At what stage did you buy your first Equipment?

[tel]

Originally Posted by darthter

No clicker included......not interested!!! ...

(obviously went to a club where they think two hours is too early to use one )

[mark b]

Janice,

I have just been through exactly the same thing. Finished my beginners course a few weeks ago and have been shooting a wooden trainer bow and a set of unmatched arrows ( unfortuneately my club has lots and lots of 29 inch and less arrows, but only 5 mis-matched 30 inchers) The thing that started to get to me was not being able to gt any improvement in groups, and I think a lot of that is due to the mis matched kit.... So I dived in, went to Custom Built Archery who were absolutely brilliant, and bought a Seb Flute intermediate starter kit. £400 for the full kit including 12 platinum plus arrows and a Striker aluminium case was pretty reasonable I thought, plus shot a Winstar and Hoyt eclipse first too to see which I liked the feel of best....
I guess If my club had had kit which was more suitable I might have waited a bit longer, but I am pretty sure my draw weight is not going to change much now ( i used to shoot a bit 10 years ago at uni, but never had my own kit) and the approach I took was that limbs are relatively cheap even if I do decide to change them in 6 months time....

I definitely recommend CBA though.

Mark

[moo-mop]

I started archery in October had a bow on hire from the club (wooden take down circa 30lbs, pin for sight - this was a bit ago) all through my first indoor season during which my pb portsmouth was somthing like 545. I did have my own tab and quiver and ali arrows of a correct length to use a clicker.

When I went outside I quickly realised this wasn't going to cut it and got a second hand radian riser, sight, stabilisers etc and 36lbs limbs and ACEs. A couple of months later I got some further limbs (40lbs) and arrows (I was getting high bowmen scores by this time). These snapped after about 9 months and I then got a 42lbs limbs at half price on warranty.

I didn't really replace anything then apart from arrows sets every year.

You will need to go through a few pairs of limbs (and hence arrows) in your first months/years outside depending on how quickly you progress. There isn't a way round that apart from to know this and not buy top of the range, find second hand stuff etc.

[spavo]

When I first started I took about 3 months to get my first bow. A wooden takedown this was before you could get on the internet so had to drive to Wales Archery to get it.

Our club does not encourage any new archers to purchase equipment for 6 weeks at least after our beginners course we are lucky to have a lot of equipment, We really do try and drum this into our beginners. But this year we have had two new member who have bought equipment from the internet which was completely wrong unfortunately they wouldn't listen to what the coaches told them and they have already bought new limbs in under a month.

[the badger]

I started my training and after a few weeks went out and bought a bow and all the gear.

Used it for a few weeks then bought a flat bow (underbowed, have now sold the first bow, thinking of selling the flatbow and have ordered a BD from Border,) so a waste of money the first two.

[addo]

Brought a trainer bow and some arrows before my beginners course.Donated it to the club at the end of my beginners course.

Brought complete kit at end of beginners course and sold it all 8 months later.

Above represents a waste of £200.Shoulda used club equipment for a couple of months before buying

[JaniceH]

Ive now just finished my beginners course and Ive been told not to buy any equipment apart from finger tab, quiver and arm guard. Because Im left handed but right eye dominant Im having to shoot right handed which means that Im currently shooting a really light bow as I just dont have the strength. So it would be completely daft of me to buy anything for a good while yet. We are lucky in that the club does have a very large range of bows to borrow.

The other thing is that I had a go at a compound bow last Sunday....and I think I prefer compound

I dont have the money to buy several bows if I 'outgrow' them, so Ive got to wait. But I do get frustrated that the sights are always different, and that next week someone else may need the bow that Ive been using.

[Ued3]

I watched the Archery at the Athens Olympics and thought it was incredible.

I wasn't sure if i would be able to do it myself so i phoned a local club, told them about my disability and they told me to come along and have a try.

They thought i should try a compound bow first so i did...not for me i'm afraid (sorry compounders ) I fell in love with shooting the recurve almost instantly and actually got a 6 gold end at 10 yards after a few goes..YAY !!

The very next day i went on ebay and bought myself a full set up, Hoyt Avalon Plus, border limbs, beiter stabilisers and some ACE's.. not all of it was suitable for me at that time but i just KNEW i was in it for the long haul.

This isn't something i would recommend to everyone unless you are absolutely sure Archery is for you.

Oh and get some advice from experienced archers before buying your kit, could save you some money in the long term.

Cheers
Mick

[mark b]

Just as a follow up to my earlier post.....

I shot my new kit for the first time last night... Our club uses the Osprey Archery training program once you have finished the beginners course. Basically, you start off shooting 2dozen arrows at 20 yards, followed by 2 dozen at 30 yards, FITA scoring. Once you have scored over a set number, you move up in distance to 40 and 30 yards, again once you have reached the set score, move up again to 50 and 40 yards, carry on till your shooting 100 yards.

The best I did wit hthe wooden club kit was 205 at 20 and 30 yards. last night after 12 arrows to set my sight I got 364!!! A massive increase and due I am sure to properly matched and set up kit! Cant wait for tonight now to go shoot again..!!!

[wilit]

In elementary school we had tons of fund raisers, and depending on the amount of junk you sold, that would dictate what level of "prize" you would win. Luckily I sold just enough over-priced candy bars to get a 15# long bow setup. It came with a tab made from what I imagine was a dead naugahide reclining chair, a quiver and arm guard made from .4 micron thick vinyl and 6 wooden arrows.

My second bow setup I just picked up 2 weeks ago. Still no lessons. So far I haven't hit anything I didn't intend to.