AF Archery Turkish Recurve Bow, 50" High-Performance Traditional Laminated Hunting Horse Bow for Adults Youth Beginners Enthusiasts and Hunting

At the time of this writing this is 1 of the 2 bows I really like being offered by Amazon, and they are both sold by AF Archery. The other bow I like is the 53" Tatar bow. This bow is super light weighing about 4/5th of a pound, its fast and snappy. Built and finished very well. It has one drawback, but that's because of how fine the bow is and how short the bow is and so it should be expected. The bow is a little unstable...what does this mean? It means if you are not careful to make sure the limbs of the bow are straight after you string the bow...this means the string has been put on a little crooked. If you draw the bow like that, it will warp and destring itself violently on you. This is NOT a defect, this is what happens when you so finely tune a bow to these dimension. YOU, need to make sure you string the bow so it is straight. Get on youtube and learn how. If you are uncertain about that, then I recommend the Tatar which is a little more stable due to being a little less stressed with the added length. But this really shouldn't put you off, I am writing it hear to help prevent unnecessary returns. These two bows are my absolute favorite and I am buying another of each in heavier draw weights for hunting.

I got the 40# model and it measures 41# at 28'' when I measure. This bow is a pleasure to shoot. The draw is very smooth upwards to 29'', which is to my ear with a thumb draw. It does draw to 32'', but starts stacking after 29'' with 30-31'' being pretty stiff (but also adding poundage and fps.) The hand shock is very mild and essentially non-existent if you use proper khatra. The bow is very light, and with the smooth draw, I can shoot this all day. It is a pleasure to use. However, as a light, short bow, it is pretty unforgiving for errors in technique and release. I would not recommend this for someone who has not used a horsebow before. Some have mentioned in reviews that the string does not stay on. This has not been a problem for me as long as you check that the string remains within the string bridges during stringing. Stringing a horsebow is a little different so it may be worth reviewing some guides on YouTube before trying to string.

I never like to leave a bad review, but I can corroborate the reports of the string not staying on this bow. I am an experienced archer and shoot horsebows and Scythian style bows exclusively, so I am very familiar with the process of stringing this type of bow. While I could get it strung, drawing the string back would result in the string popping off as the bow twisted, making this a dangerous bow to shoot. It appears that the siyahs twist in the opposite direction and cannot be adjusted in a manner to make this bow work. Perhaps the reason others do not have this issue is because they were lucky enough to get a model that was not defective. I believe these bows are mass produced, so it's the luck of the draw in getting a good one. Save your money and explore other options if you want a traditional Turkish \ Horsebow. Sorry to disappoint.

Short, fast bow with a big comfortable handle. The 50lb model is easy to shoot, accurate and has good penetrating power.

A little worried about the limb twist issue after reading some reviews. Also not sure about the fiberglass quality of the black version. After one month and about 3000 shots I can say it's still a great, accurate, intuitive bow, and it still looks and works like in day one. Also I was a bit concerned about the durability of the leather like arrow pass but it turned out to be incredibly tough, same if not more durable than the white bone inlay arrow pass on my other af archery tatar bow. 3000 shots only smoothed a bit on the arrow pass, no sign of wearing out.

This shortbow is powerful, and the Ottomans used it to conquer 1/3 of Europe with it. It's made from Ashwood so it's not the highest quality wood, but it is still strong, flexible, and tough. I have had this bow for a month as my first bow. I have shot roughly 1700 arrows off of it. It's accurate and really brings out weaknesses in your form. This is because mistakes get amplified due to how short the bow is. It's a great learning bow, I've read the other reviews on this bow, and nearly didn't buy it because of the bow string issues. I decided to buy it because I assumed people who complained about the bow string were probably string it themselves instead of using a bow stringer. Like your shooting form, stringing this bow with your body will bring out of your mistakes in bow stringing form, because of how short the bow is. That said, I always unstring and restring it nearly daily and have never had any issues. Hey I get it, it's cool to string a bow using your body, it even looks cool, but it's less safe and effective than using a proper bow stringer. I used thumb draw because I hope to shoot off of horseback someday. But I would definitely recommend this bow for beginners. FYI, I am 6'3", so the picture makes the bow look even shorter.

Edit: Since my first post which was on the first bow only... I have had 2 replacement bows both lasted approximately 4-5 months each with only 4k arrows run through them before their fiber glass became compromised. I use heavy weight arrows and don't exceed the max draw. I hope others don't have this experience and are aware of problems in quality that may arise and to frequently inspect your bow for damage before it fails catastrophically. As my first short bow, it is worth the price. As a short bow its poundage does stack past 28in. I have been using this bow for 3 months with a couple thousand arrows and its held up well. Only issues I have faced is that the serving string started to wiggle free around the nocking point and have had to add more serving string to remedy this and the bow string bridge cracked... Not sure where to find more like theses because the crack has left it with a sharp edge. I have added photos of these issues. after contacting AF they sent replacement string bridges. not long after that had delamination on limbs and was offered another bow free of charge. Overall I'm glad the company backs their bows and hope others don't have similar issues as myself.

I got a 35lb @28" model. It measured 37lb @28" on my scale. My dl is 27" on a western recurve and just over 26" on this bow. Idk if its because the handle is much thinner than a recurve bow or the grip is different, but my dl is shorter on this bow. So its slightly lighter than what I was shooting for. It is 32-1/2lb @26- 1/4" I tested my scale weighting 3 10lb weight plates and it showed 29.87lbs. I shoot with a release due to hand injuries. I'm using two Gt warrior arrows, one 600 and one 700 spine. Both 31.5 " w 175 grain points and three 4" feathers. I'm not certain which flys best, leaning towards the 700 spines. I tried uncut 1716 with several weights, they did poor. 30" 1816 w 200 grain point three 4" feathers strike left when bow is not tilted. So does a 500 spines 28" carbon I had. Ill have to do much more shooting with it to get consistent form before trying to tune arrows. Based on arrow trajectories, the Gt warrior will stay fairly flat out to 40 yards while the heavier 1816s really drop fast after about 30 yards. All those arrowers meet the min weight required @.6gram per pound using 35 lb but if you drawl out to 30+inches the carbons are likely too light. Overall, it is a real nice looking bow and weighed only 9 ounces w the string. Very fun to shoot.