Large & XL Bow Cases (50 inch and Up)

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• Long recurve / target archers – an assembled recurve can be 60″+ and needs a long case.
• Compound target rigs – long front stabilizers add length beyond axle-to-axle.
• All-in-one packers – those who want bow, arrows, and accessories together in one big case.
• Travelers with extra gear – an XL case can hold a second bow or more accessories.

1. Measure your longest dimension. Assembled length for a recurve; axle-to-axle plus any mounted stabilizer for a compound.
2. Add clearance. A few inches so nothing presses on limb tips, cams, or stabilizer ends.
3. Check internal width and depth for accessories and arrow storage.
4. Confirm airline limits if you fly – XL cases can exceed standard checked-baggage size.

More room means more weight and bulk. A 50-inch-plus hard case is heavy before you even add the bow, and it can run into airline oversize fees. Buy the size you actually need – big enough to protect everything without clearance to spare, but not so large it is a burden to move and store.

Airline baggage rules get all the attention, but plenty of large-case owners eventually ship a bow instead of flying with it – sending it to a bow tech, a coach, or a buyer. Ground carriers do not bill by the bow’s actual weight; they bill by dimensional weight, calculated as length x width x height divided by 139 for standard domestic service. A 50 x 16 x 6 inch case works out to roughly 34-35 lb of billable weight from the box’s size alone, whether the bow, foam, and case together actually weigh 15 lb or 25. A large case is mostly air on the inside, and with ground shipping you pay for that air just as much as you pay for the bow.

There is a hard ceiling on standard parcel service, and a 50-inch-plus case can approach it faster than it looks: once a package passes 150 lb or 165 inches of length plus girth, UPS and FedEx both pull it out of normal parcel rates and into freight service, which runs on a completely different pricing structure and usually needs its own quote. A single bow case alone rarely gets there, but pack an XL case together with a second bow, a target, or other gear in one box for a move or a shared shipment, and that combined length-plus-girth number climbs fast. If you are shipping more than the case itself, check the combined figure before you tape the box shut.