The compound bow kind-of equates to a modern bicycle in my mind, while recurve and longbows seem to be the bow version of classic bicycles. If you’ve followed my bike builds, you know that I like classic steel bikes. So it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that I would look for a recurve bow.
And I found one, a Hoyt Pro Medalist takedown bow, a TD/2 model. This bow was made between 1976 and 1980 so it definitely qualifies as a classic. In it’s day, this bow won literally everything there was to win in archery – from Olympic gold medals to World championships. The asking price was reasonable, so I picked it up.
The grip was cracked, which is not unusual for these older bows. The riser is cast magnesium and the grip slips onto the riser from the belly side of the bow (the side of the bow that is closest to your belly while shooting). Finding a grip proved difficult (as in a complete lack of success) and then a post on archerytalk suggested that I look for a riser that had a grip on it that would fit the Hoyt. I’ve been known to buy a complete bicycle to obtain some parts that are not available separately, so this seemed like a reasonable thing to do. I found one and despite some shipping delays, it arrived in fine shape. The grip is a tight fit on the Hoyt riser so I didn’t force it – I certainly don’t want to crack this grip knowing how difficult they are to find.
The rest and plunger that came with it were ok, but not great. I figured out which rest and plunger would be good replacements and ordered them.
The limbs are 30# (30 pound pull) on a 24″ riser, so they’re a good weight to start with on a recurve journey. They’re in excellent condition, no nicks or obvious wear. Because this is an older bow, the recommended string material is Dacron. The modern string materials are too harsh for these older limb without tip reinforcements so I ordered a new string made from Dacron.
Once the string arrived, I strung the bow and shot a few arrows into my target. This is a completely different game to the compound bow. Definitely a challenge to shoot well, but I like challenges.