As promised, I am doing a review of the Samick SKB 50. This is a Korean made recurve with definite asian influence, and although it does not have the traditional Seeyah tips, it is shaped and shoots much like a regular hungarian or mongolian bow, and is shot off the hand with either thumb ring or regular split finger style release. The bow is laminated fiberglass, matt black with some color around the riser area. The decal is nicely done. When I pulled it out of the box, I was surprised how small the bow was. More like a toy bow! The riser (without the rubber grip) is less than a quarters width, and the bow only weighs 13 ounces! The limbs are wide, but thin. The tips look hefty enough. I though the grip would be a problem, like holding a sapling, but with the rubber grip they provide, it is very comfortable. I mounted the rubber grip with vet tape (a self adhesive wrap for horses). That way, I could definitely call it a HORSE BOW!

There is a rubber grip included in the box. I guess I could glue it on with barge, and will make a nice moulded leather grip cover for it n the future. Lancaster included a "free" string with it. I am surprised that the bow did not have a string in the sealed box. I asked the salesperson at Lancaster to weight the bow before they sent it to be sure that it was 45# @ 28, because others had said that some of these and the grozer bows were actually weighed for 30 inch thumb ring type draw. The sales rep told me that he would instead check with their bow tech, and the bow tech insisted they were weighed for 28#. So I was a little suprised that the bow did come in quite under weight. It's pulling around 37 pounds I would guess. If I was really picky and had bought this for hunting, I would be packing it back up tonight and sending back to Lancaster archery. But as I am using it for fun and #-d, I decided a light bow would be just as fun for those days that I want to fling 300 arrows, and after shooting the bow and seeing that it was smooth drawing and had a fairly good cast, decided to keep this bow, even though it is lighter than I ordered, and probably will order a 60# in the future for hunting.

Thanks for posting. I've not seen one of these unstrung yet. Very nice looking bow! How's she shoot by the way? -28

If you decide to order, order about 5 to 10 pounds over your selected weight. I should have listened to everyone elses advice. But I am happy with this fun weight as well.

Bow bow measures 50 inches nock to nock along the limbs unstrung and in order to get a 6.75 inch brace height (to the back of the actual riser, not the rubber grip) i twisted the string and the bow is 45 inches nock to nock strung. The bow has a very smooth draw, with enough heft in the beginning (great, because another horse bow I had had a weak beginning and stacked, giving a very poor cast) and is smooth through the whole draw. I normally darw around 27 inches on my 50 pound bows, but was easily able to anchor past my cheek at 28 inches. As it is ambi with no shelf, one has to wear a shooting glove to avoid the fletching cutting your hand. The rubber grip does provide a slight shelf along with one's knuckle. I will make a nice leather knuckle glove for this bow. I do plan to do some thumbring shooting with it a well, and the lighter weight will help me break into that. So having it with no shelf enables both standard med type shooting AND thumb ring shooting.

The riser center is less than the width of a quarter, and is not center cut, so the arrows have to be properly matched so that they can paradox around the bow. Suggestions were 10 pounds under spine. For the time being, I found that my 35# shafts left full length with 125 gr. tip worked perfect and shot perfectly centered to point of aim. But you can definitely see the arrow bend on the releae, but it immediately straightens out and enters straight. These arrows weigh in at 470 gr. so I figure I am shooting about 12 gr. per pound of draw.

Wow... even after you asked them it still turned out light. I'd be pissed personally... Glad your ok with it though. -28

Yeah, I'm OK with it, because I probably will get a heavier bow for hunting, and try to match both bows so that they have same cast and use this one for fun practice.

Lancaster has a deal where if this is the first order, they give you free shipping and 10% off the purchase price (and a free string which you need, because the bow doesn't come with one). The bow lists for 169.00 but with discount to my door ran 152.99 They are plentiful in UK and europe and aus, but Lancaster was the only supplier I found in US. There may be more, but I didn't find any with the limited searching i did. I got the bow in four days, shipped priority.

Here is my setup with my home made "Monglian" quiver. I made this for my Saluki bow. These arrows were for another bow, and the longer ones that work with this bow, you'll see in another photo.

Having had another hungarian horsebow, which had really poor cast and didn't shoot worth beans, I was surprised at how nice this bow shot. Even with the light weight (13 ounces) the bow had zero hand shock. Very soft shooting. The bow had excellent cast for the pull weight and arrow weight ratio.

