Parts of a Recurve Bow: Every Piece, Named and Explained

A recurve bow breaks down into three pieces: a riser in the middle and two limbs, one seated into each end. String it and you've got the whole machine. Everything else you see hanging off an Olympic bow — sight, stabilizers, clicker, plunger — screws into threaded holes the riser already has.

That takedown design is the point. You can fly with your bow in a normal suitcase. You can buy one riser with 20-pound limbs and work up to 36 pounds over a few years without replacing anything but the limbs.

Here's every part and what it actually does.

The riser

Start with the riser. It's the handle section — aluminum or carbon on target bows, wood on traditional one-piece bows — and it does no springy work at all. A rigid chassis, nothing more. Risers come in 23, 25, and 27 inch lengths, with 25 inches the adult standard.

Working from your hand outward, you'll find:

• Grip — the shaped section your palm pushes against. On most metal risers it's a separate plastic or wood piece you can swap or sand to fit your hand. Wooden risers have it carved in.
• Sight window — the cutout above the grip that lets the arrow sit near the bow's centerline instead of beside it.
• Arrow shelf — the horizontal ledge at the bottom of the sight window. Hunters and barebow archers shoot straight off it; target archers ignore it and stick a thin wire rest on the riser face instead.
• Plunger hole — a threaded hole through the riser just above the shelf. The plunger (a spring-loaded button) lives here and cushions the arrow's sideways flex on release. Most beginner risers include the hole even if you never fit one. Good — it means you can tune later.
• Bushings — threaded metal inserts for accessories: a stabilizer bushing below the grip, sight-mount holes on the back, often a clicker position too. The threads are standardized across brands, so a cheap riser takes the same accessories an expensive one does.
• Limb pockets — the slots at top and bottom where the limbs seat.

Limbs

Limbs are the engine. They bend as you draw, then snap forward and dump that stored energy into the arrow. Construction is typically a wood or foam core faced with fiberglass or carbon — carbon-faced limbs cost more and recover faster.

Check the numbers printed on the limb face before anything else. Manufacturers measure draw weight at a 28-inch draw on a 25-inch riser, so a limb marked 34 pounds delivers 34 pounds in exactly that setup. Draw an inch shorter or longer and the weight shifts by roughly 2 pounds. Riser length matters too: put 42-pound medium limbs on a 23-inch riser and they pull about 44.

Limbs come in short, medium, and long. On a 25-inch riser that builds a 66, 68, or 70-inch bow — and which one suits you depends on your draw length, so measure that first. A draw length calculator gets you close enough to order.

One quiet detail: the bottom limb is usually set slightly stiffer than the top, because your hand and fingers don't sit at the bow's exact center. The difference is called tiller, and most Olympic shooters run about 1/8 inch of positive tiller.

Starting out? Most coaches put new adult archers on 20 to 24 pounds. Your back and shoulders will complain the first couple of weeks regardless — that's normal, not a sign you bought wrong.

The string

Look closely at a bowstring and you'll find four parts, not one:

• String loops — the woven ends that hook into the grooves at each limb tip. The top loop is made larger so it can slide down the limb when the bow is unstrung.
• End servings — tight thread wrapping that protects the string where the loops take the load.
• Center serving — the thicker wrap in the middle where you nock arrows and place your fingers or tab. It takes the abuse so the string strands underneath don't.
• Nocking point — a brass crimp or a few wraps of tied-on serving thread marking exactly where the arrow clips on. Same spot every shot, or your vertical grouping falls apart.

Material matters more than most beginners expect. Dacron strings stretch more and come standard on entry-level bows — forgiving, and safe on any limb. Low-stretch fibers like Dyneema and Spectra (sold under names like Fast Flight) waste less energy, but don't put one on limbs that aren't rated for it.

ILF fittings

ILF stands for International Limb Fit, and it's the closest thing archery has to a universal standard. The limb's butt end has a U-shaped slot that slides under the riser's limb bolt, plus a dovetail detent that clicks into the limb pocket. No tools. Push the limb in until it clicks, string the bow, done.

The payoff is cross-brand freedom: any ILF limb fits any ILF riser. A Sanlida Miracle X10 riser will happily take WIAWIS or Galaxy limbs, and the limb bolts double as adjusters — a few turns changes draw weight and tiller without buying anything.

Two caveats. Hoyt's Formula system, used by risers like the Formula XD, is a separate fitting — Formula limbs and ILF limbs don't interchange, though Hoyt's other risers such as the Xceed take ILF. And budget takedowns like the Samick Sage use simple bolt-on limbs instead: cheaper, solid for a first bow, but you're locked into Sage-pattern limbs when you upgrade.

What to check before you buy

Before you spend money, run through three things.

• Bow length — riser length plus limb length, matched to your draw length. Get the draw measurement first.
• Limb fitting — ILF gives you the widest upgrade path; proprietary bolt-on systems are fine if the price gap pays for lessons instead.
• The boring holes — plunger hole, stabilizer bushing, sight mounts. If the riser has them, it can grow with you. If it doesn't, it can't.

Skip memorizing the rest. Once you know the riser holds everything, the limbs do the work, and the string's serving and nocking point keep each shot identical, the parts wall at any archery shop stops being intimidating.