Well, without further ado…may we present the first bow to be reviewed in Bow’d Up! Our first victim is the BearPaw Chapman 58” recurve. The Chapman is inspired by BearPaw’s popular one-piece, 60” Creed recurve. Both bows are considered to be the foundation of BearPaw’s Penthalon premium line. The goal with the Penthalon line is to provide a very high-quality product without breaking the bank. This is my first ever experience with anything offered by BearPaw, but so far, it’s been nothing short of positive.

I received the Chapman almost three months ago, and in between my other projects have managed to put a little over 300 arrows downrange with it. Due to my lazy bow care habits, I have to admit that this bow has remained strung the entire time. With that being said, the only ill effects that I have to report is that I’ve had to adjust the brace height a few times due to the string stretching. With that being nothing out of the ordinary, I’d say so far, so good. Looking at the aforementioned business model for the Penthalon line of bows, the price point is very affordable at $379.99, and the fit and finish are both excellent.

Usually when a product is offered with value in mind, it’s uncommon for it to be packaged with anything extra. In fact, I’ve purchased bows that were priced several hundred dollars more that came with nothing but a bowstring and the customary shelf/strike plate material. I was pleasantly surprised to see the riser and limbs packaged separately in bow socks made of soft microfiber material, and attractively branded with the BearPaw logo. I consider this a very valuable bonus that will help prolong the life of the bow, and save someone from purchasing a storage solution down the road. Talking about shelf and strike plate material; a small square of adhesive backed animal hair and a template for the strike plate are provided. Due to a mistake on my part, I ended up short on the provided material, and used the template to cut a strike plate from a piece of Brooks Tactical AGrip.

The product description states that the riser features a standard grip, made from special Amazakoue´/Ovangkol with ash and Mycarta® accent stripes. I have to admit that I used my Google skills to figure out what exactly Amazakoue´/Ovangkol was. It looks like those are just interchangeable monikers for a commonly used wood, also known as shedua, originating from West Africa. At any rate, it’s a gorgeous wood that comes in varying shades and grain structure. Going back to the standard grip; while shooting it, it seems a touch above what most people would consider as a medium-wrist grip. BearPaw describes it as a deep pistol grip, which seems accurate. At any rate, the Chapman’s grip really locks the meat of your hand below the arrow shelf. This is perfect for a relaxed, or open style grip that lends to a straight wrist, with the heel of your hand supporting the bulk of the pressure exerted to the handle. This is a feature that leads to accurate and consistent shooting. The sight window is relatively short, at approximately 3.5” tall. It could just be me, but I tend to shoot better at hunting distances with a shorter sight window. It just seems to help frame the shot, leaving less to distract from the aiming process. I’m sure that there’s something to this; possibly something akin to how certain sight systems used with firearms block out surrounding light, narrowing the shooter’s focus on the target.

When looking down the limbs towards the tips, you’ll notice a sharp taper that occurs about 16” from the limb bolts, going from 1.5” wide down to ¾” at the string grooves. This instantly reminded me of a photo that I once saw of a bow made by Bart Schleyer (Aug/Sept 2007 issue of TBM), patterned after the Meare Heath Flatbow. I also have a 1961 Herter’s International Match Hunter that shares a similar limb taper. I can’t comment on the Schleyer-made bow, but the Herter’s has a very smooth draw cycle, with solid performance down range. The Chapman employs black fiberglass on both the back and belly of the limbs, with the limb cores being comprised of maple. The limb tips are G10-reinforced to allow the use of modern high-performance, or Fast-flight strings. A quote from the BearPaw website states: “You can almost say that a good bow stands and falls with its limbs. That’s why we’ve invested a lot in the development of the Penthalon Chapman limbs.” After spending a decent amount of time shooting this bow, I can say that I cannot pinpoint anything negative about the draw cycle or overall performance. There is some after-shot vibration, but it’s not unpleasant and should be very easy to mitigate with the standard dampening techniques that the average bowhunter will employ.