It was fairly flat shooting out to 23 yards. The POA witn the 31 inch arrows was around 40 yards. I probably could shorten these a little, but they are shooting nice enough that I will leave them until I pick up some more shafts.

Heres a group that I shot at 18 yards. The bow is very forgiving. I have been working on my release and it is slowly improving, having watch Rod Jenkins in Masters of the barebow and Larry Yien. It was shot off the hand, and no nocking point.

I normally shoot very short bows. My favorite is my Ben Pearson 48 inch Equalizer, and have had Bear Super mags, so the length of thiis bow fits me like a glove. For some weird reason, I shoot short bows as good as I shoot longer recurves. And better than I shoot long bows.

I forgot to add, the bow does not stack at all. At least as far as I could pull it with my short armss to 28 inches. No finger pinch that I could feel, but maybe I am used to it, so don't notice it.

Now looking at the photo of the bow at full draw, the recurve tips do unbend more that i saw in other videos of the bow. I really like the bow and give it high marks for an affordable bow that I can use for fun, 3-D shoots and practicing thumb ring shooting in the future. Short enough for off equine or under branches, yet accurate, stable and forgiving. It's well made, clean looking and has nice lines (I was drawn to the looks of this bow seeing it in some youtube videos.)

Oh, one more thing. For all I know, the bow might be upside down. It is perfectly symetrical and I could not determine if the decal goe to the top or bottom. I mounted the grip in the middle and the decal to the bottom. It's working OK for now!LOL

Hope this reveiew helps someone decide about the bow. Since I, myself could not find that much info or reviews about this bow, I decided to write one myself.

Thanks for posting. I'd at least call them and tell them they made a mistake so they can correct the problem. You'd be doing a good deed for everyone else.

Thanks Rob, I will do that, so that they are more informed. I do not have a bow scale, but have enough bows to be able to feel the differences.

Hey HighValley, nice report, great photos and good shooting. The bow looks great and sounds like you'll have lots of fun with it. That last photo looks downright medieval!

Great looking bow. Thanks for the shots and review.

I had one for a while, it was a fun little shooter. Like you, I discovered that it was weighed at 30" instead of 28". I'd sure let Lancaster know about the discrepancy. They seem to be fairly casual about their technical specs. I recently ordered a bow from them that was advertised as a 60" bow, but when I got it it was 58" with, guess what, a string for a 60"er.

They are very good about customer service, though.

Great pictures and thankyou for taking the time to take them. Your effort will be so helpful to anyone considering a SKB 50. "Money spent well is money well spent"

Thanks for the photos and report. Well done.

I was thinking of adding static tips (siyahs) on mine :)

How would you add siyahs?

I'd enjoy seeing a comparison between this bow and a grozer. The one thing that kept me from purchasing a hungarian made bow like the Grozers was the leather wrap. I saw the sparrow hawk recurve that one could order with siyah tips, bot it was quite pricey.

First, thank you for writing a review I've been looking all over on a review for this and you've even posted recently!!! Just curious in your opinion, I stand 5'5 with a draw of 26" this bow being 50" is 10 less then recommended for means of just practice would you recommend this bow? Thanks in advance!!!

Yes, this bow would be fine.

No problem with your draw length. you are referring to people telling you that you should be practicing with a 60 inch bow, rather than a 50 inch bow?

I am 5" 7 and I sometime shoot up to a 66 inch bow, but personally, I find them too long for my taste. As I stated earler, I can shoot a 48 inch bow as good as any longer bow. Many people will tell you that short bows demand better form, and better release. I did not find any problem with that in this bow. It's putting the arrows exactly where I want them, as long as I have good form. And for practice, you can't ask for more than that. I am going to use this bow for everyday practice, even though I have a wide range of other finer bows available. And probably take it to my next 3-D event. If it was a heavier weight, I would not hesitate to use it for hunting.

If you do some searching on youtube, you will find that there are more archers in eastern europe using these short bows for practice and everyday shooting then here. Look up grozer, horsebow, thumbring shooting, and those videos will encourage you to thiink of these short bows as common as the western shooters think of.... Can I say black widow?

I just re-read HighValleyRanch's review. It appears to me that this is a very affordable bow for anyone wanting to try a short recurve.

