Archery: anyone ever shot a yamaha alpha ex ?

Question

I used to shoot a rental bow like 10 yrs ago as a teen, unfortunately quit and i wanna take it up again: i got a yamaha ex alpha in mint condition from a friend...i realize theyre a lil old, but i cant afford anything nice as a poor uni student. just need a new string - carbon stabilizers! and the limbs have been hardly used 50 lbs/220N. completely equipped! just wondered if anyone experience shooting with it - thanx!

Answer 1

If I'm not mistaken that's a recurve bow?  The Yamaha's were all excellent bows.  Incredibly smooth limbs, they use ceramic on some of their limbs.  But 50lbs, that's way too much weight if you're just starting out, and shooting a rental bow 10 years ago really counts as starting all over again.  

The problem with Yamahas is that they use all of their own proprietary standards, they're not compatible with any other manufacturers out there.  So to get lighter limbs, you're stuck with looking for other Yamaha limbs.  Yamaha is out of the business of making bows, their equipments were all bought out by Win & Win.  So it will be rather tough to buy new limbs for those.  To make things tougher, people who owns good Yamaha limbs, usually don't want to sell them.

Good bow, but limbs are just way too heavy if you want to have good form.  If you just want to shoot arrows, it'll do, just watch out for shoulder pains.  But if you have intentions of competing or want to be able to improve, start with a light bow.  A bow that heavy will force you to use muscles that are not supposed to be used in olympic style archery.

If you only plan on shooting recreationaly, then it's probably going to be ok.  40lbs is still considered way too much if you want to be serious.  You will develop a lot of bad habits, specially when you're shooting without supervision from a coach that knows what he's doing.  Just make sure you warm up and stretch before each shooting session.  I do know of one person that went with a 40lbs bow from the get go.  He's still shooting now, he's in very good shape though, a rock climber and a Krav Maga instructor.  Even then, when I look at him shoot, he has developed a lot of bad habits, which is ok with him since he's only shooting for fun.