Bowyers Review Sanlida Archery 60" Royal X8 Traditional Recurve

Howdy, y'.

All.

I'm Nick with Great Plains.

And I'm Shane. I'm the bowyer here at Great Plains.

And I'm the glue up fella. So we're starting in on this project. These are Amazon bows that we've been ordering in and trying out and seeing which ones we actually like and giving you guys an honest review from a bowyers perspective as to if this is a good bow or not. But we're going to be reviewing them as they are and I'm actually going to be doing a project where I'm tearing into them, reworking them and trying to get them set up where their tillers corrected, the site windows opened up a little bit and where it would be a great first bow so you don't have to worry about your equipment. And it's an introductory into custom bows without having to, you know, buy a custom bow for your first bow.

That's right. And we thought about this and we want. So when you're starting out in archery, it's important that you have a good experience for your first bow. So our goal is that if you get one of these bows and we want that first bow to be a bow that performs good enough that it hooks you into traditional archery or we don't want you to get a bow and maybe it's not that great performing bow, maybe there's hand shock, maybe there's finger pinched and you're like, yeah, you know, I like to watch the arrows fly, but really not that comfortable and it's not for me. So what we're doing here is we're going to take these bows and we're going to review them first. And we're starting with this one right here. This dog's eating some ranch. But main thing is we're going to review these and we're going to give an honest review about these cheap bows. We're not going to butter up the company that makes them. We are going to honestly say the pros and the cons and if we'd recommend them or if we wouldn't recommend them. So we're going to start with this one first and I'll let Nick show you what we got here.

So what we have here is.

This.

Awesome case that it comes in. This is on Amazon. When I ordered this, it was about $130.

And this is San Lita Archery.

San Lita Archery. I believe this is the X8. Now that zipper only goes about that far, but this is a complete kit. It comes with, there's Your string, I'm guessing some sort of a manual.

Instruction manual? Yeah. It's the Royal X8 arm guard, glove.

String, silencers, stringer. That's a very important thing, especially for a recurve.

It's got about everything you possibly could need in this first package here.

And I'm guessing these are points.

Probably field points. Yep.

Those are field points for the arrows that come with it.

Little bullet point. Let's open that up.

Itty bitty fletchings. But actual fletchings.

That's turkey feathers.

Turkey, yeah. Which is important because those plastic veins.

Looks like a good arrow for a starter.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

I've never seen that. Looks like a little bit of heat shrink tubing. But for the front of the fletchings.

That heat shrink should keep it from grabbing.

Yeah, yeah, that would.

And then let's see, there's the actual bow. It's a pretty good looking bow out of the box.

Yeah, it's actually a really good looking bow.

So right out of the box things that I see that just little iffy. There is a crack right here. So a little bit of riser separation there.

And it's on this side and this side. So probably what happened is either this piece or this piece was not formed correctly. For the glue line. The sight window is square, straight, no radius.

No radius, just square.

I noticed right up. It does not have tip reinforcement for fast flight string. So that's just a piece of wood there. So if you buy this bow, you can only use Dacron safely with this bow. So it looks like, I mean, it's a really pretty bow. How much did you say it was again?

About 130 bucks shipped here.

That's a beautiful bow for 130 bucks. And I like the little decorative cut ins. But you can see this shelf. Your hand is a little bit low. It pushes your hand down from the shelf. That could be changed, but not a huge issue. But it's just a little bit different than the way we build ours. But overall it's really a beautiful little reeker. I really like the aesthetics of it. We're basically interested in finding the highest quality cheap bows out there that everybody can purchase.

Something that's a perfect starter bow where somebody can have an interest in traditional bows, pick it up and be able to know whether or not they're interested in pursuing traditional archery Further needs to.

