This paper describes an efficient scheme of recognizing unconstrained handwritten numeral strings by a composite segmentation method, which combines both recognition-free and recognition-based segmentation methods. A digit group detector has been designed to separate touching digits from isolated digits by recognition-free segmentation method. Prioritized segmentation points accomplished by analyzing the ligature and touching types segment subsequently touching digits. Four special kinds of candidate segmentation points and six touching types are defined to obtain more stable segmentation points. To evaluate the proposed method, we have experimented with 1,500 numeral strings of the NIST SD19 database and obtained a recognition rate of 91.8%.