Hello to All; I just got off the phone with Randall and he's very pleased with his new bow. I thanked him for his detailed review of the bow and apologized to him for our lapse in not weighing his bow to give him an actual weight at 28". It is our practice and policy to do anything a customer asks of us including weighing a bow, arrows, components, etc. We've reviewed and reinforced this with our staff here, so please feel free to ask anything special of us. We strive to provide absolutely accurate information, but sometimes make an error, know that we will ALWAYS make it right to your satisfaction if given the opportunity.

Upon seeing his comments, we weighed two of the Samick SKB Korean 50" bows with a digital scale. Actual results are as follows: Marked 45#- 42#@28", 44.9#@29", 48.3#@30" Marked 40#- 36.8#@28", 40.1#@29", 43.9#@30" This leads us to conclude that the marked weight is ~3# over actual weight @28" or that they were marked @29". We will clarify and/or remedy this with Samick and post results. I've entered notes for our staff on the weight markings of this bow so that everyone is informed.

Thanks so much for choosing a Samick from TradTech Archery and Lancaster Archery Supply. Yours in Archery, Rob

HVR, Thanx for the nice review. Oberon

Wow, I like that Rob called HighValleyRanch and posted measured bow weights!

Wow, I like that Rob called HighValleyRanch and posted measured bow weights!

Thanks for the update Rob.

Cool looking bow. I would definately like to try one out and this would be a great affordable way to give a horsebow a try. Thanks for the review.

Mark

I unpacked my new SKB 50 today. Sharp looking with attractive rosewood in front and back of the handle. Perfectly balanced in the hand. Nothing wasted, nothing added.

I unpacked my new SKB 50 today. Sharp looking with attractive rosewood in front and back of the handle. Perfectly balanced in the hand. Nothing wasted, nothing added.

I disliked my SKB.Too light,too flimsy,couldn't hit the inside of a barn with it.I liked Elk Ridge,Yumi, HungARIAN AND gROZER BOWS BETTER.Each to their own taste but i thought it was a waste of money.My handle was junk. I did the only thing possible for me-I SOLD IT.

Thanks for a great review and lots of useful responses!

Cool!

High Valley, I found this review while deciding with what to replace my former Grozer Hungarian and SKB-50. I ended up getting a MInd-50, the carbon version for a very good price. I love that quiver, do you sell them or the Pattern?

Marilith, where did you buy your Mind-50?

Yes, I found mine on eBay. The seller had imported it specially but found it too light (same as High Valley Ranch did because of differing standards for draw length. I could ask him where he got his if you like!

I ordered a Mind-50 from an archery shop in the Netherlands. Should be here in about a week. I'll let you know how it shoots.

SoCalArcher I adore mine, the cast is fast for the draw weight (40# at 30"), it has no handshock and its dead quiet to shoot with 1816 X7's. What draw weight did you get?

I ordered it in 50#; it is such a good price, I should have ordered two.

I currently shoot my longbow and recurve with two finger under; I'm sure this will work fine with the Mind-50. I'm also thinking about trying a thumb ring.

Received my Samick Mind-50 today. This "Super Carbon" traditional Korean bow is awesome! The looks and performance of this little bow goes beyond my expectations. I'm going to order two more; a 30# and a 40#. This one is 50# and is a perfect ground blind or tree stand bow.

My 50# SKB was bought in Germany from a Samick dealership in Duesseldorf,where there are lots of Asians. There was no indication as to wheight and draw lenth and that it was suposed to be shot with a ring; it was very cheap. Now after 35years i still love it. I have wraped the grip with thin leather and shoot it of my hand. It's great!

SoCalArcher, good for you! Where'd you order yours from again? Mongo these bows are addictive, aren't they?

Randall--That photo of you at full draw is awesome. If you added a horse, you would look like a fearsome Mongol archer..........and I mean that as a sincere compliment. I'm not into that type of bow personally, but enjoy investigating all facets of traditional archery. Thanks for posting.

TL

Marilith - I ordered the Mind-50 from an archery shop in the Netherlands (Van Buggenum Sports).; everything is listed in Euros.

Short bows are not for everyone, but it doesn't mean short bows are bad or junk. Usually the problem is from someone with very long draws, or one who has never used the shorter bows...they are a little different. I personally like them.

