Top 10 - Tips to find your first bow and accessories.

After passing your beginners course and a few months practice you want to move on from your starter wooden bow and buy your own. Take a look at the tips below to ensure you get a good bargain.

1)    Hire, if you can, for a few months from a local club.

2)    Don’t buy vastly heavier limbs straight away in aim to save money thinking you will eventually get used to them. It is a little annoying regularly replacing your limbs when you start archery, but injury, frustration and bad technique that develop from limbs too heavy will bring your score down.

3)    Buy second hand from other club members. You can also try the equipment for a couple of weeks before you buy, if they are willing.

4)    Keep an eye on ebay – seeing as you shouldn’t rush into your first bow, take your time and check ebay once a week for any suitable bargains. You will also get to know how much equipment is selling for and how much you should pay.

5)     Make sure you know what bows you would be interested and which ones would be suitable, so if you see a second hand one then you won’t miss out (for example you may miss bidding on ebay because you needed time finding out if the bow is suitable for you). 

                            

6)    The UK has the Archery interchange forum. There may be other forums dedicated to selling of second hand archery equipment in your country.  

7)    Some archery shops stock second hand equipment – but you often have to ring around as it is not always shown on their internet shops.

8)     Limb exchange and arrow “try out” is offered by companies in the UK such as Perris Archery, Silver Arrow Archery and Stylist Bows.

9)    Some shops such as Perris archery run workshops to allow you to try different bow types. This could be handy if you can’t chose between compound and recurve, especially as it is difficult to try a compound bow set up for someone else.

10)  Keep your costs down. There is no need to buy an expensive bow, technique is more important. In face I have seen many archers shoot amazing rounds with wooden club bows. Equipment that is right for you is more important than expensive equipment. 




Read my other blogs "Beginners guide- Archery Essentials getting started" and "Beginners guide - Things to consider before buying your first bow".