Picked up this cool little 44" magnum recurve made by Kiko Tovar. 50# at 28", very cool bow and shoots well! Any info or links to info about Kiko and his bows??

Well made, it looks like a nasty little finger pinscher?

Should be some discussion about Kiko's bows in the history here. Know he was from Iowa and I think he was friends with Otis(Toad) Smith. Think they are good bows if you like the shorties.

PURDY BOW. Kinda radical. Did He make anything longer??

Don't think so BATMAN. All I remember is his short bows and I think he might have built a 42". I've never shot one

Nice find

Man, talk about high wrist...

John Tlucz of Lil Suckling recurves makes them . He has all the forms, etc. but he can be hard to get a hold of .

I think Kiko made them as long as 48" and I know there were some 38"'s around at one time. You don't see a lot of them.

John makes the KT 44 and JT 44. The KT has limbs mounted like on the front of the riser and JT has limbs mounted on the back of the riser like the Black Widows. He also makes a 38 special but I'm not sure of max draw on that due to so short. I have a KT. Great little bow. Stable for such a short bow.

Francis 'Kiko" Tovar loved short bows, and wrote about them in Bow and Arrow Magazine back in the 70's. He was a relatively short guy but built like a wrestler. I remember one of his articles (prior to him making his own bows) about hunting turkeys with a 48" Bear Super Mag. I love the looks of his bows but never had the opportunity to shoot one of them.

A friend had a KT44 which he had gotten from Steve Gorr. I had a chance to shoot this 50#'er and liked it. It seemed to hit it's maximum around 28" or a bit less, but was comfortable for me to shoot. BTW, I don't recall it being a speed machine, but was quite a dandy little package.

This 44" shoots well. I usually draw 29", this bow maxes to 28" but shoots well and no finger pinch with the limb design and how the tips completely unfold at full draw.

I ran Into the guy that made his phenolic for him. The guy a know makes knives and phenolic and still has two of Kiko's bows. JF

I shot with Kiki and Toad, and camped next to them at a MI Lonnie shoot at Marshall, MI back in the 80s. Good guys, good time. His personal bows were heavyover 70#, but we all shot over 70# back then. He was so proud of those short bows and boasted how you could over or under draw them, depending on what range you were shooting, whether you wanted to "flick" AN arrow over somethingetc. He could do it too, but I don't remember him being a great shot....maybe he was having a bad week. I shot his bow... surely did it poorly and began my dislike for short bows. I shot only what is now called ASL bows at the time, so likely wasn't a good judge!

Well, I just wrote a few paragraphs about meeting Kiko some thirty years ago at the Great Lakes tournament, but touched the screen somehow and erased it. I actually bought one of his bows while visiting his home in Waterloo, Iowa and shot it for awhile. It was very fast and perfect for Kiko's style of hunting, which was to locate a game trail, dig a knee deep hole and sit on the edge of the hole all day, quiet and still until he got a shot. The short limbs let him shoot without standing up.

Kiko had a great collection of bow hunting memorabilia from very notable hunters and many stories to go with them.

We meet a lot of interesting people in this great sport and to me, Kiko was one of the most interesting.

darned word recognition...met Kiko at a Mich. longbow shoot

I agree with you, Robert. He is one of a long list of interesting folks I've been privileged to meet in several decades of shooting a bow! Hope the are many more!

It's one of those bows made for shooting while sitting on your butt.

That guy looks familiar. That is a 30 1/4" arrow to back of point.

Tom, did Kiko have his old RV with him? I think it was '86 when I was there in Michigan. Kiko told me that he drove his RV state to state following the archery seasons for 3 or 4 months a year, money permitting. He sure loved hunting with his short bows but I'm a longbow guy at heart.

Pure Awesomeness.

Fdp is correct, Kiko, made 38" through to 48" recurves, I have two KT44's and a KT 38......and yeah, call me stupid, I also had Kiko's first 48" recurve (said so on the riser)........still giving myself a slap-fest for selling it.........and George, I think after you get used to the high grip, you would like shooting a KT44, hope you get around doing it one day.........

The Greek, I'm sure I would. I pretty much fell in love with the short bows for hunting back in the 60's. They were pretty handy back then....before commercial tree stands since you could just shinny up a tree and shoot from about any odd position.

I met Kiko back in the 1980's up at the Waltonian Archers, in Toddville, IA. Very nice man and you would never know you were talking to a bowhunting legend. He won the "Bowhunter of the Decade" back in the 1970's.

A friend of mine Paul Gorton knew him and showed me one of Kiko's prototype recurves. Phenolic riser with blonde action wood limbs. Paul was working on a short, very forward handle metal riser flat bow. Paul, being a machinist, didn't glue his T/D limbs on a form, he used a special fixture and used the oven in his kitchen to cook em, instead of a hotbox.

just picked up this beauty myself. black and brown, Kiko Tovar 44 Magnum 66#@28". didn't realize how much past center the shelf is cut until I looked at it like this.

There's distinct presence of pre-load on this bow when drawing that I didn't feel from Little suckling 38sp.

I wish I can compare little suckling kt44 at similar weight. there may be a bow building philosophy difference or two, between Kiko and John.

-ted

A hometown gent, spent several afternoon at his place when back in town. He had a collections of bows, especially Big Horns proto-types when Denny Behn was with Abel, had a story behind about every bow and was a charter member of PBS and enjoyed bowhunting Kentucky. Knew a boatload info on bows and bowhunting information and he enjoyed his wife and family. His shop was basic and interesting how he came in developing the KT44, just do not tell him you shoot 3 under and everything was fun, ironic the Steve Gore that Kiko knew well was a 3 under shooter. A man that had his opinions and enjoyed life.

Kiko Tovar was my uncle, I never had the chance to go hunting with him but i sure did enjoy listening to him tell stories about his adventures. Every time i saw him he had a different story to tell and the best part about them is i knew they were not just stories. My dad had a newspaper article on him, it pictured Kiko standing with his "Special Friends Bow" and how he held the title "Greatest bow hunter in the world" 3 years in a row. Wish i knew what happened to it. I was at the hospital with my uncle Kiko and Aunt Betty the night he passed from a heart attack, I sure do miss them both.

Kiko Tovar was my uncle, I never had the chance to go hunting with him but i sure did enjoy listening to him tell stories about his adventures. Every time i saw him he had a different story to tell and the best part about them is i knew they were not just stories. My dad had a newspaper article on him, it pictured Kiko standing with his "Special Friends Bow" and how he held the title "Greatest bow hunter in the world" 3 years in a row. Wish i knew what happened to it. I was at the hospital with my uncle Kiko and Aunt Betty the night he passed from a heart attack, I sure do miss them both.

That is a beautiful well made bow. Man I wish I could shoot a short bow. What is your draw length? I draw right at 30" & have never found one that worked for me. I still haven't had the chance to try one of these, A Little Suckling or a Shrew. Maybe some day but I don't need anymore wall hangers. Thanks for the history on Kilo Tovar. >>>---> Ken

Kiko was a long time member of PBS and if I remember my history correctly I think he was one of the founding fathers, I will have to do some checking.

Bob

I think Kiko was in the ABC Hall of Fame

I have a screaming eaglet tree stand that was one of Kiko's. It still has his name on it.

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