As the bow technician at Apex I thank you sincerely for making this video! Hahah. I'm oh so tired of people buying equipment online without making any effort to think about what they are buying and if it will suit them. I don't deal with any online work, just customers in store amd I make sure every customer that buys a bow, leaves with acceptable form and a well fitted bow. I see all too often people who return bows they purchased online which they've broken or can't pull back and blame the equipment. Even though we provide suggestions on our website as to what bow they should be using and how to set it up, many buyers are too ignorant to even bother and believe they can just go and shoot. If it was up to me I wouldn't sell bows online, just equipment and parts. But hey, someone has to make money somehow. All in all great vid and I hope alot of new archers see this. Cheers, lachlan. Ps. Are you competing at all this year?
Thanks to your and other's excellent archery vids, I don't feel I've embarked on archery uninformed. There are clubs in my area, but I'm not at all interested in the club experience. I have a nice backyard with a very well-protected and safe shooting space. Also, if I've developed poor technique, at least they are my own personal flaws and not somebody else's. In the end, I'm happy with my archery experience so far. and I haven't had to spend a moment on the city streets and freeways burning up gas and wasting time getting to a club. As always, your advice is very much appreciated.
Thanks for doing your instructional videos! Others like myself are still watching them after all these years. I bought a more expensive riser online and pieced it together after doing research. 30# was noticeably heavy but I'm enjoying the workout and have been bulking up rather quickly. The carbon arrows I bought are awesome and only 100 spine off. When I upgrade to 40# limbs they should match perfectly. I might change to 70" limbs as well for 66" might be a tad small for a 28.5" reach I believe. I understand the chaos of online ordering, but for myself I'm happy everything is turning out well. Thanks again NUSensei!
I've very recently gotten into Archery. As in, I've been thinking about giving it a try and went to a range for the first time today! I had a blast and I want to continue to take it up as a hobbie and find a club or something so I can use my own equipment. I stumbled onto your vids and I thought they're really great - funny and informative. Your vids specifically on buying equipment (like this one) are really helpful for someone without much idea of what they're doing, and want to ease into the sport. I'll probably continue to use equipment provided by ranges for the time being until I choose to commit. So thanks, keep up the good work!
I got into archery after being out for years and never having had any training outside of Boy Scout camp 40 years ago. I did my research, asked questions, and selected the equipment which I then bought online. I saved hundreds over what a store would have charged me. But, I screwed up. I was told a 28lb bow was fine for my purposes, but I'm a smart guy so I bought a heavier bow. Took me weeks to build up the strength to manage the bow, which was time wasted on the range. If I had been smart I would have started out with rented gear to figure out what would work for me, first. Best 100$ I spent was on lessons, which improved my form.
Thank you for making all these videos. Definitely 5 star content. Keep it up. I'm no archer but figured i had better be one in case apocalypse comes along and I've run out of ammo and shotgun shells. Now i'll go look for a beginner bow. (there are no clubs where i live. ) cheers from NZ.
