School me on bows

[Hussar]

Hey guys

I'm looking to get into archery. It seems like a great side hobby to firearms and shooting in my backyard seems very enticing. Anyways, I'm looking at compound bows and I'm saving up right now. How much should I spend? Any technique tips? Anything you wish you did/bought starting out? Thanks

 

[Spanky1]

Well, if you know nothing about shooting a bow your not a unique creature. All of us in here, at one time, knew nothing about archery. The most important thing is making sure the bow you buy fits you. The more adjustable the bow, the easier it will be to fit to you. You don't know your draw length, your draw weight, or your arrow size. Find a REPUTABLE pro-shop, they can help you out with all of this, but don't get caught up in the moment. Remember the salesmen's, or salesperson's, first job is to sale you things and if they get you all fired up it's not hard to spend upwards of $800.00. Remember your are just staring out, you need a bow, a release, a quiver, arrows and a target, that's it. Hope this helped.

 

[drewga11]

I'm no expert, but I'll try to help out a bit. First thing you need to do is figure out your draw length. Having the correct draw length makes a huge difference in both accuracy and comfort. Once you've figured out the correct draw length, I would suggest buying a used bow. Some setups can cost up to $2k for everything, but there is no need to spend that kind of money, especially when just starting out. If you decide you don't like it or it's not for you or whatever, you don't want to have a ton of money tied up in it. Bows are not like guns, they do not hold value for very long at all. I would suggest staying around $500-600 to start out. You should be able to get a pretty good, lightly used setup in that range. You could also buy some lower end new bows already completely set up with low end accessories and the only other things you'd have to buy would be a release, arrows, and a target. Diamond and PSE both offer reasonably priced complete bow packages

Do not try to be all macho and get the heaviest draw weight you think you can pull. Its much more enjoyable if you are able to shoot for a couple of hours with a 50# draw than if you get tired after 20-30 min because you had to have a 70# draw. Its also a lot easier to work on your form and your accuracy with a lower draw weight.

Make sure your arrows are the right stiffness for the draw weight and arrow length (you will most likely need to have your arrows cut to an appropriate length). Make sure you do not get your arrows cut too short. Arrows that are too long can always be cut more. Arrows that are too short are basically useless. Most aluminum arrows are not meant for compound bows, though there are a couple of exceptions, but they're mostly hybrid aluminum/carbon arrows. Also, never shoot your arrows without some kind of point of them.

I'm going to quit now so this doesnt turn into a book. I'd also suggest going over to the forums on ArcheryTalk and doing some reading. There are a lot of dumb***es and bullcrap to sift through, but there is also a quite a bit of good info there.

 

[drewga11]

Well, if you know nothing about shooting a bow your not a unique creature. All of us in here, at one time, knew nothing about archery. The most important thing is making sure the bow you buy fits you. The more adjustable the bow, the easier it will be to fit to you. You don't know your draw length, your draw weight, or your arrow size. Find a REPUTABLE pro-shop, they can help you out with all of this, but don't get caught up in the moment. Remember the salesmen's, or salesperson's, first job is to sale you things and if they get you all fired up it's not hard to spend upwards of $800.00. Remember your are just staring out, you need a bow, a release, a quiver, arrows and a target, that's it. Hope this helped.

Might want to add at least a sight to that list, and maybe a stabilizer.

 

[Hussar]

Thanks guys gonna check out some bows tomorrow then I'll report back to ya. So 500-600 is a decent budget?

 

[drewga11]

Thanks guys gonna check out some bows tomorrow then I'll report back to ya. So 500-600 is a decent budget?

I edited my post again, sorry. That would probably be my max suggested budget for a beginner. You can get some decent new bow packages for around $400 (i.e., PSE Stinger, Bear Cruzer, and some others) and then get a release, arrows and a target.

 

[Brent1967]

Congratulations on getting into archery, it's a blast and can be frustrating but it's just like anything else practice practice practice! Don't shoot until your exhausted either, when you get tired or stop shooting consistently, put it down for a while. Even the cheap arrows are too expensive to loose because your having too much fun shooting or your buddy keeps challenging you to a game of knock. Also inspect the overall condition of your rig pretty frequently, the string/D loop can fray in stress points, limbs can splinter crack ect. and you don't wanna be at full draw and something fails but in my honest opinion Shooting bows is a very satisfying challenging an addictive hobby so do it up an enjoy it man! Good luck

 

[24on48hunting]

I'd definitely go with a bow that has a brace height of 7 inches. They are more forgiving to flaws in one's form.
An older Mathews would be a great choice if it fits you.
Not much more that you could add to the previous posts, they pretty much covered it all.