Be a good enough performing bow if they're having fun on their first experience. I'm like anybody else, if I grab a piece of equipment on something, a new hobby, and I just can't get it to work right. And it's not a pleasant experience. I'm going to drop that probably a lot sooner than if I started with something I could trust and was a good enough quality that I was having fun right away. So same thing with archery. So we want to test these bows and we're gonna be really honest. We're not gonna beat around the bush if there's something we do not like, we're gonna say that on these cheap, cheap bows here. Well, basically what we're gonna do is we're gonna make it so you can trust it. So if there's any twist in the limb, we're gonna fix that. We're gonna mark it with the correct specs, the exact weight it measures at the 28 inch draw. On some models we've decided, we've talked about, there's a good possibility we'll radius the shelf and side plate. We may reinforce the tips for fast flight stream. It just depends how much margin we have in there. But basically, we want you. If you buy one of these from us, when you get it, it's going to be reworked by great plains, probably by Nick. This is more of Nick's project than mine, so he's going to rework him. And when you get it from us, you're going to be able to trust it completely. Everything's going to be accurate with it. There's not going to be this question of, well, I know I'm a brand new archer, but is my equipment failing me or is it me failing me? So you're going to be able to trust your bow when you get one of these reworked ones from us. And after that, it's just up to you how good your form is to see how accurate you are and go have fun with it. But we're not gonna do this with bows that we cannot recommend. Right? We're not gonna. Yeah. We don't like the limb profile or we're just not doing. Yeah.

Unless we like it. We're not. There's no point in reworking a bow you don't like.

Yeah. On page seven of this manual, they are promoting the step through method to string this bow. Do not do that. For sure, if you're a beginner Archer. And for sure with a recurve, do not use the step through method. There's a very good chance you'll twist it. Even guys that have been doing it their whole life can actually twist it in.

And on a recurve You've got a. You've just made a lever and if you go to do that just a little slip and you'll get a horizontal or horizontal, like a diagonal snap in your limb. And it's really easy to tell who stepped through their boat.

Oh yeah, we get Bo's back in the shop to rework and the guy said that, you know that I've always stepped through it and these are guys that know what they're doing. And honestly, if you know what you're doing or you're really safe, you'll probably be okay. But invariably, I mean, almost without exception, those bows are twisted. The limbs are twisted now they're still shooting them. But I have to correct that twist before I do a weight reduction or whatever. So I know there's a lot of guys out there that say, no, it doesn't matter. I've been doing that for years. It does actually matter. You can get by with it on a longbow, but on a recurve it's. It's a very dangerous thing. There is no brace height that I.

Could find in here. I'm thinking with that, let's try eight and a half. Eight and a quarter and a half.

Leo. It's a new string so I would start with that limb. Start with 8 and a half and it'll stretch. It looks a little bit high, but you gotta remember this is a new string. It's a dacron string. It's gonna stretch quite a bit, so it's gonna settle in but also a little higher. Brace height is gonna be good too.

Especially as far as making it a little quieter.

Most all your noise on a recurve comes from string contact with the limb. Just quick before we. I want to see how straight these limbs are. So looking down here, that limb, bottom limb is perfectly straight. Top limbs perfectly straight. So, so far I'm really impressed. Now just me drawing this bow. It's a little bit stiffer than what I would have expected for a 60 inch, but we'll see. Let's go out to the shop and see what we can do with it. Alright, so we're over here at the tuning tree. This is my tuning alley right here. I'm just going to run over this bow just really quickly and see if we're all good. And first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to check the tiller and for this I'm going to hook it on the string because I don't know if the tips are exactly proportionate. So I'm Going to check this 7 and 11 here. I've got 7 and 5. So ordinarily, I would say that's way out of tiller. It all really depends on how far above the center the shelf is. So I'm going to quickly. Just quickly measure that. I'm going to double check my measurements. So that's 7 and 5. That's 7 11. So that's way out of tiller if we're an inch above center. If we're not, then we're okay. So just to make sure here, do some quick measuring. So that's about the center. Shelf is an inch and a quarter above center. So for a shelf that's an inch and a quarter above center, you should be sitting at about a 316 difference of a weaker top limb. So it definitely is out of tiller by. Let's see. It's out by about quarter to 5. 16 of an inch might not matter. Believe it or not, tiller doesn't make quite as much difference as people think it does. So this bow is straight. It does not have. It is not quite. It's strong on positive tiller. But we're gonna just test it out and see. Now, when I drew this, it felt stiffer. So let's, let's come over here and let's see what she weighs at 28 inches. Okay. Yeah. So it's 48 pounds at 28 inches. It's marked 45 at 28 inches, but it's three pounds heavier. Those little things make a difference. If you have enough of those little things on these cheap bows and you're expecting something different, it really could affect your first experience with archery. So we've checked it out. It's straight. The tiller's off. It's three pounds heavier than what it's marked. So now we're going to go over and shoot it, both Nick and I, and we're going to tell you what we find.

