gun in Michigan but you could hunt with a bow at 12. Although my Dad only hunted with a bow for a few years it was because he took the time to learn enough to get me started with a bow at an early age that I've had a lifelong love affair with a stick & string. I sure miss & cherish those early years.
First was a Flexsteel, fiberglass limbs and steel riser. It didn't last long, Next was a Pearson Renegade, 46# and my first quarry was rabbits and rats. Really gave those rats hell at the local quail farm. Spent a lot of Saturdays shooting those rascals. Got the Renegade from Doug Kittridge's Bow Hut in the early 70's. Those were the days!
My first was a Jerry Hill longbow.
1962 7 yrs old yellow/white fiberglass bow that I still have. I shot at everything . My first serious bow was 1972 Bear Kodiak Hunter shot it till it broke in 1985.
Yep, I do. It was a Bear "Golden Bear" fiberglass 30# recurve. The limb tip broke and I filed new string grooves but it didn't shoot well any more. Mom threw it away. I caught one on **** to keep around for anyone who wanted to shoot but I have not strung it up in years as others have taken its place.
Bear Archery Little Bear 20#@24" --- Christmas '76 when I was 10. Sadly, it and the Bear Grizzly I traded for went missing, but I replaced the Little Bear when my son became interested in archery.
Still looking for a 56" 30#@28" Bear Grizzly at a price I can sneak past the finance committee --- probably it'll be the next thing I save up for after I get my 3D printer up and running.
Shakespeare solid glass B1 Hunter. My Grandparents gave it to my father sometime in the mid-late '50's and he said he played around with it a bit, but nothing serious.
I'd always admired it and one day asked Dad if I could use it. He gave it to me with the understanding I'd be responsible. After shooting it over and over again, and after killing my first deer with a gun at 14, I decided to hunt deer with that bow at 15. I never killed anything (except for a robin, but that's another story) with that bow. I still have it and am seriously thinking it needs to go hunting again.
My first bow was a solid fiberglass kids bow about 20 something pounds.Shot that all my childhood and then moved up to a Bear Minuteman when I started to deer hunt,Great memories,love to do it all over again.
1960 when I was 10 years old. Green fiberglass Ben Pearson, 45#, killed a bunch of rabbits and such with it, then a couple of years later got a 55# Ben Pearson Ol Ben longbow, killed my first deer with it in 1965.
My first "real" bow was a Herter's recurve bought at a yard sale around 30 years ago for $20. I broke it while stringing it (step through). I was not happy.
I replaced it with a ($25) 50lb Kodiak Mag. That bow survived me, being handed down to 2 or 3 brothers, and made it's way back to me earlier this year.
1961 Bear Red Fox. We lived very close to the Indiana Michigan line. My dad took me to see Mr Bear a few times after that but on this visit Mr Fred handed me my first real bow. I still have it and the stories that little bow could tell. Its still very shootable and is working on training the third generation (my grandkids)
First bows - one red fiberglass Bear and a tan Ben Pearson Jet fiberglass. Both set up with moulded black RH handles :mad: Around 1971.
First "real" bow was a LH mid 70's Bear Super Grizzly bought with money earned working in the tobacco fields.
Ben Pearson bronco
Outers 35# fiberglass recurve around 1971. Bear 76er around the summer of 76. Browning Wasp in 78.........got out of archery for years then picked up a 80# Mamba in 1991 and havent looked back........
My first was a red Bear glass bow 15 or 20# I think, then a green solid glass 40#er that I think was a Pearson. I'll never forget how much I got in trouble for shooting my first rabbit out of my bedroom window. I remember it like yesterday, summer of '77.
My dad made my first bow when I was 5 years old. When I was 9 I got a lemonwood bow from Montgomery Wards catalog. At 15 I got a Par-X aluminum bow from the second hand store. Then in 1955 I got my first real bow, a new double shelf Bear Kodiak. First thing I killed with it was a fox...luckiest shot I ever made.. :archer:
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/younger%20days%20004.jpg)
I used to make bows from saplings when I was 5 and 6. I would simply cut one and tie a string to it. Eventually my dad gave me a gray fiberglass bow which I believe was his as a kid.
