If you’ve priced out carbon foam ILF limbs recently, you already know the sticker shock. A quality set from a name brand can run you $150 to $200 or more — and that’s before you’ve bought a riser to put them on. So when I sat down to review the Sanlida Hermit X10 ILF Recurve, the first thing that grabbed me wasn’t the shot, it was the math. This is a complete ILF recurve bow — CNC aluminum riser, carbon foam limbs, string, stringer, and accessories — typically available on Amazon for $249 to $299 depending on the length and draw weight. That’s the whole bow for what a lot of archers are paying for half of one. Full disclosure up front: this isn’t my bow. My buddy Greg Hankins, down in South Carolina, let me borrow his Hermit X10 so I could put it through a proper review. So thanks to Greg for trusting me not to send it back with a busted limb.

First Impressions

Out of the case, the Hermit X10 doesn’t look or feel like a budget bow. The riser is CNC-machined 6061 T6 aluminum with a matte black, low-glare finish — the kind of finish built with hunters in mind, not just target shooters. The limbs are a four-layer carbon fiber wrap over a graphite foam core, what Sanlida calls “cross carbon” construction. In practice, that means a limb stiff enough to snap back fast without feeling like you’re wrestling a two-by-four through the draw.

The riser measures 19 inches, with 23-inch limbs, putting the standard build at 60 inches overall. Sanlida also offers this bow in 62 and 64 inches. Worth noting: if you’ve got a longer draw length, or you just want the same draw weight to feel a little smoother through the cycle, the 62-inch version is worth a look — same weight options, a gentler stack getting there. Brace height sits in the typical 7 to 8 inch ILF range.

And then there’s the grip. It’s small — genuinely one of the more compact ILF grips I’ve held. If you’re coming off a riser with a chunky palm swell, it might take an end or two to adjust. For me, it disappeared in the hand in a way most stock grips don’t, which translated directly into a cleaner release.

Setup and Draw Feel

I set this bow up at 50 pounds on the fingers, which sits right in the middle of this limb series’ weight range. Fair warning: 50 pounds is heavier than what I typically shoot day to day, so it took me a handful of ends before my form caught up and I was grouping the way I wanted to. That adjustment period is on me, not the bow — but if you’re used to a lighter draw weight, budget some warm-up time before you start judging your groups.

Arrow Setup

For this test I ran a handful of 500 spine arrow builds, which lines up with the charts for a 50-pound ILF recurve depending on draw length and point weight. I tried a few point weight combinations to see how forgiving the limbs were to small tuning changes, and honestly, this bow was pretty easy to dial in. I didn’t have to chase paper tears across three different arrow builds — two setups in, I had clean bullet holes.

On the Range

This is where the Hermit X10 earned its reputation. Two things stood out immediately.

Speed. Sanlida markets this as a “high speed” limb design, and the chronograph backed that up — this bow shoots noticeably faster than most ILF limbs in its price range.

Once I settled in, the draw cycle itself was smooth from grip to anchor. No hitching, no stacking right before full draw — a spot where a lot of budget carbon foam limbs start to complain. It builds evenly and settles like it’s already been broken in, straight out of the box.

Noise. This might be the quietest 50-pound recurve I’ve shot this year. Minimal limb noise, no meaningful hand shock. If you’ve shot a recurve that sounds like two boards smacking together on release, this is the opposite of that — and for a hunting setup, that quiet isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between a deer hearing your string and not.

The grip held up through the whole session too — no hot spots, no need to death-grip it to keep it from torquing.

The Price Conversation

Let’s come back to where we started. This full kit typically runs $249 to $299 on Amazon depending on your draw weight and length options — riser, limbs, string, stringer, glove, armguard, string dampers, all included. Go price a single set of name-brand carbon foam limbs and you’ll find plenty that cost that much, or more, by themselves. That’s a complete bow for less than a lot of archers pay for half of one.

Who Should Buy This Bow

If you’re a hunter looking for a quiet, fast takedown ILF setup that doesn’t cost target-bow money, the Hermit X10 checks a lot of boxes. The three-piece takedown design packs down easily, the finish is field-ready, and the performance is well above what the price tag suggests.

Two things to keep in mind: the grip runs small, so if you’ve got larger hands or you’re particular about grip geometry, try to get hands-on with one before you commit. And if you prefer the feel of a wood riser over aluminum, Sanlida also makes the Hermit X8, which I reviewed on the channel a while back — worth watching if you want to compare the two side by side.

Final Verdict

The Sanlida Hermit X10 punches well above its price point. Fast limbs, a quiet shot, and a grip that disappeared in my hand and let me focus on the shot instead of fighting the bow. If you’re building a hunting-weight ILF setup and don’t want to spend target-bow money to get target-bow manners, this one deserves a look. Full video review, including the paper tuning process and range footage, is linked above if you’d like to check it out.