I see Wilson brothers Widows for sale on the various internet sites. Many appear to be in excellent condition and are light in draw weight(I know this is relative). They look like a bow that would be fun to shoot.

Many of these seem to be longer than what is available today.

What lengths were recommended for various draw weights back in the Wilson brothers days?

For example, what draw length would a 68" bow(x-200) be best for?

Thank you as I have no experience with these.

Doug -

Most target bows back in the day, they came in the same lengths as today's ILF target offerings, mostly in the 66" to 70" length. For draw lengths between 26/27" for the 66" bows were recommended and the 70" models for the longer draw lengths over 30", BW were no exception.

A 68" should work well up to the 29" range (+/-), but with all wooden bows, the model to model variance could be significant.

A lot of the wooden BW target bows, while stable due to the physical weight, were on the slow side and usually (but not always) pretty loud. The metal risered target Widows (1200 series) were also dog slow, but painfully easy to shoot, some people claimed they almost shot themselves - but yes, they did weight a ton!

Viper out.

Thank you for that information. It is good to know.

HEAVY mass weight.

Heavy mass was a good thing for target shooing. Even bow without inherent mass were normally weighted with stabilizers to add mass. That includes those Black Widows. They were a dream to shoot, but after the mid 1960's, the Hoyt Pro Medalist became the flagship of the target bow industry. That was prior to the advent of the metal riser Hoyt. There was a plethora of great target bows back then.

Wilson Brothers Black Widow bows were great bows. I shot a target model from 1965-67. It was 68" 36#@ 28" Definitely not a slow bow, the limbs were slimmer than most other production bows of the times. I shot that bow in PAA and NFAA tournaments and shot some of my highest scores with it. In 1966 I placed near the top at the International Indoor Open and Bear Archery gave me one of their new HC 300 target bows with the solid phnolic riser. It was a dog compared to my Widow. Somehow that bow got away from me but I picked one up a few years ago, just like the one I use to have and I'm hanging onto this one.

George, I also have a Hoyt Pro Medalist, a real good shooting bow but I shot my Wilson Brothers Widow better. Did I ever tell you the story about the time I beat Dickie Roberts with my BW when he was the reining NFAA National Champion?...8>)

The pic is me in 1966...ya I know I was skinnier back then.

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