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security question cut off my post again. At the quote.

Why is a narrow bow that can be twisted better for doing the "bow torque"? Can't it be done with a more wide-limbed bow?

Is it really hard to do it consistently to get good accuracy?

Just how slight is the CCW twist?

Got "trigger finger" on my bow hand little finger and it's been sore for months

Arrows still mostly point to the left when they hit the target, and fly to the right. I grip the bow almost from the side (force against the thumb bone) and try to push it so the top limb bends more. But it seems to require a lot of strength

Thanks for all the information!

Cool, I imagine it could be used with medium(medium-light?) to heavy arrows?
Any idea what the string material is?
That's a hell of a lot of reflex. Would be great to see one strung and drawn

geoarcher wrote:

peterhaslund wrote:

@geoarcher: What do you think I can do to buy a laminated horn bow like yours?

I actually don't have the laminated horn bow.  Rather that's greyhamster's.  I do have a suggestion though: contact Korean Gungsulwon over at this ebay address: http://www.ebay.com/usr/luke1731.  They sell the SMG bows and just about every other Korean archery product you'd ever need.  I asked them about the one by SMG bow made out of all bamboo and they were even willing to sell that one to me.  Their mark up isn't too bad either.  Other than that you could always deal with Koreanbows.com and see what they'd do for you.

I contacted them previously. Their laminated bow is carbonbacked and not SMG but rather from another bowyer. I could look up the message if you want

marc wrote:

Interesting discussion since SMG has an English version of their website!!  I wonder if anyone is taking into account that these bows have to be made by hand?  For the ease of communication and quality of bow you may want to contact bluelake and order a Hwarang.

They´re not actually made by hand though, at least not entirely. The instruction booklet shows a few pictures of the construction process. And when the bowyer finally obtained the necessary horn it only took 5 days before it was finished and shipped.

His Hwarang´s area carbonbacked though and the reason I went through all this trouble is because I wanted a horn-backed bow. It´s also cheaper to buy from SMG. Horn Bow with sock, 2 strings, 2 sets of reserve rubbers and a very sturdy and handy case cost me 420 dollars, compared to the 450 Bluelake asks (No offense to his products or his quality, they are very good as well and he does offer good customer service from what I hear.)

peterhaslund wrote:

@geoarcher: What do you think I can do to buy a laminated horn bow like yours?

Www.koreanbows.com can sell them to you. They have a markup though (430 with shipping vs 395 with shipping)

djkoo wrote:

(speaking from just my own experience with SMG)
I think they just lack resources to communicate with non-korean speaking customers. I speak korean and I gave them a call and texted the lady what I wanted, wired the money a few minutes later, and I saw my bow about 5 days later in Texas. Not to dig into their personal life, but the person that helped me seemed like a mother figure (kids, dogs, etc over the phone) and didn't seem like they have the resource for foreign inquiries.

Again, these are all just guesses from my perspective. I was extremely happy with the service... nothing bad to say. Coming from a Korean culture, its understandable that it is frightening to try to communicate in english when english is so heavily pushed to everyone...

Never had any experience with other distributors but i think it might be easier to obtain it from other sources if possible.

I suppose you are right. I´m just kind of pissed it took 3 months to order a bow and especially because I heard nothing for a month after paying them and because I received a bow 5 lbs above draw weight.

geoarcher wrote:

Agree that SMG has gone to complete hell with customer orders/service.  However, its probably the best company for a modern Korean synthetic as their bows typically outperform the rest in all other categories and the bang for the buck factor is still good.  Shame though they screwed up the draw weight here.  Buying from Gungsulwon may be the better option here after all.

@ Greyhamster: what is the strung length of the bow?  Is it about 50 or 51 inches?

40 inches unstrung, 48 inches when strung. By far the smallest bow I´ve ever seen. It´s the second larges size (advertised as 127 cm, forgot the name)

Brad.Canton wrote:

I asked over at koreanbows.com the lamanted horn bow would be $430 including shipping to NZ I also got a response from warmachie on Facebook but he said that a 35pound one wasn't in stock at the moment

Do keep in mind that their bows are measured at 31.8 inches, so you´ll want to order one about 10 lbs above your regular draw weight (a bow gains about 2,5 lbs per inch)

------------------

On to the bow itself!