I recently purchased two bows for my partner, and I. They were Samick TigerShark (Gen 3 Sage) recurve bows, on sale from the only buyer on Amazon that shipped internationally from the US. They were cheaper than what the Sage sells for in some stores in AU. They also shipped the bows with two sets of strings each. I purchased a 20#, and 45#. I can draw the 29# with some effort (I'm a big guy in poor shape). I intend to keep using the 29# to begin, and pick up the 45# sometimes until I am used to it. Arrows I chose were Easton Powerflight 400, with 85gr tips. My next arrow shafts will be 340, as they are better suited to the 45#, because the 29# belongs to my partner, and she's turned it into a purple bow, with purple limb decals, purple magnetic arrow rest, purple Easton Deluxe arrow quiver, she even just bought a purple cotton polo shirt. I encourage her to be proud of her new sport, which she claims to have liked for a some time. I realize if we are both shooting, I may need to buy a second set of 29# limbs just for target fun, but I did buy the TigerShark draw weights for future reasons, and you can't buy TigerShark limbs in AU. I'm happy to put Spyder, or Sage limbs on my riser, same thing. I do want to fletch all my own custom arrows, and already have a field kit put together. Yes, it costs hundreds of dollars, but it's acomplishment, and enjoyment toward a recreational sport I know we'll love. I've only ever visited a club twice. Once to talk about membership, and once to clean up a plastic environmental disaster from butts that got flooded through the bush. I've learn't a lot from your videos David, and have read, and applied some other online material. My next bow will likely be a 50# Bear Takedown 64" to better match my draw length. I saw one review of a Bear Kodiak, where the man had a 29.5" draw length, and I'd say he tried his best to tune the brace height, but the bow was still noisy due to the limbs extending beyond verticle at his draw length, which dows see the string form a large open 'V' that slaps the limb uopn release. In this light, and in my mind, having a better matched bow height may not be such a bad idea. I also find 62" to be ok for me too. Just some thoughts seeing as I watched your other video regarding this. Anyway, my point being is blind buys on the internet aren't always a failure. I think I've done really well, and bought with confidence they will be used well. I will join the local club, right after I have equipped ourselves, and learn't some bad techniques, and form, all by what I see on the web, but do need an experience teacher to see my mistakes and correct them. For now, I have no choice but to practice in the bush, on makeshift targets, until I can afford the family rate club fees.
Are you a coach? as you have a gift for explaining things in a way that is easy to understand and gives off an air of knowledge that a lot of "experts" struggle to explain in plane language. I am a qualified coach and use your videos quite a lot as reference material for my improvers and beginners alike... Subscribed...
NUSensei I thought you would be something like that as you have the ability to explain things simply. I too am level1 but looking to move on to Level 2
Nusensei you´re absolutely right. I want to start compound shooting and my idea was to buy a Hoyt PodiumX and X10´s. But I think I´m gonna take my friends advice and get something more apropriate (and cheap) to get started. Thanks for this video.
Very nice video. I impulse brought my bow (samick sage, of course) without doing any research first and got it in 55 lb assuming a 22 year old fairly well built male could draw but it was absolutely crippling to learn with. I have since dropped it down to 40 lb and replaced my 10 for 18 dollar fibreglass arrows for some quality hand made and it is running a lot smoother.
I bought an eBay Mongolian wooden bow and arrow kit and is 50lbs. Is great for a beginner they are not that cheap. $150 and up for the good eBay Mongolian kits. Once you retire this beginners stage you can decide if you like archery or let it go because this art is not for everybody like anything else. I think is a good start because the true archer will seek a better bow and arrow after this experience like I did. Unfortunately many archery stores try to up sell you to Compound and or fiberglass and now the new material bow’s
As you said NuSensei, we do buy things impulsively. I bought mine semi-impulsively, although, I did have experience in the past in archery to know what to look for. After my two decades break from archery hunting, wife wanted to go hunting with a bow and arrows. I purchased her the Diamond Infinite Edge package. It's not only for her, but it was also for the entire family of 4, as well as guests that may want to try out archery. Surely enough, the $$$ investment was a blazing success. As you have well institute the methodology of archery paths for beginner, go to the club/range and get the feel for the archery equipment before purchase. When you're ready, go to a pro shop that will offer the proper line up of equipment, ONLY after you've done extensive researches online. It took me a good 6 months of researches and asking those who have the equipment about their experiences before I made my decisions. When you truly believe you're going to stick with the sport, rather than purchasing a cheap bow, try to invest in a bow that will last, with as many adaptable potential as possible for a growing archer, or archers, even if you have to put out a pretty penny. Once again NuSensei, great job with your videos. I enjoyed your videos wholeheartedly. A rustic archer like me still learns quite a few new things from an elite archer like you.
