Home > Bow Reviews > Samick SLB II 69" 35#@28"
Samick SLB II 69" 35#@28"
Reviewed By Andy , 29 November 2009
As seems to be the way with Korean and Japanese companies, Samick started life producing something very different to the products most archers would associate them with today, an off shoot to the Piano making division Samick Sports was born in April 1975. Zip forward a quarter of a century and Samick now make a huge range of bows from the budget range all the way up to top Olympic recurves.
This bow falls very much within that budget category coming in at less than £100 at most retailers. When you first hold the bow you can see why, it's very much function over style on this one as the brown limbs and rather boring looking laminated Maple are not what you would call eye catching. The bow comes in a set of standard draw weights in 5 pound increments from 30 up to 60 and the one on test was 35# at a 28" draw. It also only come in a 69" length, which is no bad thing as that generally makes for a good all rounder.
I had the chance to test the bow on what was a rather rainy day, hence the wet weather gear and drab appearance in the photos. I measured the draw weight and it was bang on the 35# marked, this is to be expected from an off the shelf mass produced bow but it was good to know as when drawing it felt all if not more than 35#. The limbs are actually pretty narrow but also rather thick with three wood laminations sandwiched between 2 layers of brown fibreglass, the consequent advantage in terms of speed offered by the narrowness will be counteracted by the mass of a thicker limb. There is a rather thin shelf which comes with a felt rest and arrow plate. The standard string is thick and it might be there that you would look for a way to gain a little bit of performance.
The recommended brace height is between 7 1/2" and 8 1/4", I tried a number of different heights and to be honest the sweet spot, if you can call it that was somewhere in the middle of those two figures at a shade under 8" at my draw which is a touch over 28". As you would expect there was hand shock but to be honest it was more in the form of noise and vibration at the limb tips rather than actual shock in the handle and it didn't really detract from the shooting.
I was using a light arrow with a 35-40# spine, this might have been a little stiff as I was having to cant the bow a fair bit to get the arrows where I wanted, but I was consistently grouping in the same place on the target, the 35# draw allowed me to really focus and only release when the time was right.
I was initially sceptical on how this budget bow would perform, but I was very pleasantly surprised, I would imagine as the weight went up you would begin to see the benefit of spending a little more but at 35# it was a really nice experience, I'd recommend this to anybody looking for a cheap bow to get yourself going.
Unfortunately, the weather put paid to any Chronograph readings as I wasn't able to get any consistent readings, however early indications are that speed is not this bows great strength. Once I get the chance and some day light I will update the review with the chronograph readings.
| Rating | |
|---|---|
| Features & Design |   |
| Not exactly stunning to look at and brown is not my favourite choice of colour when it comes to limbs. | |
| Performance | |
| Actually not too bad at all given the price. | |
| Value for Money | |
| Great value and ideal as a bow for those just starting archery or coming from different bow styles and wanting to give flatbows a try. | |
| Overall | |
| Plenty of performance for the price, not the best looking bow around but it's unlikely to matter as you will likely up grade pretty quickly. | |
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What : Samick SLB II 69" 35#@28" Price : £85 |
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We were very pleased to give our support to the James Whale Kidney Foundation shoot which we cover in this months magazine. We were also contacted by Lars Pilø with news on the archery related finds on Jovfonna, and while we couldn't get out there ourselves Lars kindly filled in some background information for us.
A mixed bag this month, me in the South West, Geoff putting the record straight, a chat with Keith Stay and the wisdom comes from South Cox of Stalker bows.
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Your Comments
Tell us what you think, do you agree with the review or have something to add?
Posted by: stevee on Dec 12, 15:18
I too own one of these bows. Bought new when I fancied competing in AFB, but didn’t have a lot of money. However, I soon went off it after trying to tune the shock out of it. Spent many many hours trying to make this as shock free as possible, but without much success. Even had a bowyer make a custom leather grip for it. All the same, after 50 arrows in fairly rapid succession, my left arm, ( bow arm ), is dead, and will remain with that numb feeling for a day or so. I may spend more time with it at some point, but not soon.
Ihave stood alongside someone else shooting my bow, and it does seem quite fast, to be fair! Like to get over a chrono some day. My bow is 40#@28.
Posted by: Ian Gordon Wilson on Aug 17, 00:44
I used one of these bows for rough shooting for a season and “got shut”. Exactly the same comment as above. Mine was a 45# model and kicked like a mule. It had to go as it caused a shoulder injury. I shoot a 55# Steve Stratton English Longbow in its place now which is a pleasure to use – shock free.
Posted by: John Carter. on Sep 3, 04:18
I had an SLB for about 5 years.
Reshaped the grip slightly as it was a bit large an chunky for me.
I shot a FF string on mine.
It had very little handshock with the right string type.
With B50 it wasn’t so good.
At 45lb it shot a 480g arrow to an average of 170fps over a chrono.
I always felt it was a very good bow for it’s type and the money they go for.
Posted by: Alan T Smith on Aug 2, 13:47
Er, how can you possibly write, and I quote ‘The limbs are actually pretty thin but also rather thick’ and consider this a good review? To do what you aspire to do requires both archery and writing skills!
Posted by: Andy@archers-review.com on Aug 2, 20:29
Ah yes I see what you mean Alan, what I meant was of course narrow but thick. Building and writing a site such as archers review is a mammoth task and unfortunately small mistakes do slip in.
Posted by: Stevee on Aug 23, 18:11
I did play around more with this and found that to reduce a good chunk of that shock, the brace height needs to go right up near 8”. Things do seem a lot sweeter now.