My neighbors boy just recently got interested in archery and acquired a couple of older recurves. One is a 50" Darton Magnum, 46# @ 28" the other is a 52" Pearson Mach One 45# @ 28". Anyone have any idea what the brace height is for these bows? Any suggestions for alu arrows? I'd sure like to get him started right with one of these bows. They seem to be in pretty good shape. We sure would appreciate any help at all. Thanks.

What kind of draw lengths? Hap

I would say start at 8"s for both. I know those shorter older bows brace was usually kind of high. Do the have endless loop strings? If so string them up and see. If he draws the full 28"s a 1916 may be good for him. Shawn

Hot Hap, I think he draws at most 26" he's not a big guy at all he only stands about 5'2".

Shawn, they didn't come with a string so I made up a few endless strings for them. I thought I remembered those older bows had some pretty high brace heights just really wanted to confirm that. I had measured the bows along the back, nock to nock and they were right on what they were labeled. 50" and 52" So I made the strings exactly 46" and 48". They ended up off the bat bracing at 8" and 9" respectively. Does that sound right to you? I thought I remembered reading somewhere that for a recurve the string should be 4" shorter than the actual length, nock to nock, but now I'm kind of doubting myself 'cause they look kind of high.

Your strings sound right, though the 9" brace on the 52" bow shows that the rule of thumb doesn't hold for every bow. My K-mags take a 48" string for starters, but they brace way lower than 9"!

My course of action would be to try the bow with the 8" brace, and see how it does, seeing as you have the string. 9" sounds too high to me.

Trouble with endless strings is that they don't lend themselves to tweaking. Flemish strings for your bows would allow you to twist or untwist to see what the trend was on raising or lowering the brace. Then, if you prefer them, make the correct length endless type.

Or, how about a single "test" string, with one loop, and fastened with a bowyer's knot on the lower limb, to try the length? One long Flemish twist string like this could be used to dial in the correct brace on any bow, and you would then make the proper-length string to replace it.

1816 or 1916 arrows cut to 28" should be fine for your buddy, with 125 grain heads. I draw a little longer, and use up to a 2013 with bows in that range.

Killdeer

Get some 1916 arrows and let them long..28 or 29.  It won't hurt for learning and he is bound to grow anyway.   8 1/2" is about maximum brace for either of those bows.  I like around 8" brace on either.

Thanks for the input. I just got done making up some strings so now both bows are braced at 7" to start. Now it's just a matter of getting a hold of some 1916's and the real fun begins. Thanks again.