+Tamesumstrange The LACK of experience only apply to those to hand the same setting bow from person to person, of varied heights, weights, arm lengths, and within the same settings. Who says that I simply hand them the same unmodified bow settings from person to person, on the exact same day? For the LACK of experience part, I believe you have just that, without first evaluate the person's knowledge of the gears before rambling your mouth, placing unfounded ideological critics on another person. Now, let's reveal your age, field experience, and gears knowledge forward, to see how well you might actually know before you fire up your mouth to get yourself into more troubles in the near future. Just my way of teaching you professionalism in life.
+Tamesumstrange It appears the expressionism of experience perspective is displaced by the over zealous pride as a pro. It's quite understandable various people require bow specifics for their body strengths and weaknesses. However, the gears is about adapting to the range of users in the field. I want them to use and understand their single set of gears to fully comprehend all its abilities to offer. We are not a specialty bows shop owner, tournament level, nor specialized in bows just for the hunting. We are all around "generalists" trained for survival modes. My entire family of 5 is trained to know their gears, using anything available to them, and readapt, and to be sufficient using their tools they acquired, no matter if the tools have been fitted to others before. Of course, with that being said, tools are refitted for their specific needs and proper training in a long period of time. We have two of everything to use, include compound bows, received, and crossbows. Aside from bows, we cover in various firearms, hand-to-hand combats, as well as short range hand weapons. I am 40, hunted with a self made recurve since I was 4, and specialized in survival mode after my days in the military. My youngest is a 6 years old girl, that can use our general compound Infinity Edge modified for her brother at 9 years of age, and provide a placement shot grouping of 4x4 at 20yds . So, I've trained them well to adapt, and that's the purpose in life. Anyone can shell out tons of cash, get a well fitted set of gears, but what's the purpose of having such gears to show off rather than using the gears to train for what they are intended? If you are speaking of higher accuracy will yield greater hunting results, time to toss you a few life lessons that perfect fitted gears will fail on you, regardless of the immaculate conditions you've maintained the gears. Murphy's Laws will make your prideful self into a dying humble person in a split moment. So, to wrap it up in a single point, it's about professionalism, either by from a pro to a rookie, or a shop owner to a buyer/spectator. If I have met you in the field or a shop,I would have ignored you and warn all those around me to not discuss/do business with you, regardless of your years of experience. Your prideful self will only create conflicts between you and those around you.
+Tamesumstrange Rather than being mad or even care so much for your professional criticsm, I simply point out your portion of arrogance, since you like to use that terminology now. I use the prideful expression to save you your ill-mannerism among professionals. However, since you like to use the word "arrogance", thus, I will bring out the fat carving tool. I've worked with professionals who are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, who have 1/3 the arrogance you are exhibiting. We attend ranges just around our areas, not only to improve our skills, and also to be well tuned to our gears and our bodies. And yes, unlike you, we don't own our entire shop filled with bows to play with. However, we are not short of tools to adjust gears to our needs, according to our growths. We have talked to more than a few dozens professionals in botht the hunting and archery fields quite extensively, and tried out over 40 bows with at least 30 hours invested per bow to see which bow suit best from person to person, for true range to field survival. And yes, we carry extra parts and tools for long range expeditions. Unlike your arrogance attitude, rather than nurture anyone who are into the sport of gears, utilizing encouraging words in your expertise and guidance, like NuSensei, your initial response is " LACK". In professional world, the expression in your methodology is known as warring declaration. You are still way too young and a greenshorn to understand what true professionalism really is. Time to get off your high horse, humble yourself, and be more gentle on your advisory statements than some moronic statement that outright demeans a person, whether the person is a rookie, or a pro. As to truly teach you our gears, we don't invest in gears to simply shoot at targets to earn points and to show off our ability to hit accurately at long distant. We invest in gears to outright abuse them to be in the fields, in al sort of conditions. Thus, we focus on adaptation to gears. Before you provide I'll sounded advices to your clients and future investors, please, I beg of you to foremost, first humble your arrogance to a minimal, then guide them with utmost respects using field logics over personified awards on your shelves, since there are plenty of truly professionals that will dwarf you in experiences in all fields when it comes to selling products. It's not about the line of products they sell, but it's about their humble abilities to communicate. I don't need to continue to create a firestorm of arguments, pushing one's ideological rambles over the other, rather, I just want stop this mindlessness of over-the-top arrogant attitude you primarily inititaed.
