# Fred bear cub recurve ??



## northern boy (Aug 25, 2010)

I just picked a very nice bear cub recurve bow is 60 inches 37# with green an yellow glass bow numberis 15ae62 so i guess it was made in 62. does anybody know the reccomenned brace height bow was setup at 8 7/8 seems high to me. Anybody have any knowledge on this bow. Thanks Ed


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## Brad Lehmann (Sep 4, 2010)

I bought one the other day. It came with a string so I strung it up. The brace height looked exceptionally "wide" to me so I got out the tape and measured it. 8 3/4"
I haven't messed with it any more, or even thought about it until I read your post. So that makes two of us that are wondering.


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## rickstix (Nov 11, 2009)

I really wouldn’t be inclined to put any faith in dating the bow from the serial number…with the majority of Bear bows it just doesn’t work that way. That said the Cub was first introduced in ’62 as a 60” semi-recurve. The picture in the catalogue shows a brown back and white belly with no other color options noted. In ’63 it was also 60” and was available with assorted colored glass. After these two years the Cub became a 62” bow. From ’62 to ’64 the catalogues gave a recommended brace height of 7 to 8”…after that brace height recommendations no longer appeared. Enjoy, Rick.


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## northern boy (Aug 25, 2010)

7-8 is the correct brace I set mine up at 7 3/4. Great shooter I also put a d-97 16 strand string on it. I did,nt like the speed or feel of b-50 I grained 10 fps. I reseached an think you can use the fastflight material on the older bows if you are willing to take a risk. I talked an read of lot of people having good results. I might even try an 8 strand padded to 16. The cub is a great shooter with the new string. I,m very happy with the performance an sound of the bow an enjoying the lower poundage for target shooting


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## Stik (Oct 24, 2013)

rickstix said:


> That said the Cub was first introduced in ’62 as a 60” semi-recurve. The picture in the catalogue shows a brown back and white belly with no other color options noted. In ’63 it was also 60” and was available with assorted colored glass. After these two years the Cub became a 62” bow. From ’62 to ’64 the catalogues gave a recommended brace height of 7 to 8”…after that brace height recommendations no longer appeared. Enjoy, Rick.


 I am confused, as I have a dual shelf, static recurve, leather grip, NO COIN maple with black glass 62" 46# Bear "Cub" .
It is my understanding that in 1958 they changed to full working limb recurves and all bear bows had coins after 1959.....
SO... I dated my bow as 1956-57.. ??? am I mistaken ??


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## rickstix (Nov 11, 2009)

Some of the confusion is my bad…probably ‘cause I searched out the ’62 Cub in the original question and didn’t go any further back in the catalogs. Anyhow, having just spent some time with my Bear catalog CD…this is the best I can come up with.

Bear definitely did not change the entire line to all full working recurves in ’58. There were semi-recurves at the lower end of the line on into the 70’s...and the word semi-recurve appears to have fallen pretty much into disuse over time. In later catalogs only the riser may have been pictured for some models, but a smaller picture shows the bow in kit form with the appearance of being a semi-recurve.

But back to Cubs, specifically, the dual shelf models run from ’55 thru ’57. All were 62”, leather wrapped handles, glass laminated/no color mentioned. In ’58 the Cub does not appear in the catalog and does not reappear there until its revamped version in ’62. 

That’s all I got…Rick.


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## Fireescape1090 (Mar 16, 2021)

rickstix said:


> Some of the confusion is my bad…probably ‘cause I searched out the ’62 Cub in the original question and didn’t go any further back in the catalogs. Anyhow, having just spent some time with my Bear catalog CD…this is the best I can come up with.
> 
> Bear definitely did not change the entire line to all full working recurves in ’58. There were semi-recurves at the lower end of the line on into the 70’s...and the word semi-recurve appears to have fallen pretty much into disuse over time. In later catalogs only the riser may have been pictured for some models, but a smaller picture shows the bow in kit form with the appearance of being a semi-recurve.
> 
> ...


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## Fireescape1090 (Mar 16, 2021)

This is my Bear Cub. 6 5/8 brace height. A little low but my son has shot this for years. Great little bow.


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## Fireescape1090 (Mar 16, 2021)




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## dougmax (Jul 23, 2009)

Nice find Northern boy. Love the green glass. Would love to find one in that condition. In 1967 my mom and 4 of her girlfriends bought these and started shooting on the weekends and week days when not on duty. (They all were nurses)
My mom fell in love with archery and in 69’ won a state championship with that bow in field archery. She gave me that bow in 72’ as she no longer had time for it and I shot it every day in my backyard till a twisted limb finally did it in (as a kid I would unstring and string the bow every time I shot it with the step through method) Great memories of that bow. Congrats on a great find. Enjoy.


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