Looks amazing! How does it shoot?

Nice, what are the weights?

I remember seeing those advertisements in tbm. My wrist hurts looking at that grip, but nice looking bow!

I love short bows. Never had the chance to shoot one like yours though. I would need substantially less draw weight today. Amazing looking bow. I hope you get it to shoot good for you.

I would love to shoot that bow, they are quite rare.

Shot one once.Had fun doing it.

for me it would be nice for really thick cover,knarly trees,from your butt seated, or in low positions and close range shots.

nice score,very rare bow

Neet looking rig. I am intrigued by short bows but haven't found one I could shoot well. I haven't tried that one a little suckling or shrew. Is that one the same as a little suckling?>>>----> Ken

Yes Ken same bow plus John has a model of his own with rear mounted limbs.

Brace looks about right, maybe a tad high.

Pretty hard to shoot these bows without a straight wrist!

Cool find Chris. Those risers must be incredibly strong

I couldn’t shoot that grip, it would drive me nuts. But the bow is neat.

maybe with an open grip and finger sling. what's riser made of? pretty cool!

I met a old guy from Winter Wisconsin. He ran a resort and made knifes. He also made lots of wild phenolic blocks. He told me that he made the phenolic for the risers. JF

I thought it looked like phenolic. yeh I want one.

Great find, arrow a Turkey with that one.

There is only one way to grip that bow, don't try to fight it over think it or you will create all kinds of heartache for yourself.

They are unique little bows.

didn't kiko tovar live in iowa? maybe friends with toad smith?

hey Chris Scott, how did my LIBBY dog get in your target picture? 'splain.

Always loved the look of that super compact recurve. Enjoy shooting it!

Always wanted to shoot one of those. Thanks for sharing and good for you great little rig....

Iowacedarshooter, Yes, Kiko was from Iowa, I met him in Michigan at a Longbow Invitational. He said he taught people to shoot at 100 yds that way a 20 yd shot was a piece of cake. We talked about stalking cornfields as this is what his bows were really good for.

Kiko was from Waterloo, Iowa and was friends with Otis “Toad” Smith who was from Sibley, Iowa. Denny Behn of Bighorn fame was a protege. All of these guys along with LaVerne Woock and many other early(60’s) Iowa bow hunters used the Bear Kodiak Super Mag in their bowhunting endeavors. Short bow, long draws, long shots netted these guys lots of big game throughout Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas and other points in the West.

Kiko lived in my home town, Waterloo, Ia., he had a good collection of bows. He was a friend of Denny Bein co-bowyer of the Big Horn recurve, Kiko had the prototype-types of the Big Horns, Bein was in the short recurve where Fred was in the longer ones.

Shot his KT-44 and caught heck from Kiko for shooting 3 under at his place, that was abomination at that time. His other friend Steve Gore was an avid 3 under but I really don't think Kiko wanted to tangle with Steve, lol. Kiko liked a heavy # bow.

Maybe Kelly can step in and give his input on this.

Cool bow.

Enjoy.

Another short bow Iowa guy was Bob Roach. He along with all of the other above mentioned were the forerunners to the early PBS many serving as Pres, VP, SEC/Treas and Board Members.

This is Kiko demonstrating his favorite position while hunting. Incidentally he always stalked his game although he was known to dig a hole in the ground and sit on the edge from time to time.

Yes he liked heavy bows usually 70# and up. He was a short, stocky guy who drew back these bows to 30". FYI that is a 31" BOP arrow in the above picture. I know for sure because I made them for Kiko.

He probably loved bowhunting Antelope and mule deer more than any other animal.

Kiko worked for the railroad and tells the story of how he and his friends got to bowhunt out of state so much by mentioning at that time being a railroad employee one got to ride wherever, whenever for free. Well these guys took that literally and would chain their vehicles to a flatbed railroad car, hop onboard and "ride the rail" to their favorite destination to hunt. Usually that was the Dakotas and Nebraska, hunt for a few days and "catch" a homebound freight train back to Iowa.

