SNAKE SKIN SERIES LONG BOW (COPPERHEAD, 35-40)

I am usually a hyper critical perfectionist and as a result, most of my reviews tend to be negative towards a product that fails to live up to my expectations. Archery is outside the parameters of my professional or expert experience and as such I feel it is important to give a fair and balanced review. If you are looking for a short answer, an archery enthusiast would never buy this bow but it is acceptable for those that dabble. Archery Experience: In full disclosure, this is my first purchase of a bow but not my entrance into archery. For perspective, I shot my fathers resurvey bow almost daily every summer during my teenage years and a fiberglass bow monthly during the middle school years. By no stretch of the imagination do I consider myself an expert, but I've had my share of "Robin hood arrows." My intent on the purchase of this bow was to use it as a starting point to get back into archery and as a pattern for making my own longbows. Expectations: In an industry where the best handmade longbows go for around $900, I wasn't expecting this $160 longbow to rock my world. Mentally, I picture the world being a place where the average adult spends around $350 on a longbow. This purchase could best be described as a financial "science experiment." My intent was to purchase a good 'starter' bow. The Bow: If you take one thing away from this review, it should be this: the product looks EXACTLY like the photos. So, if you are expecting a bow with center serving installed on the bowstring, you will be disappointed. If you think you are buying a bow with a standard arrow shelf, then you will be disappointed. If you are expecting a black calf hair rest and plate installed on the riser, you will be greeted with disappointment. If you are expecting this bow to have an ergonomic handle with a hand-laced leather grip, you're only getting leather wrap. No effort has been made to work the wood in the handle area. I cannot speak for the manufacturer, but this bow appears to be an item that could be mass produced by simply using a table saw to rip 1"x2" stock off of 6' long piece of hardwood lumber that is commercially available through any hardware/lumber store. This bow is many things, but it is not a center-shot, which should be possible IF this bow was built from a stave. I believe this is a critical point of information that was missing and for the record; I made no attempt to contact the manufacturer to verify this info. Personally, I was looking for a bow that I could use as a pattern or template to build my own stave-based longbow. My novice understanding of bow making is that bows made from kiln dried lumber, such as this bow, are more brittle than a bow made from a stave. Therefore, if you are looking for a bow made from a stave, this bow won't do you justice and I'd recommend looking at a different product. Revisiting the bowstring, it actually has no serving on it anywhere and I was expecting serving on the ends of the bowstring at a minimum. Technical Info: I use the bow stringer, included with the purchase, religiously when stringing the bow and I always leave the bow unstrung between practice sessions. The longest the bow has been left strung is between 6-8 hours. I have strung the bow for as little as 20 minutes and measured the set of the bow at 0.5" and there is absolutely no difference between 20 minutes, 3 hours, or 8 hours. The string brace height is 5.75" Using my luggage scale; the draw weight at 28" averages 32.7#, which personally isn't a big deal for a bow labeled 35-40#. Using the same luggage scale, the bow weighs in at 0.85 lbs. SUMMARY: I wish I had paid closer attention to the photos provided by the manufacturer. I got everything I paid for and any disappointment in the bow lacking finesse lies directly in my lack of attention to detail. With that being said, this bow is a perfect purchase for someone that wants to do the following: learn to install serving on their bowstring, install an upgraded arrow shelf with adjacent fur patch, learn to tune their bow and install a center serving and string nock. This would make a great birthday or Christmas gift, but be prepared to help iron out the rough edges I have described above, otherwise the receiver will probably think you're a cheapskate. For the price I paid, it would have been nice to see the manufacturer spend the extra 10 minutes to add those extra little touches to this line of bows. If I knew then, what I know now and if the price had been at its current price {$109.00) when I purchased the original, I would have bought two of these bows (2 bows, each one in a different draw weight). I'm not in love with this bow, but I treasure it enough to treat it like I intend for it to last. For what its worth, if I had spent the about the same amount on this bow blank from 3Rivers Archery (http://search.3riversarchery.com/search?p=R&srid=S12-USCDR01&lbc=3riversarchery&w=bow%20blank&url=8560x&rk=12&uid=757403498&sid=15&ts=ajax&rsc=wcG6Kpr8XETy2fPB&method=and&view=grid&isort=score&nurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.3riversarchery.com%2fBamboo-Backed%2bHickory%2bHoward%2bHill%2bStyle%2bLongbow%2bBlank_i8560x_baseitem.html), I'd be holding a bow worth $300-500. I think the bow is just rough enough that it has the potential to enable the creation of bad habits in a beginning archer, but for a father/son project or someone looking for a baseline to start building from then its ideal. I don't know enough about archery to give this bow 4 or 5 stars. Someone approaching an expert level of archery would be looking at bows in a vastly higher income bracket.