I think we all understand the feeling of buying something we always wanted and then getting anxious about where the best place would be to store it. In this case, I am specifically talking about how to store a recurve bow.
Whether you practice every single day or not, having a proper place to store your bow is necessary to ensure the longevity of the bow and its performance.
And you also want to store it in an easy-to-reach place, so consider the room or place that you are close to and find the most comfortable storing it.
The place can be in any room in your house or your room, the garage, etc., and after deciding that, you can try any of the following ways of storing your recurve bow I mentioned below.
Ways of Storing a Recurve Bow:
There are quite a few ways you can store your recurve bow. But here, I will share with you some bow storage ideas inspired by my bow store that I consider to be the best. Depending on many other factors, it might not be ideal for you to try one or the other, which I will discuss later in the article.
1. Hanging
Hanging is a great way of storing recurve bows if you often practice and want a decent and neat way of storing them.
Here is how to hang a recurve bow; it is as simple as it sounds — hammer a few nails on the wall where you want to hang the bow and hang it horizontally.
But make sure the nails are evenly placed in a line on the wall. Any uneven nailing will provide tension to the bow, which can damage it easily and may even cause its limbs to twist.
2. Horizontally
You can also store them horizontally. Attach some nails to a board like before to create a recurve bow holder and place your strung recurve like you did when hanging, except there are no risks of tension or shock to the bow. With proper maintenance, you can store the bow for a long time this way.
3. Unstrung
This is the most common and arguably the best way to store your recurve or any type of bow for a long time. You can go to your local recurve bow store and find they mostly hang them unstrung on recurve bow wall rack.
Since the bowstring can add tension to the bow if you want to store your bows without compromising their quality, unstring the bow before storing.
After that, you can store them horizontally, or if you have multiple recurve bows, you can create a recurve bow rack for wall by nailing pieces of wood to the wall. You can also buy recurve bow rack on the market.
4. Recurve Bow Case
For storing them during travel, you can buy dedicated cases for storing both your bow and arrow. You can also create a DIY recurve bow case using wide PVC pipes.
Find PVC pipes that are wide enough to fit your bow and arrows. If the pipe is not long enough, you can cut pieces from another pipe and glue it to the other. This is an excellent budget-friendly recurve bow storage method and for taking your bow with you anywhere without damage.
5. Storing Vertically on One Limb
A lot of the time, beginners make the mistake of storing their recurve bow vertically on the ground, supporting on a limb of the bow. It is a quick way to store them if you are regularly practicing, but slowly, the bow can start to show the effects.
Storing a recurve bow for hours on end being supported by one limb will cause the limb to twist or damage the limb tips. We know that bows can be quite heavy, so placing your bow vertically on the ground causes uneven distribution of weight, and eventually, the bow might crack.
So make sure to avoid storing your recurve or traditional bow on a limb at all costs.
Some Important Factors to Note:
Apart from understanding why you should or should not store your recurve bow in certain ways and places, you should also know how your bow itself can affect those causes.
1. Bow Construction Material
The material of the bow plays a very important role in their shelf life and storage. Depending on them, you might want to try a different approach.
Wood or Bamboo
Solid wood or bamboo bows are very common as well as cheap. However, they are also the weakest among other construction materials for recurve bows. So as you can probably guess, it can’t handle much tension or shock.
You can’t store them hanging and strung for a long period of time. It is acceptable only if you use your bow to practice regularly. Other than that, if you are thinking of storing them for months, go for other storing options.
Hybrid
A hybrid recurve bow is typically made of wood and has a fiberglass shell. As a result, they are much more durable than just wooden bows.
You can feel more at ease hanging them strung on a recurve bow hanger, but it is still not ideal since the bow will slowly lose its strength. The best way to store these types of bows is unstrung.
Fiberglass
Fiberglass-constructed recurve bows are very popular in the community due to their high durability and slight flexibility. This makes these bows the only strong candidate that can be stored strung without having to unstring it from time to time.
It can handle a lot of pressure as well, so you can store them hanging for a long time.
However, these bows are quite sensitive to scraping, and abrasion so recurve bow care is necessary. You need to clean them frequently and also make sure they don’t come in contact with any sharp object other than the arrow.
You also need to make sure it isn’t stored in a place high in temperature or heat. Store the bow in a place with cool room temperature.
2. Bowstring
For a bowstring, there are different factors that can heavily affect the result of storing your bow. In fact, in most cases, it is the bowstring that leads to damage or tension to the bow.
Unstringing/Restringing
If you use a simple wood or bamboo traditional bow, you should avoid unstringing it after every practice session.
Like I mentioned before, solid bamboo and wooden bows are quite weak, and unstringing them frequently will cause them to lose strength or add pressure to the bow causing it to snap. You could unstring them when you are planning to store them for weeks at a stretch.
The same goes for other bows as well. They might not be as weak as pure wooden bows, but since the process of unstringing bows puts a lot of pressure on them, doing it frequently can cause premature damages to your bow.
Zero-Stretch and Stretchy Bowstring
While both the bowstring types have their advantages and other disadvantages, I am mainly going to be talking about how they handle being hung.
Zero-stretch bowstrings are great to use in archery for speed shooting. However, when you hang bows with the bowstring strung for a long time, it will continue to hold the tension and pressure, which will eventually send a shock to the limb tips causing them to crack or break.
On the other hand, stretchy bowstring, although it won’t cause the limb tips to break, if you again continue to hang it strung for a long time, the string will stretch from its natural size. And so you will be left with a loose bowstring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you store a recurve bow strung?
You can store a recurve bow strung, however, not for a long time. If you don’t unstring it eventually, then the bow will slowly start to deteriorate under the constant pressure and compression of the strung bowstring. To avoid that, make sure to unstring it once at least every other week.
Is it bad to dry fire a recurve bow?
Yes, dry firing is one of the biggest “don’ts” in archery. When you dry fire your bow, the bow absorbs all the energy from firing, which causes the bow to vibrate intensely. This can cause small splinters to large grazing to even cracking your bow! So avoid dry firing your recurve bow at all cost.
How to protect a wooden recurve bow?
Firstly, since wooden bows are weak, you need to add a protective coating to prevent them from getting affected by humidity and moisture. Use automotive polish to clean the bow regularly; you only need a small drop of the product to clean.
Clean the bow of dirt using a damp cloth and use a dry cloth afterward to dry it.
To maintain the longevity of your recurve bow, unstring the bow when you are not using it for days or more time. And store it in a dry and relatively cool room.
Final Words
Recurve bows are much less sustainable than others like compound bows. Hence it is important to know how to store a recurve bow correctly. I hope I was able to help with that, and you learned everything you needed to know.