Then I started hunting with his 1969 Bear Grizzly. 45 lbs. He still has that bow but unfortunately with a broken limb.
Did the same, cut privet for green wood bows and strung it with blackpowder fuse line. Killed a bobcat with one. Later I shot a yumi owned by my teacher as well as his fiberglass horse bows.
As kids we made bows from saplings. When I was 12 I bought a 22# fiberglass Bear bow with money from a paper route.
25# green solid glass Bear recurve from S&H Greenstamps when I was about ten (1970). First grown-up bow was a U-finish recurve from Wilderness Outfitters in Utah, advertised in TBM around 1978. It's been a long strange trip since then.
Don't remember the weight...but it was a little red solid fiberglass bow that I received about 1958...made the local small game's life miserable...not that I harvested many...but I was after them!
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Glenn
Mine was a Browning Spartan.
Mine was a Ben Pearson; couldn't tell you the model.
I didn't start bowhunting till I was 30. Growing up in Ohio there wasn't any deer season in the 60's so I was pretty much a bird/shotgun hunter. My Dad's family was from Northern Wisconsin and all my cousins were bowhunting deer with compounds. When my Dad retired, he & Mom moved back home. That year I flew up to do my first deer hunt with the family. Dad & I got Darton compounds...not really a bow so doesn't qualify as my first :) Anyway in camp a friend of my cousins was hunting with a longbow. When I got home I called a young guy in Michigan and ordered my first longbow.
Tim Meggs longbow green glass 55#@28. Oh that young guy was Ron LaClair...1980.
PS: Years later I purchased a longbow off **** that ended up being The Longbow from my first deer camp that started my journey...Dave Johnson cedar longbow with my cousin's friend name on it! I've reduced the weight on it twice since then so I can still shoot it...tippit
Bear Grey Fox.
Got it from my brother in 1968 or so.
62",45@28 Wing Thunderbird. Beautiful bow. :campfire:
I'll never forget it as long as I live. Mine was a Creamsicle orange and white, all fiberglass with a grip large enough to shoot left or right handed. I killed enough Rabbits, Squirrels and Chipmonks to build a bow sock to protect Santa's $10 present to me.
(http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag252/caputo_art/bccaa4ab6b7c5f24259a8ec758d40eb3_zps0a2466b4.jpg) (http://s1370.photobucket.com/user/caputo_art/media/bccaa4ab6b7c5f24259a8ec758d40eb3_zps0a2466b4.jpg.html)
I don't have to remember my Bear Grizzly too hard. I still have it and shoot it on occasion. Bought it new in 1967 for $39 after cutting lawns and painting fences all summer to pay for it and a dozen arrows at 16 years old.
My first traditional bow was a T/D recurve built by Mr. Bob Jones, a local bowyer who built bows for over 50 years. Sadly, he had to retire from bow building around a year ago because he was getting to weak to draw the bows he built for people. He wouldn't sell a bow, if he hadn't shot it first.
Even more sadly, Mr. Jones has been diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's, disease. He's 87 years old and has lived a full life. It's still sad to witness his decline in health. :(
Bill
When I was 10 or 11 (@40+ years ago) my mom bought my dad a Colt archery set--fiberglass bow, arrows, armguard, etc. Dad never really liked outdoor stuff and before long....the archery set was in my possession. My first 'real' recurve was a Ben Pearson Cougar that I bought by saving up my lawn-mowing money.
I was 9 or 10, got an Indian fiberglass longbow. I think it was marked 30#, but I probably didn't pull that much. Terrorized lizards, rabbits and birds in and around Ft. Bliss, Texas with that bow. In about 1971, I got a Bear Grizzly, and it was all downhill from there.
my first bow was a supple jack vine and hey bale twine it was awesome but the birds did not like it one bit. i wonder why? :biglaugh:
First bow was in middle school...my uncle went to college and grandmother gave us his archery bow...a Browning Prep...35# if I remember right and some fiberglass target arrows with bullet points on end.
Nobody in family nor friends did any archery other than my uncle and he was in Florida...while we were in South Carolina. So my brother and I would pull it out of the corner of my closet and shoot it. Few times it was fine and then came apart...came unglued or laminated. It appears it was SUPPOSED TO BE HARD to string the correct way and the easy way was backwards. No wonder everything felt wrong about that bow...hahaha.
My next bow was supposed to be a Bear Grizzly recurve but could not find one to buy while in military in Holland in 1980s....guy at work told me to buy a Browning Badger so I ordered one not knowing the difference. It came with energy wheels, finger elevated weather rest, some aluminum arrows with vanes, and a Saunders Fab Tab and a single pin sight. I shot it for a year and then got rid of sights....and returned to states. The bow was disposed of in Sumter SC and I went to Mr. Owen Jeffery on Pepper St in Columbia and bought a brand new Jeffery Royal Hunter with clear glass, red oak veneers over a maple limb core....and a laminated riser dyed in what he called his new Mountain Camo setup. Still got that bow....shoots great. Not the prettiest or the fastest but it is like an old glove or pair of boots...it just feels comforting in the hand.
keep em sharp,
ron herman
This is not my first bow, but is exact same model, draw weight, color etc... as my first real bow. Had a little red Shakespeare fiberglass one before it but I just shot arrows up in the air with it. I bought this one on flea bay a couple of years ago and took my first fish and my first archery turkey with it. Trying to do the things with I it that I didn't know I could do with a bow when I was a teen and didn't know a single adult that bow hunted. I'm hoping maybe to shoot a deer with it one of these days!
(http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f43/wachatz/Mobile%20Uploads/NCM_0070_zpsb3vetolv.jpg) (http://s44.photobucket.com/user/wachatz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/NCM_0070_zpsb3vetolv.jpg.html)
My first bow was a 25# green glass with yellow handle and tips . Got it in 1962 , had my first kill in 1964 , was a 13 stripe ground squirrel . I have the pic of that some where but can't find it .
My first huntin bow was a Bear Cub that I bought off a friend for $5.00 , still have it . :archer:
Absolutely. My first was a Ben Pearson 30# longbow in 1955 when I was 11. My parents gave it to me for Christmas along with the back quiver, arrows, target, arm guard and glove. My best gift. I've never been without a bow since then.
First bow was a 25# solid fiberglass bow followed by a Bear golden fox-another fiberglass bow that was 45#. Shot my first deer with it in '65 when I was 14, lost the deer but found the skeleton a few months later with the BH right along the spine. Biggest buck I've ever seen in the woods-10 point with matching drops, still have the antlers as a reminder to never quit a trail until all options are exhausted.
My dad was a member of the local archery club and I have a B/W photo of me shooting with him about 1960 when I was four. I had various lemonwood bows growing up and about 9 or 10 I got a Bear Little Bear that he won on a punch card at work. I still have that bow hanging on the rack and all of my kids have grown up shooting it and I have a granddaughter getting ready for it.
My first real "Man Bow" was a Stemmler that I worked for all summer by getting up hay and digging fence holes. I was probably 14-15 then.
My first bow was a 1966 Bear Alaskan, 35#, 66". Got it back in '82, when i was 12. Family friend was cleaning out his garage, asked me if I wanted it. Shot it every summer for the next 4 years, with some arrows Dad picked up at the local Otasco, until high school, farm work, and the after school job became more of a priority. Work and family became the main focus up until a few years ago, when I pulled it out of the closet, and started looking to find some arrows that would tune for it. Then, back to a wall hanger for the last 2 years while I was in Guam (didn't want to take it with me). Now that I'm back in the states, it's time to take it back down, and continue where I left off.
Of course like many here my first was a stick I bent and tied a string to it, around age 8.
My first "real" bow was a Ben Pearson Cougar. I killed the first live deer I ever saw with that bow at age 16 in Brown County, Indiana.
A red Bear fiberglass recurve was waiting under the christmas tree when I was in my seventh year of life. I had many great adventures with that bow and many (trophies) came to bag, milk jugs were one of my favorites. I even brought down one of the family chickens ( spot and stalk) even though my folks did not quite see it in the same light as I did, I still suffer from the flashback of my punishment and I beleive it has effected my turkey hunting with the bow to some extent. That little bow forged a fondness for things wild and the freedom to be somewhat wild myself, a gripping thing that I cannot shake to this day.
