New Bear Grizzly & Intro

Archer Dave · January 17, 2015, 03:53:00 PM

Hey guys and gals. I am new to the forum and interested to see what is going on around here.

The first time I shot a bow is when I found an old longbow in my grandfathers garage around the age of 8 or so. I made some simple arrows from shoots I found growing in yard.

Then I got into archery when I was in high school. I was a reader of a primitive archery magazine and a prolific poster on their forum. That is when I built my first longbow, which was around 16 years ago, and shot it a lot for a few years.

Anyway, I piddled around here and there over the years with a few different bows, but didn't do much with it as I had injured my shoulder and it would tend to dislocate on me with heavier weight bows.

Just a few weeks ago I ordered and received a new Bear Grizzly 45# Recurve. Wow this is a nice bow. It is very smooth drawing and seems to not bother my shoulder. I have only shot if a few hundred times in the past few weeks, but I am really liking it.

She is wearing brush buttons and some homemade string silencers made from some of my wife's left over wool yarn.

The color of the riser is not as red as I had hoped from seeing pictures on the net, but it is a nice shooting bow none the less.

I am still working on getting it tuned right. I am shooting some full length (30") GT XT Hunter 3555 carbon arrows out of it with 4" left helical fletching and a 125gr FP. I already had these arrows for another bow and they seem to work fine.

I am going to order some bare GT shafts to do some bare shaft tuning before fletching them up. Do you guys think I should stick with the 3555 for this bow?

Anyway enough talk here are a few pictures.

I just went out and did a little snap shooting at 16-18 yards and got this group and picture. My fingers were freezing as it is quite cold up in northern Minnesota right now so I did not stay out long. I was also using a homemade tab, but not sure it is giving me the best accuracy.

Here she is indoors after some frozen fingers. :D

Dave

sheepdogreno · January 17, 2015, 03:59:00 PM

Welcome! Nice shooting and nice grizzly!

Archer Dave · January 17, 2015, 04:06:00 PM

Thanks. This is my first nice factory bow. I have wanted one of these for nearly ten years now. I am glad that I got it.

Archer Dave · January 17, 2015, 04:27:00 PM

By the way. How do you guys have your Grizzly's set up?

This is where I am:
Brace Height 8-1/8"
Nocking Point +1/8" high
String Silencers 1/4

Wannabe1 · January 17, 2015, 04:32:00 PM

Welcome to the forum and the journey!

Don't own a Grizzly so, cannot help you on setup but, that is a nice looking bow and shooting.

DDawg · January 17, 2015, 05:09:00 PM

Bear Grizzly's are good bows, many a deer has been taken with Grizzly's over the years..
Good Luck!

Cyclic-Rivers · January 17, 2015, 05:25:00 PM

Sounds like your arrows are pretty close to perfect. Looking at the hay bale it looks like they are working for you.

I was shooting my grizzly today very similar set up. I like a higher brace height on mine of 8 1/4 inches.

Welcome to trad gang and back to archery.

carbonflyr · January 17, 2015, 05:36:00 PM

Archer Dave · January 17, 2015, 07:46:00 PM

Thanks guys. I am looking forward to putting this bow through its paces.

I am also excited to take it hunting this fall for Bambie.

dbd870 · January 17, 2015, 09:35:00 PM

I run 8 to 8--1/4 on mine.

Archer Dave · January 18, 2015, 01:54:00 AM

I need to go to bed but I am dreaming of shooting my Griz.

Arggg.. Someone say night time archery? hehe... :D

Thumper Dunker · January 18, 2015, 03:14:00 AM

Welcome and that's a good bow.

dbd870 · January 18, 2015, 07:34:00 AM

QuoteOriginally posted by Archer Dave:
I need to go to bed but I am dreaming of shooting my Griz.

Arggg.. Someone say night time archery? hehe... :D

Yep; I find myself far more motivated to shoot my recurves than I ever was with the wheel bows. Enjoy it more as well.

mahantango · January 18, 2015, 07:45:00 AM

I think you're borderline stiff with the 35/55 (.500spine). If possible, try some 15/35 (.600spine).

Stone Knife · January 18, 2015, 08:16:00 AM

I have the same setup, the 3555's are what you want.With those you can play with point weight and insert weight and get them to fly perfect. I have shot 1535's out of my Grizzly through paper at 9' and they show weak, just an observation that I have seen with actual experimentation.

Archer Dave · January 18, 2015, 01:20:00 PM

QuoteOriginally posted by mahantango:
I think you're borderline stiff with the 35/55 (.500spine). If possible, try some 15/35 (.600spine).

Thanks for the input. I have actually been reading this morning a lot of posts where guys are using the 1535 GT for 45-50# recurves.

Seems to be a lot of variation as to what people are using in the GT carbon range.

One thing I did notice, again I did not bare shaft test these 3555 XT Hunters, is that if I shoot very close that they knock is leaning a bit to the right. This makes me wonder if I bare shaft tested these if they would be much further to the right thus showing they are over spined.

It would be good to test a few 1535's and 3555's bare shafted to see what works best, but I do not have much money to spend on arrows right now since I just spent my money on this bow.

So I am not sure what is best.

Thanks,
Dave

Archer Dave · January 18, 2015, 01:26:00 PM

QuoteOriginally posted by Stone Knife:
I have the same setup, the 3555's are what you want.With those you can play with point weight and insert weight and get them to fly perfect. I have shot 1535's out of my Grizzly through paper at 9' and they show weak, just an observation that I have seen with actual experimentation.

What weight point did you use on those 1535's? What set up did you end up with on your 3555?

I also wonder if I need to up my arrow weight as the full length GT 3555 XT Hunters with 125 FP comes out to 380.5gr on my reloading scale.

My balance point is 10-3/8" from the point insert with the 125 on. I do not know what percent FOC that is but it seems front heavy to me and the 125 is not all that heavy of a point.

Any thoughts there?

Thanks
Dave

January 18, 2015, 01:31:00 PM

Welcome to the Gang!

Bisch

Cyclic-Rivers · January 19, 2015, 09:37:00 AM

Dave, do not try and over think it.

If your arrows are working then shoot them until you have enough money to get more.

Another thing to remember is its always apples to oranges. People are always going to make recommendations but..... Bows are different. way different. Your Grizzly at 45 lbs will not shoot the same arrow as a 45 lb selfbow or a 45 lb center shot custom.

Also I will add, Jim aka Stone Knife has been shooting his Grizzly for years and has killed a lot of deer with it. I would go with tried and true advice rather than someone who states what they think. Not saying the other guy is wrong but I think you are close and if you are seeing a slight weak reading, minor adjustments will get you where you want to be rather than all new arrows.

Pine · January 19, 2015, 10:40:00 AM

Welcome from Michigan .