All right, so let's see where these arrows are at. That is 557.

Close to 560.

Balanced on there. 575. 566, 567. So we're floating around the 570 mark.

565, probably.

555 and 48. So 11.75 grains per pound.

So 11 and three quarter grains per pound, which is an excellent hunting weight arrow. It's not just a super 3D arrow, but there's nothing wrong with it. You can Definitely go to 3D matches with it with 11 and 3 quarter grain per pound arrow. It's not going to hurt it.

It's also going to help with the life of the bow.

Yeah, definitely. So let's, let's shoot this thing and then we'll tell you what we find. Alright.

I have the arm guard and the glove that they sent. The arm guard is goofy. Great protection but goofy.

And the glove, how does it feel like? It looks uncomfortable. How?

It's pretty uncomfortable.

I don't think a guy would end up wearing that.

Yeah, I don't think I'll end up using that. The glove is. It's a very cheap glove. I'm not a fan of it.

That's a pretty big seam there. I wonder if that would affect the string at all. These feel nice and heavy duty. Yeah. Is it comfortable?

Well, it's about a size and a half too small.

But gorilla hands, you know it works.

And if it's not hard.

No, it's a great starter glove. It's gonna get you out there and it's gonna get you out there shooting.

It's not hard to get a new glove and arm guard. So let's see how this does. I like it.

4 Real quiet. Super quiet. Yeah.

With those heavy arrows, no hand shock.

This, this bow has no silencers on it. And I'm telling you it is. It is. It is. It might sound quiet loud on the camera but for a recurve it's quiet with no silencers.

Oh, I can't shoot today.

All right, let me shoot three of these. Yeah, you gotta. Alright. I can't shoot my grip on this bow. It's comfortable and it's plenty comfortable even for a high end bow. It's not a bad grip. It might be a little smaller than people are used to but honestly I like has a nice area here where your fingers can come back around. It feels really good. It's got a good palm swell. It just. It feels good. I like it. Like I was saying earlier, the bow, the stiffness of this bow, it's too stiff for the length of it. It shouldn't feel quite that stiff. It really shouldn't. That probably has to do with how thick. All they've got is two core laminations which that's fairly common. But just looking at it, they seem a little thick for the length of this bow and the poundage but also they're thicker and that's why we got a 48 pound bow marked at 45. So one thing I want to measure real quick before I shoot is if it's cut to center inch And a half. Okay. So it is cut to center. It's not a center shot bow, but it is cut to center, which is good.

It feels like about 27, 26, 27. It starts stacking real bad though.

Yeah. So I shot one arrow. It's a good bow. I'm impressed. I'm very pleased with the. I'm very pleased with the feel of it. Those arrows don't. I'm gonna shoot one of my good arrows here in a minute. But it. I am very pleased with the feel of this bow. Very pleased. It's. It's a. Okay, now I'm gonna shoot an arrow that is. This is a 400 spine. Those arrows. Now that we know it's 48 pounds, I would say they're. They're a little heavy and maybe just a tad under spined, honestly, which I noticed. The arrow flight was. Was kind of erratic, but let's see what a 400 spine does with a 48 pound bow. Oh, that was perfectly. Just beautiful. Like a laser. Okay. With the. Let me shoot one more with these arrows. This is an awesome bow. I'm impressed. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a shooter right there. All right.