I´ve been shooting it for a week now, shooting a few arrows every day. I still suck due to the effort required to draw it, I regularly fuck up the gripping but still, I can see and feel that this is a very, VERY good bow. It has some shock (Using the lightest weight arrows allowed with the bow) but I don´t actually feel it because the grip absorbs the shock. It´s also very quiet. It´s also blisteringly fast. I don´t have access to a chronograph but just by eyeballing I´d say it´s probably the fastest traditional bow on the club, possibly tied with a hunting recurve from a friend. My previous 35 lbs fibreglass hungarian had trouble hitting the 25 meter and I´d see longbow shooters with 40 lbs longbows arcing at the 25 meters as well. This bow just flatlines at that range. I´ve shot a few arrows at 30, 40 and 50 meters just to see how it performs and it´s only at 50 meters that I really have to start aiming quite a bit higher.

I also can´t express just how wonderful the bow feels. It´s light and small and weighs pretty much nothing. The limbs are also slightly bent, so the bowstring rests just to the right of the centre of the bow which is a far more elegant solution than cutting a shelf. The limbs themselves are also wonderfully thin, about the thickness of my thumb.

I do have some gripes though: The grip is a bit small. I can fit my hand on but I have rather small hands (latex gloves size S, size 7 for surgery gloves should anyone be familiar with those sizes) and I do sort of wish it was a bit bigger. I also REALLY hate the nocks.

It´s part of the Korean bow design but MAN, do I hate them. The loops on the bowstring are so large they can twist and slip over the nocks on to the limbs so you´ve got to be really careful when stringing it. You also can´t twist them or make the loops smaller because the loops themselves fall in two grooves to ensure they are in the right place. Stringing it is a bit harder than my hungarian bow. It´s also a bit of a shame that there´s brightly colored markings and stickers on the nocks.
Like I said, I recieved a bow 5 lbs heavier than ordered and it´s thus a good 10 lbs above my previous bow. I can´t really draw it back to my full 32 inches but I have not noticed any stacking so far.

Bottom line: I really like this bow. I bought it as my competition bow (it being horn backed, completely traditional, small, light and having top-notch performance) and it certainly delivers. I´m sure I will feel comfortable doing field shooting or 3d shooting with this bow. I´ll certainly be able to giggle at folks carring a 70 inch longbow around and snagging it on branches It´s a great bow in many regards even though I do have some issues with it. I would heartily recommend it to anyone, although perhaps obtained through other channels.

Finally, a question from me: What´s a good way to maintain the birch bark cover?

Also, what arrow spines for what bow weight do you guys use? It looks like I might have to get 11/32 shafts which feels kind of thick. But I´m getting a required spine of 65-70 with my 55lbs SMG bow.

I was wondering how many Korean bowyers are still making the horn bow and who is considered the best?  I also read somewhere that the horn bows of 20+ years ago where wider than those produced now; can anyone verify this?

More reflex = more stored energy = more speed = armor penetration (war times). About the historical warbow: Materials same as hornbow?

Are you drawing to the back of your head/shoulder? KTB draw weight is measured at 31" so at 27" you're drawing more like 22#

According to this arrow chart https://www.3riversarchery.com/pdf/ArrowCharts.pdf 1916 aluminium shafts 30" long with 100gr points is suited more for 36~45# bows.

So the arrows are way too stiff for your bow. Also because thumb release is cleaner/oscillates the arrow less than fingers you arguably need an even softer arrow. While thumb technique can compensate for spine mis match to some degree, shooting arrows twice as stiff as required isn't going to go well.

Try drawing farther if you can, draw slowly until you feel the 'collar' between the arrow shaft and point on your thumb. Increasing from 22#@27" to 30#@31" is like increasing the energy in your bow by 50% so is well worth doing.

If after drawing as far as you can the arrows still feel too stiff you can try putting on heavier arrow points to soften the arrow spine.

It's difficult to say without seeing in person but the feather shouldn't be touching your hand at all. As for hitting your bow, it's possible the arrows aren't spine matched for your bow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGdQDUpKkmo