Any Bow recommendations for a beginner?

1
My wife has expressed an interest in archery, so I'm planning on picking her up a bow at some point. Only problem is, I really don't know where to start.

Any suggestions on where to start? Or do you need some more info? I don't really know much about bows or the process behind choosing one, total novice.
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Re: Any Bow recommendations for a beginner?

3
You'll want to decide whether compound or "traditional." I prefer traditional, though I shoot both.

If your wife is older than about 18, you'll want to start with a very light bow, or she may lose interest very quickly. Big5 has el cheapo recurves of fiberglass for about thirty bucks, at about 15 pounds. You'll want to start her at like ten feet away from your bag. Really. Limit her shots to about ten a day, every other day to give her muscles a chance to recoup, for about a month at ten feet. Then step her back to maybe fifteen feet and increase the number of shots. A month later, step back again and increase the number of shots by five.

Injuries may happen quite easily. When shooting, one does not realize how hard the body is working, so it's easy to over do.

At a certain moment, maybe three, maybe six months, the little bow will feel like a toy to her, so you take her to the local archery shop along with your check book.

Playing archery is a very long term sport. From my perspective, it's best to start way slow. Work on fundamentals. Go slowly. A good piece of strategy is to look into theories like Kyudo. Find vids of Byron Ferguson. Have her imagine a straight line from her pulling elbow, through her holding hand, through the arrow rest, and out to the target. Have her visualize her release so her pulling hand comes straight back along that line. She's establishing muscle memory.

Here's a vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LceBNHj1 ... re=g-all-c

Practice makes permanent, so at the beginning go slow and work on fundamentals to establish clean muscle memory.

Archery is hella fun for me, so I hope she likes it, too.

Best of luck, always.

CDFingers
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Re: Any Bow recommendations for a beginner?

6
If just over $100 is an acceptable budget, you can get a Samick Polaris at the lightest limb weight, and if needed, get heavier limbs later for about $50. My spousal critter bought herself an ILF bow with 20# limbs to start on, but found that the combination of the heft of the metal riser and the draw weight was giving her shoulder problems, so we added a 15# Polaris in the 66" version to the collection, and that is working better for her.

The Polaris and the Sage have interchangeable limbs, BTW, so you can choose between white and black limbs. IIRC only the Sage limbs have phenolic tips that are compatible with exotic "fast-flight" strings. They also cost a few bucks more.
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Re: Any Bow recommendations for a beginner?

9
This "arrow chasing" business is why I suggest for beginners to start about ten feet away from the backstop.

There are so many factors that go into a single arrow shot that frustration easily appears, and frequently. Go-getting the arrows is considerably less fun that shooting them, so in the beginning it is well to reduce the chase and increase the shooting.

If the shoulders are not prepared for the unique strains that archery creates, pain and eventual abandonment because of it may result: one does not begin to become a marthoner by running a marathon. Once this is explained to the beginning archer, he or she will not feel "in the wading pool" and thereby embarrassed. Sometimes numbers help: If it's a fifteen pound bow and the archer shoots ten arrows, that's a hundred and fifty pounds of work done by the muscles.

Go slowly at first. On inclement days, pulling the bow and slowly relaxing the pull is a good way to work up muscles without getting wet or cold.

Personally I prefer to work equally all my muscles to prevent non symmetrical development of them, which is why I shoot from both sides--there are also some interesting challenges in the brain resulting from this practice. Moreover, symmetrical work on muscles also produces a corresponding symmetrical stress on bones. The result is a balanced development and good posture when not shooting.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Any Bow recommendations for a beginner?

10
CDFingers wrote:This "arrow chasing" business is why I suggest for beginners to start about ten feet away from the backstop.

There are so many factors that go into a single arrow shot that frustration easily appears, and frequently. Go-getting the arrows is considerably less fun that shooting them, so in the beginning it is well to reduce the chase and increase the shooting.

If the shoulders are not prepared for the unique strains that archery creates, pain and eventual abandonment because of it may result: one does not begin to become a marthoner by running a marathon. Once this is explained to the beginning archer, he or she will not feel "in the wading pool" and thereby embarrassed. Sometimes numbers help: If it's a fifteen pound bow and the archer shoots ten arrows, that's a hundred and fifty pounds of work done by the muscles.

Go slowly at first. On inclement days, pulling the bow and slowly relaxing the pull is a good way to work up muscles without getting wet or cold.

Personally I prefer to work equally all my muscles to prevent non symmetrical development of them, which is why I shoot from both sides--there are also some interesting challenges in the brain resulting from this practice. Moreover, symmetrical work on muscles also produces a corresponding symmetrical stress on bones. The result is a balanced development and good posture when not shooting.

CDFingers
Lots of very good advice here. You da man. And one more thing, choose your fletching color wisely so to be able to see them muther freakers. NO CAMO!
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