Evaluating the Cari-Bow Taiga

One of the perks that comes with writing bow reports is that I get to shoot and experiment with a great variety of compound bows. When I receive a compound bow for testing, it’s not uncommon for me to have had previous contact or experience with that company's product.

When it comes to the traditional bows that I receive for testing, it’s quite a different story. There are a lot of traditional bows on the market today that are custom made to order for each individual customer and they are not an item that you are likely to see offered for sale in your average archery pro shop. Consequently it's unusual that I have seen a particular traditional bow before it is sent me for testing and, for that reason I am always excited when asked to report on a custom-made bow.

Although I obviously don't get to keep the bows that, I do have them in my possession for an extended period of time and I get to shoot them a lot. I also understand that if you, the reader, are shopping around for a custom bow, chances are that you are not going to get the opportunity to shoot or maybe even see that bow before it arrives pre-paid at your door step. Your purchase is going to be deter-mined by the literature that the bowyer sends you and the information that you can glean from bow reports such as this. For that reason I try to be very objective in my testing. My intent to give you my opinions and impressions as accurately as possible so that you don't find any surprises when you finally string up your bow for the first time and start flinging arrows.

The subject of this report one is about one of those custom-made bows. When Abe Penner from Morden, Manitoba first phoned me to ask if I would test one of his take-down, recurver Cari-bows - the Taiga model - I must admit that I did not know anything about his product. When I finally received the bow some weeks later, I was anxious to get it out of the box and assemble it. For me, the look and feel of a traditional bow is almost as important as how it shoots. I was not disappointed! One of the first things I noticed was the three-point alignment system for the limbs consisting of two brass pins and an Allen bolt. Disassembling and reassembling take-downs can result in the limbs being slightly out of line with the riser and can have a serious effect on accuracy. The three-point alignment on the Cari-bow should help eliminate this problem.

The bow came with a nocking point installed and the string set at the recommended brace height of seven-and-a-half inches so, once it was assembled, I dug out some arrows that would match the raw weight and proceeded to shoot it. That's one of the nice things about shooting off the shelf — there’s not much setting up, you just go shoot it. Aside from the general smoothness and the draw force, there are two very important things that I look for when I first shoot a traditional bow. First of all, the arrows must group and, secondly, they must hit fairly close to where I'm looking. Now, I don't worry if that group is off a few inches from where I'm looking because, after I shoot the bow for a while, my eye-hand coordination will compensate for minor differences. I do worry if my first few arrows happen to miss the target. With the Taiga that was not a problem. The arrows grouped very well and I actually hit what I was looking at!

The grip on the Taiga is a medium wrist with a well-designed thumb rest intended to help the archer achieve consistent hand placement for every shot. An optional elk antler thumb rest is offered although it was not present on the bow I tested. The main component of the riser is bubinga backed with two layers of glass, two layers of padauk and topped off with a thin layer of bubinga. There is an attractive optional pinstriping that follows the contour of the riser on the belly side. The pinstriping is accomplished by sandwiching a thin strip of padauk between two thin layers of maple and it adds a nice touch to the appearance of the bow. The sight window of the riser is cut slightly past center and the radius of the shelf and the side-plate puts the contact point of the arrow just slightly ahead of the low point of the grip. I like to see the arrow rest as close to being over the low point of the grip as possible as this helps minimize the problems that occur as the result of hand torque. Both the shelf and the side plate have a leather covering that acts as an arrow rest.

Abe does his own tapering on the red elm that is used for the core of the limbs and it is sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass. The nocks are finely cut into the limb tips with well-defined string grooves on the face of the limbs. The limb tips are reinforced with four layers of glass, two layers of padauk and a final layer of bubinga over the top. If you like something a little fancier, elk antler tips are offered as an option.

The bow came equipped with a Flemish Fast Flite string and a note from Abe explaining that he recommends that his customers shoot a minimum of eight grains of arrow weight per pound of draw weight. Fast Flite strings tend to be very hard on recurve bows when they are used in conjunction with light arrows and, if you intend on shooting lightweight arrows, I would recommend that you substitute the string with a Dacron one. All the tests that I ran were done with the Fast Flite string.

I installed the bow in my shooting machine and shot several weights of arrows to establish the AMO rating velocity. AMO rating velocity is a standard measurement used in the bow industry that allows you to evaluate a particular bow's speed performance based on a consistent set of criteria. Those criteria are a 30-inch draw length with a peak draw weight of 60 pounds and an arrow weight of 540 grains. Although arrow speed should not be high on the list of priorities when shopping for a traditional bow, it is still interesting to know the rating velocity. The Taiga had a draw weight of 63 pounds at 30 inches, which meant that I had to calculate down to obtain the AMO rating velocity. My calculations showed an arrow speed of 196 feet per second which is not bad for a recurve.

The force draw curve shows that the Taiga has very smooth drawing characteristics and gains a steady three pounds per inch of draw throughout the last five inches of the draw length. At my draw length of about 28 ½ inches, the bow was very smooth to draw with no noticeable stacking and, as is the custom with most well-made recurves, there was no noticeable hand shock when I shot the bow. Even with the Fast Flite string and no silencers, the bow was very quiet. Silencers would get the noise level well within acceptable ranges for hunting and, if you were willing to sacrifice a few feet per second in arrow speed, a Dacron string would make the bow whisper-quiet.

In summation, the Taiga is a very well-made custom take-down that displays good looks along with fine shooting characteristics. I like the three-point alignment system for the limbs and the way the limbs match up with the riser when the bow is assembled. There are a lot of elk antler overlay options that can really spruce up the bow for anyone who has a hankering for that unique look. The bow is fast, quiet, points and shoots well. It’s got about everything you could look for in a custom-made take-down recurve.