I have been looking for a bow like this for a while and would like to share my thoughts about it.
I’m am a sucker for a longbow, starting archery off with a recurve in my hand. The first time I picked one up and felt how it light in the hand, yet seemed natural to aim at a target from hunting positions. I have been fortunate to own quite a few bows in my shooting career,. I have developed into two different styles that work best for me (ILF and 2 piece takedown longbows), and during some of my backpack hunts here in BC for sheep and mt goats, I have found features that I value in a bow for those ventures (rubber grips, easy takedown and pack ability, man made materials that I don’t care if they get dings on the rocks).
Having sold my last 2 piece takedown and only running an ILF longbow last fall, I was feeling the itch for a new bow. I had the idea of the perfect bow for my excursions, carbon limbs, g10 or phenolic riser, rubber grip, bamboo cores, reflex reflex design and two piece socket takedown system. A Centaur Triple Carbon couple have fit the bill, but I have a hard time with the grip takedown system. Wengerd could make me a tahr however it would take 2 years to arrive. I have owned a A&H CX ACS and the grip made consistent accuracy extremely difficult. My favourite bow to date was a Caribow Perigrine, except the beautiful woods wore a lot of scratches after several years with me in the mountains. Then in December I seen on a friends social media page a new bow company called Saratoga Bows out of Ontario.
Browsing through his page, nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at me. However when I did view some of his works on his social media, that’s when I noticed he was working with carbon and g10. Several messages back and forth and he agreed to make the bow I had in mind, in his Venari model.
I ordered the bow in early January and the bow arrived in early April. It is worth noting that the price for this bow came in well under most customs, about the same money a Hoyt satori would cost me here in Canada.
Upon arrival it is Perhaps the best packing job I have ever seen for a shipped bow. It arrived in a wood side, foam case. With the bow wrapped in a bow sock, a brick of wax, and two impressively high quality D97 strings, wool silencers and brass nocks.
The bow specs are as follows:
Venari 62” AMO 53@28”.
Carbon back and belly, with bamboo limb cores.
Black Phenolic riser with bocote overlays.
2 piece socket takedown with a rubber grip.
After my initial setup and fitting the bow with a Thunderhorn quiver. It was time to try it out in my backyard range. The grip fit my hand nice with being medium/ low grip, easily being able to repeat shot after shot. The feel of the bamboo cores and double carbon are a little different then what I’m used to, feeling a little “tighter” then your typical fiberglass/ bamboo limb of this design. But no stack on this model out to my 30” draw length.
The bow easily tuned with my current hunting arrows, 30.25” Easton aftermath 340 with 75gr brass insert and a 200gr tip. Sending the 590gr arrows down range with respectable speed. While this bow is not as fast (anecdotally) as my Caribow peregrine or A&H of the same weight, it is on par with my ILF rig with dryad epic longbow limbs. As a matter of fact both bows shoot the same arrows into the same sight picture for me. Here is one arrow from each bow at 18
I’m excited to try this thing out in the woods this week mind you if I find a black bear or Turkey to accomodate me.
My intention with this post is to highlight another great bowyer available to the traditional archery community. There are many talented people turning out great products and I am pleased to carry a bow created by such a craftsman.
I’m am a sucker for a longbow, starting archery off with a recurve in my hand. The first time I picked one up and felt how it light in the hand, yet seemed natural to aim at a target from hunting positions. I have been fortunate to own quite a few bows in my shooting career,. I have developed into two different styles that work best for me (ILF and 2 piece takedown longbows), and during some of my backpack hunts here in BC for sheep and mt goats, I have found features that I value in a bow for those ventures (rubber grips, easy takedown and pack ability, man made materials that I don’t care if they get dings on the rocks).
Having sold my last 2 piece takedown and only running an ILF longbow last fall, I was feeling the itch for a new bow. I had the idea of the perfect bow for my excursions, carbon limbs, g10 or phenolic riser, rubber grip, bamboo cores, reflex reflex design and two piece socket takedown system. A Centaur Triple Carbon couple have fit the bill, but I have a hard time with the grip takedown system. Wengerd could make me a tahr however it would take 2 years to arrive. I have owned a A&H CX ACS and the grip made consistent accuracy extremely difficult. My favourite bow to date was a Caribow Perigrine, except the beautiful woods wore a lot of scratches after several years with me in the mountains. Then in December I seen on a friends social media page a new bow company called Saratoga Bows out of Ontario.
Browsing through his page, nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at me. However when I did view some of his works on his social media, that’s when I noticed he was working with carbon and g10. Several messages back and forth and he agreed to make the bow I had in mind, in his Venari model.
I ordered the bow in early January and the bow arrived in early April. It is worth noting that the price for this bow came in well under most customs, about the same money a Hoyt satori would cost me here in Canada.
Upon arrival it is Perhaps the best packing job I have ever seen for a shipped bow. It arrived in a wood side, foam case. With the bow wrapped in a bow sock, a brick of wax, and two impressively high quality D97 strings, wool silencers and brass nocks.
The bow specs are as follows:
Venari 62” AMO 53@28”.
Carbon back and belly, with bamboo limb cores.
Black Phenolic riser with bocote overlays.
2 piece socket takedown with a rubber grip.
After my initial setup and fitting the bow with a Thunderhorn quiver. It was time to try it out in my backyard range. The grip fit my hand nice with being medium/ low grip, easily being able to repeat shot after shot. The feel of the bamboo cores and double carbon are a little different then what I’m used to, feeling a little “tighter” then your typical fiberglass/ bamboo limb of this design. But no stack on this model out to my 30” draw length.The bow easily tuned with my current hunting arrows, 30.25” Easton aftermath 340 with 75gr brass insert and a 200gr tip. Sending the 590gr arrows down range with respectable speed. While this bow is not as fast (anecdotally) as my Caribow peregrine or A&H of the same weight, it is on par with my ILF rig with dryad epic longbow limbs. As a matter of fact both bows shoot the same arrows into the same sight picture for me. Here is one arrow from each bow at 18
I’m excited to try this thing out in the woods this week mind you if I find a black bear or Turkey to accomodate me.
My intention with this post is to highlight another great bowyer available to the traditional archery community. There are many talented people turning out great products and I am pleased to carry a bow created by such a craftsman.
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