With that sight window being real square, your sight picture is not amazing. It feels crowded also with it being cut to center. That strike plate that they've got there is just. It's thick so it moves everything out quite a bit. So things I would definitely change round that out, open it up so it's a more open sight window and you can actually get a better sight picture and see stuff.

Let's see what else I correct the tiller.

Tiller is a big one.

If you don't have the right arrow. That's like when we shot those ones, it came with the arrow flight was absolutely horrendous. I had one that went and all over and. And I know that the tiller was affecting that because they weren't really high quality arrows. Bailey's laughing at me. But the tiller is really bad. It. This is an amazing bow. I'm. I'm. It blew me away. I don't know what for. For what it is. The performance of this bow, this would be. Is incredible.

This would be a bow I would recommend to anybody for a. Oh, yeah.

First starter it now compared to a high end bow, a high end 60 inch bow, it's. It's quite stiff on the draw, which really surprises me.

It stacks early lighter weight though. Yeah. I want to see if the 40 is as stacky.

I mean, it stacks a good three it stacks probably at 25 inches, which is unusual, but you can deal with that.

The other thing I'm watching while shooting it is that crack. I don't know how many of them would come with that.

I would say probably not too many, but that is a massive defect. That is a huge area of concern. I don't think if we were going to change, I wouldn't change the tips because for a starter bow, just use a Dacron string. You don't need a fast flight string. If you get into changing the tips, you've got painted glass, you're looking at a lot of work and you're driving the price of that way up. So things I would change. Nick kind of said what he would change. I would write the correct specs on it. Oh, yeah. Make sure the limbs are straight, make sure the tiller was perfect. And then the only other thing I would do is radius the shelf and side plate. And then you would have an absolute amazing starting recurve. Really, it's quite mind blowing, the performance out of this little bow for the price.

And we've got videos on the Black Hunter rework where we show how to fix the tiller by taking it off the edge with sandpaper. How to radius the shelf. It's something that you could do and if you mess it up, it's not like an end of the world. You destroyed a expensive bow.

Now with this bow, do not touch the belly in the back because this is painted glass. You're going to change the whole look of it. So, and we are, we're going to be reworking these and we're going to be offering these for a little higher price. But it's going to be well worth it because you're going to be able to trust your equipment. And we also, we are not going to touch this. However, we are going to put a high quality finish on the ones that we rework. And this here finish, like just, just me, if I put my thumb on it, I got a little bit of dust, it drags and it's all over there. It's got sort of a grippy. It doesn't have a good finish on it. Now if, if you don't have the money to, to work with it, it's fine. But it could be so much better for a little bit of, just a.

Little bit extra handful of hours into it. New specs or the correct specs. Tiller fixed, open that up.

Yep.

And that is gonna be an amazing, amazing.

Absolutely. You're gonna. If you've never been into archery. And this is your first bow. And you start with this one for sure. If it's been reworked, you're gonna fall in love with the sport because it, it's a great little bow.

If you're a compound guy and you've got that trad curiosity going on, that wouldn't be a bad one to grab.

No, no. I mean, course you know the Great Plains bows we know, those are, those are nice.

Those are pretty nice.

Those are nice.

They're glued up by a weird long haired guy and finished out by a strange Amish dude.

Strange Amish dude. Yeah. But all in all, despite the problems with the employees, they're pretty nice bows.

But I'm thinking that right there for the money, that's an incredible bow. I would put that ranked above the Black Hunter as a starter bow.

Hands down. Hands down. So that's the Sanlita Royal X8 one piece recurve. And thanks for watching, y'. All. And stay tuned because we're gonna be doing a lot more of these reviews on these cheap bows. Because we really, our biggest interest is to get more people into archery and get them having fun and get them trusting their equipment and having that confidence that their bow is not messed up and so that then they can work on themselves while they're learning to shoot better. So stay tuned for the rework. We're going to be doing a rework on this one and in the future we're going to be doing a lot more reviews on these cheaper bows.