Need info on Samwha SKB bow

Hello Pawel,

Are you sure the brand is "Samwha" and not "Samick"? Or they could be the same thing?
If it's Samick, the draw lenght is formerly 28''.

Best regards

Gianrico

Hello

Are you sure the brand is "Samwha" and not "Samick"? Or they could be the same thing?

I am sure - they have also Samick SKB on stock, but this one costs over $50 more.

Anyway,28 inches seems to be very little for this kind of bow.

Pawel

Why not go for another Gr?zer; good quality for a good prize and: a much better look, choice of different models and, of course, longer draw.
www.grozerarchery.com

Hello Pawel,

I made some researches, but unfortunately had no results. The only thing I finded is that it is better to write "Sam Wha", in two separate words.

For the problem of your bow (I have to buy one in Christmas period), I just wanted to remember that two "pillar-members" of Atarn can furnish excellent bows at a very good price: I mean the Hwarang bow from Thomas Duvernay and a good modern replica of chinese bow from Stephen. Personally I have a Hwarang (and planning to buy a chinese fiberglass for my wife): this korean bow is incredible, it is light and powerful at the same time.

Best regards

Gianrico

I have seen Samwha SKB bow in few e-shops here in Poland,looks nice and is inexpensive, but no one could tell what is its maximum draw length.

They can be drawn back to 35". But I do not recommend them because they are not very stable and the string nocks are poor. They unstring quite easily in warm weather.

I would suggest a Grozer TRH Turkish design at around 35# - 40#.

I have used some of these simple modern Korean bows (similar to the ones in the Quick's catalogue) over the last twenty years or so. Two things were always a problem: draw weight and draw length. Neither were predictable from the information on the bow.

Due to the design, the bows usually draw smoothly until the string is at ninety degrees to the tip. After that point the stacking increases dramatically and the bows become unstable as Stephen described. If your draw length is reached before that angle, you should be safe.

My recommendation is that you test draw the bow before purchase and have it tested for draw weight at your draw length. If the shop has a mirror, check the angles at the tips of the bow yourself. Otherwise, ask someone else to tell you. If the bow stacks at your drawlength, don't buy it. When you are shooting, you don't want anything distracting you and an uncomfortable bow is not much fun to practise with.

I own and use both Hwarang and Gr?zer bows and enjoy ther unique features, but I still shoot with some of my modern Korean bows too.

Could I trouble Bede and Stephen to expand a little on what they mean by 'unstable' in the context of these modern versions of Korean bows? Do they somehow manage to shed their string, and if so, how might this happen? Sounds pretty alarming.

Although I realize that they have almost nothing in common, structurally, with the beautiful kinds of bows that many of you make and shoot, I have been tempted for years to buy one of these inexpensive bows by Samick or Samwha--largely as a re-entry to thumb-release shooting. I shot a variety of thumb releases for several years back in the 70s, but (believe it or not) using the solid fiberglass recurves that were common back then. (I made the rings in shop class when my friends were busy making ash trays.)

Back to the SKB--perhaps I should really just keep saving and buy a bow from Grozer. Is it difficult and/or prohibitively expense to ship one of his bows to North America?

Thanks for any comments.

Ian

Ian,

Just to clarify, the instability refers to bows such as Samick, not the Korean bows I carry, which are very stable.


Thomas

What I meant by instability were the two consequences of drawing a bow past the 90 degree string angle.

One is the the rapid stacking means that slight variations in draw length dramatically affect arrow flight and the second is that the string loops might pull off the limbs if the bow nocks allow it.

I am assuming the bow doesn't break. That happened to me a few weeks ago and I did not like the experience. There is a lot of force in an 80 pound bow at full draw. There I was not looking at instability, but structural failure.

I bought one of the Samick SKB bows a while back. It of course came at 10lb too light, so I cut it down by a couple of inches and re-made the nocks. I still use it sometimes at my 28" draw. The bow was not the best quality, as expected. One of the nockc had the string groove off-center and required a bit of filing to fit, the laminations inside did not seem to have an even taper and there were a few sanding marks visible.

However, for a cheap bow it is worth buying. I understand Samick stands behind their products, so a bad bow can be returned. If your draw is no more than 29-30", the stacking will not be felt too much and the bow should be OK. On the other hand, the Samwha would be a bit risky to buy in my opinion.

Adam

Greetings. Just getting into asian archery and had pretty much settled on this bow as my starter bow, mostly due to the low cost.

I'm assuming this is the bow you guys are talking about:

http://www.3riversarchery.com/Product.a ... =0&i=2210X

It seems the reviews are mixed...but overall, is this an ok bow to start off with?

TIA

Matt

That is the kind of bow I was taking about.

Thanks.

I'll be unable to test it as i'm buying it online. I'll check on 3 Rivers return policy though.

Finally recieved the SKB yesterday.

It was out of stock in the 40# for the longest time.

It's a nice looking little bow. Nothing fancy for sure.

I only got the 40# because I just had shoulder surgery in Nov and also figured it would be fine to learn thumb release on and then be able to pass on to someone else.

I didn't get any wooden arrows from 3Rivers. I picked up some carbon/aluminum arrows but they seem heavy for the bow.

Should I only shoot wooden arrows with this bow?

TIA

I use wooden arrows when I am pulling them out of the target and modern materials when someone else is. I don't have many problems with aluminium or carbon shafts.

Proper nock fit to the string is very important though. I have had more difficulties with tight nocks causing unstable arrow flight than stiffness of the arrows doing the same.

Thanks, Bede. I had just come to the conclusion about the nocks today.

I'm assuming a bit of sandpaper will do the trick there.

Having fun but need to find a good place to shoot. I've got a good earthen bank for a backstop at the house but only about 55 or so feet w/ a drastic change in elevation.