In the later years Kiko had one of those little Toyota pickups with a camper on back, sort of a mini motorhome(those of you at that MI longbow shoot may have seen it) he would load this on a freight car and ride to his bowhunting destinations in style with his home away from home along. The above antelope was harvested that way in his retirement years.

Here is another of Kiko's personal hunting bows as all of the bows he built were inscribed that way. It was his reasoning for getting around the excise tax as he "hunted" with every bow before leaving his shop, therefore it was a used bow!

Back in the early 80s I was attending the Iowa Bowhunters Association. fall festival ( which is in Aug.). Someone said there is a guy at the shelter house shooting a home made short take down with straight longbow type limbs on it. They said they were cronographing it and it was fast. I made my way to the shelter house. It was Kiko with that little bow. I'd never seen anything like it. Very unique. At the time I never really knew who he was, but I soon found out. He was also one of the founders of the IBA.

thanks guys for clearing this old guys memories up a little! lol they were very familiar as i had been a iowa bowhunter member for many years. now i'm gonna have to get out my old iowa bow hunter annuals!

I’d like to shoot one of those bows. But it seems like I have about 2” too long of a draw on a Kodiak Magnum, so I couldn’t imagine that one. It does look cool though.

Interesting he uses a split finger draw with that tiny sight window. It doesn't look like he canted the bow much keeping it within his left knee in the kneeling picture.

He does can’t it slightly maybe 1:30 position. Haven’t had one in my possession in a couple decades but there is plenty of sight window. It never seemed to be an issue if you have a natural can’t.

That is cant, dang autocorrect!

Justin, it's only one finger difference between split and 3 under. I shoot split as well and it doesn't matter what the bow length or how tall the sight window is. It works. :) It helps when you don't have an orangutan draw length for sure though. I never found a good reason to go to 3 under.

All interesting stuff. The thing I have always wondered , what is his ancestry? Kiko Tovar is not a common name. Does anyone know what his roots are????? Guys dont take it the wrong way just curious. Where Im from we are all Germans from Russia....Again just curious.... Thanks

I don’t know for positive because we never discussed it but I would guess Hispanic of some sort.

I just realized his last name was never mentioned, Kiko Tovar.

His first name was Francis, I believe. I remember many of his articles from back in the day, one about taking a turkey with a 48" Bear Super Magnum that was 75#. The shot was a long one as well. :)

Duh, his last name is in title of thread. Correct Francis was his first name but never heard him called that. In fact, I didn’t know that until he passed.

One thing I’ll always remember was he had tattoos on every knuckle of both hands.

Todays Little Suckling Recurves

Little Suckling Recurves

Great stories Kelly. Thanks for the input on Kiko. always interesting to hear about the past.

That is cool.

Chris that is a really nice bow! I have never seen one like that in person just pictures.

Eastern European from the name. Maybe Hungarian?

I looked on google and they indicate the name Tovar has roots in Spain. one opinion.

I've seen them advertised and never felt the slightest inclination to buy one of them. The closest I'll ever get is my Bear Kodiak Magnum.

Does anyone have any more information about the new bowyer that took over the kt- 44 design, little suckling bows. I wonder if they both worked on the design together.

That was a long time ago.

I have a small screaming eagle stand that is signed by Mr.Tovar, I am guessing it once belonged to him. It's in the shed at my camp in Pa. I will post a picture next week.

One just sold on eBay. Believe it went for 490.

Back in the early 80s I seen him at the Iowa Bowhunters Assc. fall festival (a 3d shoot) they have every August. Kiko was one of the founding members. Overheard some guys talking about a guy bringing a very short t/d bow with straight limbs like a longbow. They were shooting it through a crono and were suprised at how fast it was. It was Kiko with a bow he had made. His design would not be so uncommon now. There's a lot of short longbows these days. He was a liitle ahead of his time I guess.

if you toss them up and away, do they return? WOW they are good looking little things. I'd like to hold one, look it over, and shoot one.

Another on ebay right now type in "Little Suckling Recurve KT-44"

very cool looking bows and very interesting people shooting them.

Looks to me like they handle a long draw ok. 31 inch draw is a long draw to me

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