Beginner bow for a fantasy nerd?

[u/troublevillian]

I'm trying to buy my first bow, and I'm a little lost.

I need something that looks old-school / traditional / historic / fantasy, because I need to use it for a photo shoot.

But I'd also like to conceivably be able to use it for target shooting some time.

Not looking for the best, most expensive bow. Just something traditional that looks nice and is functional. I was leaning toward a recurve bow and hoping to spend around 200 usd. I'm also 5'8 and would prefer a low-ish draw weight that can still be used for target shooting.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your time.

[u/TurkeyFletcher]

Because knowing the correct search term to enter into Google is sometimes hard, you could take a look at this Simple Visual Gallery of Different Styles of Archery.

You will most likely land on some kind of Longbow, Flatbow, or Eastern/Asiatic ("horse bows").

Making it look 'old-school' can be done by wrapping a cheap (fiberglass) bow in leather, birch bark, or fabric, to suit your visual needs.

[u/Arc_Ulfr]

Medieval or fantasy would be more shelfless longbow or asiatic bow than recurve. Cutout arrow shelves didn't appear until halfway through the 20th century. For an inexpensive longbow, this is a solid choice, though for an English longbow specifically I usually go to Archeybowman. You'll need to be patient, though; you want something more like 25-30#, and he doesn't seem to have any English longbows up in anything close to that draw weight at the moment. His lighter options are also less expensive when he has them. If you want to try thumb draw, on the other hand, Alibow has some really good inexpensive options for that. Again, start at low draw weight (perhaps 25 pounds or so) and work your way up slowly.

[u/Xtorin_Ohern]

A lot of folks here are suggesting very modern bows that don't really fit in the fantasy aesthetic.

Something like one of the bamboo offerings from Sarmat Archery wouldn't be a bad idea, and Alibow offers solid fiberglass options for the money, some of which are very traditional in appearance.

[u/Barebow-Shooter]

You need to figure out your eye dominance to find out is you need a left or right handed bow. Then I would look for a 20# to 25# recurve from Sanlida, either the Noble or Royal. Both are inexpensive.

[u/Vakaak9]

With those criteria youll have better luck at r/bowyer 👍

[u/FerrumVeritas]

Just get a Samick Sage Longbow, I guess