Bows have been a key part of both warfare and sport for thousands of years in human history. Marksmanship with a bow is a fine craft, and one that benefits from the modern techniques and technology that gives us the recurve bow.
More efficient and more powerful, no seriously competitive archer goes to the range without a recurve bow. If you’re looking to buy a new one as a veteran, or if you’re looking to buy your very first recurve bow as a newcomer, the Panther takedown bow from Martin Archery is an excellent choice.
Martin Archery is a company that sells nearly every variation of the bow for both hunting and sport. There are many options, and many accessories to go with them. The Panther is a recurve bow that is ideal for both beginners and veterans, comes in both orientations, and has plenty of space to mount accessories such as quivers, sights, and stabilizers.
The price range of the Martin Archery Panther Takedown Recurve bow is about two hundred to three hundred dollars, a price which includes the bow, the pieces needed to put it together, an arrow rest, and a leather stringer.
Features:
- Sixty-Two Inch Bridged Riser Makes for one of the Smoothest Recurves Available
- Ergonomic rubberized grip provides excellent stability and comfort when aiming
- Wood is laminated and the limbs are glass and both are Smooth and Durable
- Tapped and Drilled for spot-on accuracy and mounting quiver
- Seven inches Brace Height, 62 Inch String Length, and Weight of 2 to 3 Pounds
- Available in Multiple Draw Weights, and also in both Left and Right Orientation
Pros:
- Is extremely lightweight compared to other bows, weighing only a fraction of their weight
- Has excellent vibration reduction, mitigating the stress of using the bow over time
- Has many points where accessories can be mounted, such as stabilizers, sights, and quivers
- Comes with a leather stringer that slides over one of the limbs
- Includes an arrow rest, though admittedly of average quality
Cons:
- Bow requires external tools to take apart, making take down time a little longer than some others
- Comes equipped with standard Dracon string, which is good, but not the best option available
- Takes about twenty turns to get to the recommended seven inch brace height, which is a bit more than most
Detailed Overview of the Martin Archery Panther Takedown Bow
Design and Construction
The Panther is a sleek, finely honed and tuned bow. With an ergonomic grip that provides excellent stability and comfort while shooting, you’ll not only be able to draw the bow more rapidly than others, but you’ll be able to loose arrows at a faster and more accurate rate as well.
This particular bow has a machined riser, and the limbs are laminated wood and glass, provided an excellent combination of smooth operation and tough durability. The limbs are attached with bolts, washers, plastic spacers, and locking nuts. While this means that setting the bow up and taking it back down is a bit of a lengthier operation than for most other bows, the limbs are firmly and steadily attached once everything is said and done.
Versatility
The Martin Archery Panther Takedown Bow is already outfitted for the addition of many different accessories. It has various mounts on different parts of the bow for mounting quivers or sights, among other things. This makes upgrading and customizing the Martin Archery Panther much easier as your skill with the bow increases and you desire to make changes to its layout.
On top of that, the bow can be ordered with different specifications based on what you need from it. It can come in a variety of different draw weights, including twenty nine, thirty five, forty, forty five, fifty, and fifty five pounds. Furthermore, it can also be ordered in both hand orientations, which is rare, since most bows are only available in the most common right handed orientation.
For the sake of clarity, bow orientation refers to which hand you use to draw the bow, not the hand that holds the bow itself. If you are right hand dominant, you’d use your right hand to draw the bow back. This makes picking the right orientation as simple as it sounds; right handed people choose right orientation, and left choose the opposite.
Assembly
Assembly is unfortunately one of the Panther’s weak points. Of course, it will have to be assembled when you first receive it, but included instructions make that a simple enough task. And of course, it is not as though putting it together is overly complicated. However, there is no denying that the Martin Archery Panther is on the slightly more complex side, in the sense that it will require outside tools to put together. This will likely mean nothing more than using a wrench, but it’s still a minor inconvenience compared to some take down bows which are simpler to put together.
Inclusions
The Martin Archery Panther does come with some accessories along with the bow itself. Namely, a leather stringer that goes over one of the arms, and a plastic arrow rest.
Of course, it will also come with an instruction manual for putting it together, the hardware needed to mount the limbs, and a Dracon string for the bow itself. All in all, you’ll get most everything you need to simply put the bow together and start shooting right away.
Comparison
If you are not interested in the Martin Archery Panther Take Down Recurve Bow, or if you find that it just isn’t a good fit for you, another excellent recurve bow is the Samick Sage bow.
The Samick Sage, produced by the company of the same venerable name, is one of the best recurve bows available on a tight budget. It is simple, but elegantly so, in a rugged way that ensures that it is almost impossible to break, mostly because there is nothing to break on it. Its elegant riser is drilled, so you can easily add a sight, quiver, or stabilizer in mere minutes.
The riser material is laminated hard maple and olive dymondwood, a beautiful combination that looks great, but is still tough and resilient to damage. The limbs themselves are also hard maple, laminated with fiberglass. These limbs are famous for almost never twisting, and they are known to last.
The tips of the limbs are reinforced with phenolic plastic, so adding FastFlight Strings is viable as well. Finally, this is also a takedown bow, so though the limbs are quite long, you can break down the bow with nothing more than your fingers, thanks to the easy to tighten and remove screws.
Finally, the specs. The Samick Sage is quite close to the Martin Archery Panther in this regard. Its length is sixty-two inches, the bow weighs 3.4 pounds, and it is available in thirty to fifty five-pound draws. Like the Panther, the Samick Sage is also ideal for both hunting and competition.
Verdict
As we’ve clearly described here, the Martin Archery Panther Takedown Recurve Bow is an excellent option for both experts and beginners. It one of the best and smoothest bows to draw on the market, and it has durability to match that grace. Furthermore, it comes with many of the accessories you need, and it is easily upgradeable with sights, stabilizers, and quivers.
It has some flaws, of course; as mentioned previously, the Martin Archery Panther takes a few more steps to put together and take apart than most other recurve type bows on the market, and the bowstring it comes with initially is just average at best. However, these are entirely minor issues. A bowstring can be easily replaced with one of a different quality if you wish, and saying that it is more complicated to break down and put together is really just saying that it might take five minutes compared to two.
When it comes to serious flaws, the Panther truly has none. Not only does its excellent design result in some of the smoothest draws around, but the construction ensures that the bow is tough and durable. It has plenty of slots for customization and can be ordered in a variety of camos, draw strengths, and orientations. The package itself comes with an arrow rest and a leather stringer.
The only real thing you could fault the Panther for is the price, which is moderately more than some other bows, like the aforementioned Samick Sage. However, it is worth noting that a price range of roughly $220.00 to $300.00, compared to the Sage’s $100.00-$150.00, is primarily a result of the difference in simplicity between the two.
While the Samick Sage is still a great bow, it doesn’t have all the same features as the Panther. It is durable and elegant, but simplistic, and lacks some of the same bells and whistles, which is why the Martin Archery Panther is more expensive.
That said, the Panther is a great price when you take into consideration all of its many strengths and all of its very few weaknesses.