+Tamesumstrange And to those who read the person's responses above, I beg of you to best size the egos of the professionals you are dealing with before dealing with them. Foul mouth, ill-humbling, displacement of other professionals' opinions are merely a precursors of poor investments to come, especially at 25 yrs of age no less. Please make sure to provide me your business info so I may warn others to stay clear from you, if you dare.
+Tamesumstrange My social skills is quite adequate to get me through the days, dealing with multi million dollars cases and negotiations, thank you very much. Best to check your social skills in dealing with professionalism in the real world. Rather than boasting about how accurate you are in one specialty, restricting your ability to learn and adapt to different life scenarios and requirements to grow, it's best to place yourself in a more humbling path to see things a bit more clearly, than through a fogged up window you called your self righteous life. When you can survive using nothing but your selected gears alone for the next 30 days, depending on no external aids, then come talk to me with your proposal on the gears you want to sell to me, my families, friends, and military force buddies. Otherwise, it's best to grow up, act more professional, and stop being a lowly educated morons with just a single skill to offer to society. I care not to satisfy your superior complex on the bows. If you care to wager your entire business, possibly your very life, on survival mode to whatever bow and essential gears you want to carry, we'll talk. Otherwise, I'll continue to seek more humbling professional bodies to discuss our needs with, in order fulfill our equipment lineups. Best to you and your pro career-shop life. It may be sweet, but it will definitely be short as you continue to progress in this pattern. God bless, and continue to grow.
Looking into buying a recurve bow, and your videos help a bunch, thanks! This is actually the 10th or something I've watched so far :D Also, thumbs up for the tweetybird on the door :)
I just bought the cheapest compound i could find 2 years ago and i am still really satisfied, true 55 pound took some getting used to and I still have no d-loop or nockingpoint but im just shooting for the fun of it, not to consistently hit targets in a club, so while your advise is very good for people who want to shoot in clubs and want to be good at shooting, if someone just wants to do some backyard shooting they can easily get away with cheap impulse buying. By the way I love your Videos even if most don't apply to what I do.
Everything is really true, but same applies to shops.... in breaf i went to try archery at club (2 times), desided i like it, went to shop, bought bow like samick (28lbs) and arrows shop assistant told aluminium will be ok for start (spine was 1900 or smth like that). They were really ok but they broke easily (after 2-3 hours almost all arrows were not straight) , so i decided to buy new ones but no aluminium as i was in other part of town i visited other shop and asked for arrows for 28lbs bow - what i've got were easton carbon arrows BUT 360 spine.... it was like shooting wooden logs (now they are waiting when i will buy something around 65lbs) instructor in club explained me what spine i need and i bought new ones that suit perfect. The fun thing a week after buying correct arrows i saw a guy in the club who got 65lbs compound for birthday from friends (he never shoot before, and told he is ok without instructor) he had like 40 arrows (5-10 of the same type) to try out which are better among them he had exactly the same aluminium arrows i started with, needles to say that this arrow didnt survive first shot and instructor decided to explain him which he needs
Yeah ,,, I watched a bunch of different channels that were reviewing beginner bows for less than two hundred bucks ... I got the traditional Hungarian recurve ( $ 100 ) and the black hunter recurve ( $ 115 ) ,,, one of the reasons was because they didn't have a specific Arrow weight ... You know I didn't want to jump into that ,,, but when I get my next recurve ... I'm certainly going to have to know it ,,, thanks ...