I agree with Sparta on that photo; that should be on their advertisements for that model 8^). And, you form looks great...solid anchor, great concentration. Thanks for the intelligent write up, and thanks to Rob for clarifying their position on the bows. Lancaster Archery has always been top notch in my dealings with them.

Thanks SoCalArcher...Some seeing my Mind-50 wanted to know where to get one...I have bookmarked their site and am emailing it out

George, Sparta, agreed on the photo. I do photography as well and really like the concept, compostion and color of these images. The warm tones would very much suit an advertisement. Samick should take notice! My longbows are lanquishing right now, glaring jealously from the rack at the little Samick and Hwarang, LOL

gonna bring this back. i was deciding between a skb and a kaya. the kaya has the looks, but ive already got a looker. your thorough review helped me to decided. thank you very much. my skb came in today, 55#. even though it was already night when i got home, i turned on my back porch light and had at it a few times. thing shoots very flat indeed. very light and quiet. i think ive fallen in love. my fiberglass mongol bow is gonna have to take a long vacation i think! lol

mine are 60# really happy with it. I'm using cylindrical thumb ring that I made myself out of 3/4 PVC pipe & fitting, as in the link below

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php? t=2333192&p=1071208450

If you have the current SKB they are a piece of s:#t. I have had 2 of them. I first bought one 30 years ago and that one was fantastic. That bow as broken when I droped it from my horse turning around .Steel horse shoes and bows don't mix. Conequently a replacement was required. On recieving the replacement there were lots of differances between the old and the new SKB 's. The limb profiles were different and more importantly the laminations were poorly designed. The old one had bo tuff then bamboo ,maple ,bamboo and Bo tuff. The new one is bo tuff and a short piece of bo tuff,maple,maple,and bo tuff. This makes the limbs slower and unstable. The old one has narrower limbs and a less agressive stable limb profile. The original bow was faster and more stable. The bamboo and better limb profile is what makes these 2 SKB ,s cheese and chalk. The good ones are the old ones. OSR

Email answer from Samick on Sept 8, 2014... "skb now made in china but materials all made in korea".

I don't own or know anything about the SKB but I thought it was an interesting bow to consider. From their email reply it appears as though the place of manufacture has changed.

These are my two SKB,s. The old one Korean made and the newer one. Note the differances. I am going to make a form block and reglue the old one. If the bow gods are with me it may be a shooter again. I taught myself mounted archery with that bow OSR

Jhoneil why would you try to put siyahs on a fully functional working recurve? If you were to try to reinforce the tips it would create stacking. There is a huge differance between working and non working recurves. Both types of bows work well but function in a different maner. Of all the short so called horse bows I prefere the Korean bows. OSR

Thanks for posting all the pics Richard. Although not as fast, does the new SKB still shoot okay?

Northener Yeah it does shoot ok but spine is more important than with other bows. The limbs on the new SKB ,s are wide and thin. This makes them slightly unstable and they can easily turn inside out.Mine has done it a couple of times.No damage but concerning all the same. With the correct spine arrows they shoot good. Lots of fun. OSR

Wow, old thread. 2009! I must be getting OLD!LOL

turn inside out?

Never had that happen! When strung? How could it do that?

I have two right now, 45 and 50 @ 28. They both shoot great and are stable except for being short and light, but that is a shooter problem, not a bow problem.

Highvalleyranch It ain't shooter error. None my other recurves do this.I very lightly I gave the limb a twist for it to turn inside out. Your SKB,s would do the same I recon. It is almost impossable with long bows as long bows are the most stable limb design there is. OSR

SKB,s are very well built a lesser bow would delaminate. Real good value for the money. OSR

Yeah, I've seen a few light recurves do that.

a couple of the kids bows got stuck on brush and the string slipped off the side and did that.

In fact, any recurve will do that if you twist the limb enough, but I doubt that could happen from shooting.

I build the odd bow from time to time. This is insuficient torsionl stability. Do you think Bear or Martin would design a bow like this.? Even my old SKB never did that. The new SKB has only done that 7 times in 15 years.Make that 8 as I did it once for the picture.I will be fixing my old SKB or build a good copy. I could be wrong but is Samick the old Wha gok company under new management. Wha gok had a good reputation in the 70's. OSR

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here