Buying your first bow and on-wards to success
This is going to be a massive post, so I apologise for that now. I once kept a wordpress blog which I stopped using, but on there I had a post on the above topic. The president of my old club at university came across this post the other day and wanted to share it with their new archers, so I’ve rewrote and updated it for this purpose.
Buying your first bow can be a daunting experience. You look online and you see so many options, different risers, limbs, strings ect., and all in different lengths and sizes. So what’s best for you?
Well the best place to start is with a budget and I suggest a starting budget of £300.00. All the prices listed in the recommended products were gathered from Merlin Archery, but the products (or very similar) will be available at most other stores.
Left or right? 23 or 25 inch?
If you draw the bow string back with your right hand then you’ll need a right handed bow to hold in your left hand – yes terminology is confusing – and vice versa for drawing with your left hand.
The “default” sized riser is 25 inches, and this would be the size I advise you to buy, unless you’re really short (under 5ft) then a 23 (or even 21) inch one may be a more appropriate size for you.
Stark Real (£82.50); SF Premium Plus (£137.76); Rio Supercast (£129.00)
These come in 3 sizes and the length that you choose will be dependent on your height. Here’s a rough guide: <5”4’ short limbs; 5”4’-6”0’ medium limbs; >6”0’ long limbs. I’m 6”3’ and so I have long limbs.
This is really dependent on your strength and I can’t give you any guidelines on which weight to choose, other than don’t get one too heavy for you. When you’re at the shop to buy the bow, ask to try out limbs of different poundage – NB: limb poundage increases in increments of 2 pounds.
Core Ignite (£61.22); SF Axiom+ (£64.38); Krossen Xenia (£82.02); Mybo Synergy (£99.00)
There’ll be a range of different length strings to choose from and which one you need will be decided by the length of your riser and limbs added together, here’s a table to help you out showing the string lengths (in inches) required for the different set ups:
25″ Riser w/ Long limbs = 70″; w/ Medium limbs = 68″; w/ Short limbs = 66″
23″ Riser w/ Long limbs = 68″; w/ Medium limbs = 66″; w/ Short limbs =64″
PRO – Fast Flight (£8.48); Flex Recurve (£12.00)
Cheap brass ones, some string or even dental floss work as nocking points. The shop will fit them to the string or ask your equipment officer.
One word of advice, don’t buy too cheap a sight. Get one with a long (~8”) arm as this will mean greater accuracy when used properly. Other than that, it’s up to you. I’m quite an aesthetic archer so just have to have anything that’s silver!
Phoenix Recurve (£15.00); SF Axiom (£26.94); Joomong Scorpion (£22.32)
A good thing to have to get used to the weight from the start and brings your new bow more into balance. There’s little difference between the cheap and expensive ones, well there is, but not enough that someone new would notice the difference, so go with a cheap one. That’s all the advice I can give, what length and weight stabiliser to get is totally down to feel – if it feels good in hand, then it’s the one for you.
Mybo Inceptor (£29.50); SF Axiom Plus with dampener (£22.50)
A plastic stick on rest is fine, even used by some world class archers, but a metal rest offers that bit more adjustability and a pressure button (also called a plunger) is essential for better arrow position and flight. The more expensive variants off that bit much more adjustability.
SF Premium Magnetic Rest (£4.33); Spigarelli Evolution Rest (£12.46)
SF Forged (£11.68); Krossen Xenia LEO (£13.46)
What do you think you need this for? A pocket or two on it is preferable as you can store the trinkets you need on the shooting line – like tab, guard, food, pen etc. How much you want to spend is really down to you as you’ll most likely not change this for many years.
EXE Vector (£8.42); Fivics Miracle (£15.95); Mybo 4Q (£19.50)
Don’t skimp here. You’ll want one that’s comfortable in the hand and able to protect your fingers from the string.
Fivics Joomong (£7.96); Decut [ACO] Hockii tab (I highly recommend this one) (£10.43)
You can buy one, or make one out of shoelace. I prefer the latter as this will be a tailored length for you and so feels better.
They all do the same job so this choice is purely down to aesthetics so there’s no need for recommendations. Which one is totally up to you, but you need one nonetheless.
It’s embarrassing needing to ask all the time for others to pull your arrows out of the target for you, so make life easier for you and them by getting a puller. Most work quite well, but the ones by Flex are generally the best for gripping.
There are ways to string a bow without a stringer, but I wouldn’t advise doing them in practise. The simplest and safest method for stringing your bow is with a stringer, what type again is down to you.
Now you don’t want your bow to be kicked about or get all dirty on the ground. Give it a stand to sit on for you to display new shiny bow!
Cartel RX-103 (£8.23); SF Chrome Bow Stand (£20.70)
Now for something to put all this in to carry, store and protect your investment.
You have the wraps (or roll up) cases like the Mybo Aeon Roll Up Case (£20.00); Backpacks like the Avalon Classic PLUS (£32.93); or hard cases like the Negrini Bow Case (£27.98)
So this pricing is based on between buying 6 ready made Easton Tributes and 12 Easton XX75 Platinums. Both are good arrows, with the plats that bit better (only a bit). Make sure that your first arrow is an aluminium one though – these are the most durable arrow and can always be bent back in shape so the misses you have through development won’t make you cringe as much.
In terms of quantity, you’ll want at least 6 for indoor shooting, or 8 if you’re going to be competing outdoors (indoor rounds have ends of 3 arrows, so you want 3 + spares, and outdoor rounds usually have ends of 6, so 6 + spares), but it’s always a good idea to have many spares and buy a set of 12.
You’ll be measured up for arrows at the shop after you’ve chosen your riser and limbs – these will not be exact to your draw length, these will be a bit longer to account for any development in your draw (and arrows can always be cut down, but not made longer again). I advise 2 3/4″ fletch for your new arrows and whatever nocks they come with.
I’ve finished now! Hope this helps all you new archers - don’t be afraid to ask me a question using the link at the top of the page.