I would have loved to go to an archery store in order to help me get into archery... sadly there isn't one for 200km around me, and most online archery stores don't ship to Canadian PO boxes, so amazon was my only option for arrows!
all the conflicting information online made shopping for a bow extremely stressful and difficult, if I didn't already like archery, there would be no way I would have bought a bow! No one seems to have consistent information
One of my local clubs offers 6 months of free shooting when you buy a bow setup by them including basic beginner bows. I bought a PSE Nighthawk at #35 and my wife a PSE Razorback at #25. I went in there like a tough guy going yeah I'm looking for a 40# or 45# bow and it was my first purchase. The 35# was the right decision. I can shoot hours on it with only a mild soreness developing after 4 hours on a Saturday. The pro-shop has a workshop on site so any issues with my bow I bring to them and they handle it for me. Best investment I ever made even if it was $30.00 over Amazon prices the service and the 6 months of shooting make it worth it.
I bought my arrows from amazon, however luckily for me I knew already what my spine was and how long I needed the arrow. My end result.. I still have the ones I purchased and they are very good arrows, but I bought my bow from bass pro shops. 120 bucks I got a really nice hunting recurve bow but I only do target practice for now
Go to a club and learn the basic's. I have only attended 6 club shoot's and have already qualified at the 20 metre range ! how ? with a little coaching and some handy pointers from the experienced club members. And by not starting out with a too powerful bow Go to a proper archery shop to buy your bow's and arrow's ! if you can not walk in to a shop find a good one on line, my personal checker is to see what they stock in olympic style recurve bow's, shop's that sell these will have the good brands. I have been looking at on line store's, on amazon and on eBay for about 4 months now and there is a lot of cheap crappy gear out there and buying a top of the line bow first time out is not going to make you a better archer either. When you are starting out a 20lb club bow will put arrow's on the target just as good as a 70lb compound with all the bell's and whistles. Finally do your home work before you buy, shop's are there to take your $$$ and you really have no one to blame but yourself if you end up making a stupid purchase.
I recommend consulting with an experienced club member or some other experienced archer. I thought I covered all the bases and did all the research when buying my equipment but it turned out when I brought my equipment to the club a experienced archer at the club pointed out that the arrows I bought were not suited to be used with a whisker biscuit arrow rest because the vanes were too soft and I didn't even consider that.
I only bought cheap amazon arrows to practice form technic and release.. when I get comfortable with my form I will be getting good arrows from a archery site... Till then shoot the cheap ones in order to learn proper technic.
Hi NUSensei. It might be that there is a potential chance that the target viewer, of an instructional video aimed at exactly them, may NOT view it first?! I wish & hope that they would view THIS instructional video before buying what you've warned about in here! Nevertheless, on the off chance it gets watched and it helps your target veiwer, I am greatful it reamains here as a source. :-)
I am new to archery and I did about 2 weeks of research online for both the bow and the arrows. I ended up buying a Bear Instinct (2007) @ 65Lb and 30 draw. My arms are long and I used @ 2117 Alum arrows with 100oz heads for target and they work great. I also bought for 300 spine carbon arrows for hunting. I love the bow and I got a great deal with a full used setup on ebay. Since it was used and had the same draw length that I use, I was not surprised that I was hitting 4 inch groups on my first try. This was also probably because I shoot firearms so I am somewhat familiar with aiming down a sight. I love your videos.
i am trying to transition from a wooden bow to an aluminium one, i was using a sight, a clicker, a stabilizer, a plunger, basically the full package of an Olympic target bow on a wooden one, i am scared of buying a new bow because my budget isn't that great. is ASD electrocution any good?
The how-long-do-I-keep-renting decision is complicated (economically). The longer you rent, the better you understand what you want and need, but then again, renting is expensive and takes away from the money you could have spent on better equipment. I rented about 4 times which cost $100 USD. I didn't want to keep paying that so I allowed myself to be talked into a compound bow. But just 2 months later, I realized that recurve was what I really wanted, so I bought one of those too. I suppose one way to look at it is that I could just sell my relatively new compound and figure that I still saved some money over renting, even if I have to sell the compound at half price. Any suggestions on where / how to sell?
