[Archers] SAS Robin Hood Bow Review

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends of the Bow,

Last summer at King's Assessment I was shown a Southland Archery Supply
Robin Hood bow. I was impressed enough to buy a pair for House Mallard
Lodge's private loaner kit. Here follows my evaluation of these bows.

Specifications: The bow is a one-piece fiberglass recurve, except for a
rubbery grip and plastic limb ends. It comes with right and left hand arrow
rests. The bow has an AMO of 59 1/4", and is advertised with a draw weight
of 30-35#. Two finishes are available, faux-wood grained and black. Except
for the graining, the two are identical.

Supposedly, you also get the usual suite of youth-level accessories: finger
tab, vinyl belt quiver, an arm guard, a target, and a couple of fiberglass
arrows. Mine came only with a plastic mesh armguards for which I have yet
to find a use. Most of the accessories would have gone in the trash anyway.

Pros and Cons: The bows came strung! The strings that were included
included were 56" LONGBOW strings with small loops. Apparently the
manufacturer never intended for these bows to be unstrung. The small loops
would not slip far enough down to allow the bows to completely relax the
bows. I applied a lot of bow wax, and was able to just barely drop the
strings far enough remove them at the bottom. They were replaced by 57"
RECURVE strings with a larger loop for the top. These were twisted down to
just above 56", achieving the manufacturer's recommended 7" brace height.
The original strings were of good quality, and went into my stock for some
other youth bows.

I added custom shaped glue-back leather arrow rests and back plates. The
rests are NOT generous, and are quite curved, so giving the bow a small
cant may be needed to keep arrows on the rests.

The grip does not extend around the bowstave onto the belly of the bow, but
ends flush with the belly. The square corners tend to make holding the bow
uncomfortable. Due to the shape of the grip, it probably couldn't be padded
or wrapped, except possibly by a long thin leather strip. A leather driver
glove from a garden shop for the bow hand would be helpful.

My main complaint is that both my bows only registered 32# at 28", as
measured on my electronic bow scale. I bought them mainly because we have a
real need for some 35# bows, so their lighter draw was a disappointment.

I shot a few test arrows, and found that except for the grip, the bows
handled well and were reasonably accurate for their poundage.

Price and Availability: I bought mine from Amazon. They are still available
there, and possibly from other vendors as well. The current price is a bit
higher than it was when I ordered them last fall: the black model is $69.95
and the wood-grain model is $85.61. I joined Amazon Prime just for their
trial period and got free shipping.

Evaluation: The venerable Bear Titan bow is available for $39.97 from
Amazon, and for not much more at a number of other vendors. This bow is
advertised at 29#, though it really draws 30# (there is a federal excise
tax on "hunting equipment" which starts at 30#). Considering that the SAS
bow is nearly the same draw weight, I recommend the Bear instead. You would
have to replace the metal-clipped string, and the most recent examples come
in a dull gray color, but the price difference and better hand grip make
the Bear a much more attractive choice.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seahorse.atlantia.sca.org/pipermail/archers-atlantia.sca.org/attachments/20190502/3d1a9403/attachment.html>