Looking at the numbers just reinforces my overall feeling about this bow: it’s a pleasant surprise. The draw force curve is very gradual and consistent, averaging out to 2.2 lbs. gained per inch of draw. The sharpest increase understandably occurs after 29”, but still nothing drastic. I’ll have to add that for shooters possessing short draw lengths, you’ll really appreciate the smooth draw and performance at the sub-28” range.  Noise wise; using the provided “Whisper String” without any added string silencers, and reading from ten feet away and three feet off the ground, a 10.6 GPP (Grains Per Pound) arrow yields an average decibel rating of 63.05. Very mild considering that the average conversation is around 60 DB, and the toilet flushing in my small bathroom swirls water at around 67 DB.

Speed seems to be increasingly more important to shooters these days, and I’ll have to say that since I possess such a short draw length (25”), and prefer to shoot heavier arrows, it is something that I strongly consider as well. I set the bow up at the manufacturer’s suggested brace height of 8” and used arrows that came in just under 11 GPP for both the finger release and shooting machine portions. Traditional Only Barebow arrows, fletched with 3, 4” shield cut arrows were used throughout all phases of testing. Why did I conduct testing with arrows that were over 10 GPP? Full disclosure, without spending terribly too much time with things, and using my standard methods for my own personal arrow setup…sub 11 GPP arrows is just what ended up tuning for me. Like I mentioned in the intro to this column; I’m not much more than a knuckle-dragging hillbilly, and most certainly am not a scientist!

With all that being said, the Chapman gave a very solid performance. It’s not a firebreather by any stretch of the imagination, but for a bow retailing for under $400 it’s impressive. Shooting with fingers at my hobbit draw length of 25”, at 44.4 lbs. of draw weight, an average of 159 FPS was achieved shooting a “hunting weight” arrow of 470 grains. Shooting out of a machine with mechanical release at 28”, an average of 174 FPS was achieved at a draw weight of 54.2 lbs., while shooting an arrow weighing 590 grains. Like I said; solid performance for a bow at this price point!

To wrap things up, the BearPaw Chapman is a great value, in my opinion. I could recommend this bow with confidence to anyone. It’s 58” compact size makes for a great all-around hunting bow. For beginners, this would be a great bow to grow into, and even for the experienced shooter on a budget, it’s definitely worth a hard look. Something that I think is definitely worth mentioning, is that BearPaw guarantees their Penthalon bows for two years against breaking or de-lamination. I didn’t dig too deeply into what other companies offer in order to conclude an average. But I’ve seen anything from 90 days, up to one year from different mainstream bow manufacturers. Something that I’ll put into the “con” category with this bow, is that the satin finish on the riser seems a bit thin. I noticed that even though I tried to be fairly careful (a LOT more careful than with my personal bows) throughout all phases of the testing, the riser acquired a few scratches a little too easily in my opinion. But all things considered, I still think that this bow is a great value for any level of shooter.

BearPaw 58” Chapman Specs and Details

Price: $379.99

Length: 58” (56” strung length)

Riser: Deep pistol, “Standard” grip. Radiused shelf cut 1/16” past center. 3.5” tall sight window. Constructed of Amazakoue´/Ovangkol (shedua), with ash and Mycarta® accent stripes.

Limbs: Maple core, with black fiberglass. G-10 reinforced tips for use with high performance bow strings.

String: BearPaw “Whisper String” with reinforced loops. 10 strands of proprietary blend of three different high performance bow string material. *Will stretch to a degree, but not recommended for use on older, non-Fast Flight compatible bows.

Available configurations: Right and left hand. Offered in pull weights of 25# – 55# in five-pound increments.

Extras: Comes with protective sleeves for the limbs and riser, Allen wrench, as well as adhesive-backed animal hair rest material and a template for the strike plate.

Performance Details

Average bow speeds with 11 GPP Arrow:

174 FPS @ 28”

182 FPS @ 29”

190 FPS @ 30”

With fingers @ 25”: 158.8 FPS. Shooting machine with mechanical release @ 25”: 165 FPS.

Noise With 11 GPP Arrow: 63.05 DB average.

*Normal conversation averages 60 DB. A muffled cough into the crook of an arm averages 67 DB.