Best place to buy used bow? (2024)

Finally making the jump after years of back and forth into trad archery. Where have y’all had luck finding used hunting bows? Or is it best to buy new? For reference I’m 6’4 245lbs with a 32 inch draw length and from my research finding a bow that doesn’t stack up a bunch or give me finger pinch might be a little difficult...

Rocky mountain specialty gear is a good place to start.

Tons for sale on Archerytalk

Stickbow.com leatherwall classifieds has the most in my opinion. Also Facebook Traditional Bowhunters Classified-Buy-Sell-Trade is good place to see what is listed and then you can put a post that you are looking for a particular bow. Archerytalk as mentioned by Rob5589.

Just look for a good one on here or on archery talk. You'll need a 64 inch bow, might be able to shoot a 66...look for a good takedown...like a bob lee, stalker, Wengerd ect.

Archerytalk classified.

I'm not personally a big metal riser fan, but that's a personal choice, I think in your case with that draw length, that would be a smart way to start, get a 19" ilf riser and some extra long limbs, with your draw length and power stroke you could get away with 40#at your draw length for deer and work your way up a little once you get your form down. I prefer buying from rmsgear, archery talk and leatherwall, with the latter two, you can research there peoples history to see if they've been around a while, with Facebook, it's more of a crap shoot.

I bought a 57 kodiak 64" 58# off ebay. I traded my 40# #3 bear takedown limbs for a set of #1 55# limbs on the leatherwall and bought a pair of big foot "bare" takedown limbs off the leather wall oh and I picked up a 65 grizzly off of kijiji. All in the last 2 weeks lol. Just look around there's lots out there. I found a bear mag takedown for 50 bucks once with limbs.

You might also call Raptor Archery, they usually have decent selection of used bows in the shop. Talk to Ted about what you want and if he doesn’t have it, he may able to point you in the right direction. RMSG is also a great place to find one.

Footed shaft, RMSGear, archerytalk, sometimes the classy’s here have a few, Stickbow, Leatherwall.....just do a search. If there’s a bowyer you are particularly interested in hit them up too. Sometimes they have leftovers or returns you can get a little cheaper than regular price.

Where are you located? I'd let anyone flick some of mine to see the differences.

I actually ended up buying a new bow — OK two — from bowyers (Stalker and Black Widow) since the custom recurves seem to hold their value pretty well. All the nice bows I saw when I was looking used were still like $800. A couple hundred more and I have exactly the bow I want and it fits me.

Various FB groups can be good!

I bought from Big Jim's and the service was excellent. The selection on used isn't huge but I would feel confident in buy anything from them. RMS Gear has the selection.

I'd recommend trying to find a traditional archery shoot and see if you could shoot some different bows. Often times these shoots will have vendors and most trad folks will gladly let you shoot their stuff. There are many choices and when I got into trad I went nuts and bought, sold and traded many different makes to find what worked for me.
Robertson, Widow, Brackenbury, Wes Wallace, Schafer, Plamer and Bob Lee all make good long draw bows but there are many more. The ILF bows with foam core limbs draw smooth way out.
I met and older gentleman who collected many trad bows and we'd get together and shoot each other's stuff often. It's a great group and most are eager to share their knowledge and experiences.
TradChef mentioned some of my favorite haunts for used bows. You might consider a bow with more mass in the riser for your longer draw. I'm 29.5 with trad gear and a lighter bow feels a bit less stable at my draw length.
Good luck >>---->

RMS and Archerytalk are good places

Check out Traditional Bowhunters of Georgia and see if they have any upcoming shoots you can make it to. I know they used to hold one somewhere in N Georgia. Any group of Traditional shooters would be happy to let you try their bows. As for used bows and bow length advice, these guys got ya covered.