When I was about 8 or 9 for Christmas I got a yellow fiberglass York bow which I took out Christmas morning wearing my pajamas and slippers and shot a cardboard box in the snow a few times before my Mother called me in . I carried that bow everywhere . Shot birds and some ducks and even my first big game animal , a muskrat with it . I then saved up my money and ordered an Indian "Deerslayer " recurve from a Cabela's paper sales flyers around 1966 for $32.00 And even though it was a "Deerslayer" I wasn't . Took me several years to get my first deer .
My first bow would not fit in this forum very well. It had training wheels! :dunno: :dunno:
Anyway, after I was able to ditch the training wheels, my first trad bow was an old used Bear Kodiak Hunter recurve. That bow was soooooooooooo slow! When I got my first custom bow, a Palmer recurve, I knew I was hooked on this trad sruff for good!
Bisch
My first bow, which I still have today, is a 1965 Herter's Perfection (55# @ 28") that I bought from a friend for $5 back in 1970.
(http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/yy71/64kodiak/P1060240.jpg) (http://s779.photobucket.com/user/64kodiak/media/P1060240.jpg.html)
My Grandfatherstopped at a little store by Turkey Run State park in Indiana and bought me a little white fiberglass bow that came with 3 arrows with suction cups. I was 3 years old and I had a blast with that bow, so I owe it to them for my life long passion for bow and arrow. I have never been with out a bow since! Thanks Gramps
My dad bought my little brother and I red fiberglass bows, each 3 fiberglass arrows...
I have to count the first hickory sapling bow, made at a Cub scout meeting, because it made me want to be on the side of the Indians instead of the cowboys. First manufactured bow was a red fiberglass recurve, kit, from the local HW store on my 10th birthday. All-time favorite birthday gift, even if I DID think it was longbow and strung it backwards for a few months. First laminated recurve was a Bear Cub, 45#, bought when I was twelve from picking up tobacco ground leaves.
First bow was one of those Red Bear fiberglass models.
I got my first bow, a Cravotta Brothers Black Hawk 45 lb. recurve, back in 1958 or 1959. I lived across the street, in Pitcairn, Pa., from a fellow named Honas Baird, who worked for Cravotta Brothers Archery in East McKeesport, Pa. I was 14 yrs. old and Honas told me that if I would help clean up at the business a couple hours a night sweeping floors and such that I would earn a new bow and some arrows. My Dad gave me the go ahead and I hunted deer for the first time with a bow that fall.
It is a early seventies Kodiak Hunter, 40#@28" and I'm pleased to say I still have it. I'd like to refinish it someday but it's still in pretty good shape considering its age.
Here's a photo of my hunter
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p191/bobnap/IMG_0313.jpg
The very first was an all-wood VERY lightweight bow that came with arrows that had the tips painted black. No metal, just paint. Then a solid glass Indian that I shot until I joined the Marines. When I got out, my younger brothers had made that one disappear. My wife bought me a Shakespeare Super Necedah on our first Christmas, my first REAL bow. I have no problem remembering it. I still shoot it 3,4,5 times a week!
My first trad bow was a Red Wing Hunter and it blow up 6 weeks later. That was a cool little bow, wish I still had it . But it sparked my Trad bow addiction at 18 yrs old never had a year in the woods I did not carry a recurve after that.
I was in Florida on vacation at age 11 and noticed a really "cool" bow on the wall of "Bill Jacksons" Sporting Goods! I was hooked... I had to wait til I got home and saved money for my very own Bear Mini-Mag compound bow with 3 wood arrows and plastic tab!
That bow spawned a life long passion filled with bigger & better dreams. I bought my first recurve in Spring of 1987. After staring at the iconic pictures of Greybark Black Widows in magazines, I saved my my money and bought the Black Widow I could afford... A "beautiful" all black 57# @28" HS60 takedown that I still have & shoot today!!! She looks better than ever! I had the Widow boys reduce her to 52lbs, tillered for three under, exposed the blonde maple limbs, and added diamond back skins to the front to make her hunt ready and stunningly beautiful!!!
Up until a few years ago, shes the only traditional bow I've owned and used. Now I have my 54" Black Widow KB 53# @28" Dream Bow as well....