Hey everybody. A very good friends Father just gave me what I believe is a 1970 Bear Grizzly. Its marked with a KP serial # AMO 56" 48#. The bow is in overall nice condition,it was stored unstrung,on a wall in a dry basement. So of course I cant wait to get to my pro shop/range to spend money on arrows and shoot this thing. When I get there, one of the trad guys is there (also with an old Grizzly},looks at and says he thinks the lower limb has some twist.when he strings it up- he draws it and lets it down a couple of times and sees that the string is walking out of the top limb groove. He recomends that I dont shoot it but says it could possibly could be fixed. Boil a pot of water,soak a towel and wrap the limb, twist in the opposite direction and run under cold water,and then do a happy dance and go shoot something. I should say Im not a recurve guy (Yet),but when I first looked at it I thought was straight.However now when I check it out I swear the top limb is twisted and the pro says the bottom.We are talking 1/2 inch max. Now Im not dumb enough to argue with a pro but Id bet a beer on it. So my long a** questions are Is there a way to tell which limb is bent. and have any of you ever fixed one?? Thanks Jim
I'm thinking that if the person was actually a professional, that he pulled the bow back without any torque in the string or handle. When pulling the bow back watch the tips and see if the tips twist at all while drawing. If you have never used a recurve before, then you maybe using too many new muscles to really see a clear picture. But if the twists are so slight that you can not even detect them, then you may want to take it to someone else for a second opinion and make sure you are seeing it before you leave. I don't think that you have to use boiling water to straighten the twist though. Personally, I just use hot tap water. You don't want to heat the limbs too much as to weaken the glue on the laminates. There is even a slight chance with hot water. Make sure that the bow is the same temp as the water and hold the limb past the point of the twist until it cools. You may have to repeat the step a few times after shooting the bow. But a limb twist can usually be fixed. IMO for the first one, maybe ask for some help. If you can get to a shoot or a club, I'm sure there would be people who could help.
Thank you Bob. Im going to take your advice,the traditonal guys usually gather on Wed. at the range I shoot at,Im gonna stop this week and see what they say. Thanks again Jim
