Groves Spitfire Prestige info

[rich k]

This bow belongs to a friend of mine. He recently inherited it. He is a compound shooter and knows little about trad bows. He asked me to look at it, determine if it's shootable, and if so, whether he can shoot it with his 31 inch plus draw.
It appears to be in very good condition. There is a tab, a wrist sling and a pocket quiver, all of them appear to be little used.I can find no crazing and the limbs are straight. It came with a 63 inch, 11 strand string which is possibly Dacron. The arrows are 1913s which spine a little over 700. I checked it over, cleaned, waxed and strung it. With the original string it has a 9 1/2 inch brace. I'm wondering if it should have a 66 inch string.
On my scale it measures 31 pounds of 28 inches. The aluminum arrows are straight. I tried one at 10 yards. I also tried a 28 inch, 700 grain Easton with a 100 grain point which shot better than the original 28 inch 1913. Any and all information would be helpful.Especially if I should let my friend try his 31" draw.

Thanks, Rich
update: I left it strung overnight and the brace is now at 8 3/4" and the string is now 65". Still at 31# @ 28". Hard to believe the string stretched 2". Maybe I didn't get the measurement quite right the first time. Also, it is a takedown. It comes apart at the white line on the lower part of the handle.

[Kelly]

That was Groves top of the line target bow. It should be a rocket launcher and a great shooter. The brace in your picture looks about correct. Back when this bow was made in the mid 1960's that white coed like string material they used stretched a lot on initial string up.

For reference it says 69" but that was before AMO so it's really a 67" bow and 63" is correct string length.

If your friend really draws 31" with this recurve the bow can handle that draw length if he can handle the extra 3" of weight gain, around 8-10#.

[rich k]

Kelly
Thanks a bunch. I just got around to checking for any responses as the first few times I checked there were quite a few views but no comments. It has two of the original strings which are white but you're right they do stretch a lot. I wasn't sure what they were so I just re-served one of them as the serving was coming apart. I shot it and it was smooth and seemed pretty quick but I don't have my chronograph as I'm out of a state right now.
There's a couple of about 3/8 inch holes that were drilled in the bottom of the grip and filled in with some kind of epoxy or other hard material. I assume that was original. Did they possibly put mercury in those grips? The only other possible issue I saw with this bow was towards one of the tips there's a very small chip at the edge. If my friend keeps this bow I got the feeling he probably won't shoot it much if at all. Kind of a shame as somebody oughta shoot it

Rich

[Kelly]

Rich, do you have a picture of these holes and where they are located?

Groves was not in the habit of putting Mercury in their bows, Ben Pearson did tho.