I thought this was about the other type of impulse buying... Where I cant stop spending money on LancasterArchery buying shit I really dont need... I NEED IMPULSE CONTROL
Thanks for the great videos I was wondering if things like arrow points and broadheads are things that you can buy on impulse,because they just need to be screwed into the inserts and not really "set up" in any way.
Would it be alright to buy a arm guard or a glove online, I am new to archery and I am not sure if I should buy that kind of stuff online. I love your videos by the way!
Arrows are tricky to buy. I've tried archery shops but they don't have the equipment I need, or it's way to expensive. I buy my bamboo 33" arrows of ebay and I'm very satisfied with them. Like Nu said, you're on your own in this case. Just do research first!
Have always been a bit interested in archery, but never took the step. Recently started watching your vids. Great fun and enjoying them. But there aren't any clubs around where I live and the more I watch, the more it sounds like I shouldn't start without being able to do it right, and those resources aren't around here. Oh well, at least I found out before I bought a bunch of equipment.
There are some great compound bows for beginner's. They are very adjustable in draw length and weight. Bear Cruzer or Diamond Edge both retail for around $300 US and 5-70lb draw weight and 15-30 inch draw length.
I just bought a bow a Howatt Super Diablo 60"/60# -28in ,it comes with a 54" strim do you think that`s the right long,what do you think.,and what size of arrow should I use ....
In Colombia it's very difficult to find a bow. Amazon doesn't send archery equipment to the country, there are no archery stores (at least not for beginers) and the few ones that exist, are very expensive. If someone knows where I could get a bow, I would realy apreciate it.
hey nusensei about slap guards no offence but I don't use one just because i have slapped my self once in all the years I have been shooting and that one time was good enough for me after that i learned and now i don't use one and never seem to hit but your advice is great info for the new archer love what you are doing keep it up.
hey NUSensei , thanks for another great video , i have recently done a come and try session at my local club and i am now booked in for the beginners coarse , thanks for all your videos they are a great help and great for someone like myself who is new to the sport. Do you think the following sounds strange??? i think after i have done the beginners coarse and i want to get more into the sport i was thinking of spending the bulk of my "starting out" money on a decent recurve riser ( say $300ish ) so as to be able to get the better components later on and start off with cheaper limbs , arrows, sights etc.. Will people @ the club think im wankerish for doing this? or is it frowned apon to do it this way? any advice would be great. thanks mate and keep up the awesome videos!!
***** No one would look down on your for using entry-level equipment. Most people understand that cost is a limiting factor. In fact, many people will be surprised if you decided to go for an expensive kit as your first bow. In my experience, many people who invest in high-end equipment early on actually drop out of the sport in a short time.
NUSensei I found two bows on Amazon one is made by Barnett so I think it will be decent it call the Barnett h20 vortex the other is called the leader accessories 30-55lb bow which one looks better?
NUSensei I am a 16 year old girl almost 17 and am getting into recurve archery I am looking to get a Martin Jaguar and was wondering what poundage I should buy?
is it ok that im buying an apex blizzard pro set, it comes with everything, release aid, whisker biscut, sight, arm guard, quiver and stabilizer, is this ok?
I'm not fond of recommending the Apex kits. The kits often come with mediocre accessories that inflate value. Additionally, Apex isn't sold or supported by archery stores, so support may be limited for you. The bow itself is OK at best. Though I would personally go with more popular brands such as Diamond and Mission, the Apex bow does function as intended.
NUSensei any specifics? im 13, and a 40lbs bow draw is what I want, but I dont want to spend more that $400 (new zealand dollars) on bow, release and stuff, any you would recomend?
40 LBs is a bit of 18.1 kg...and i have to say...i have no problems with it... i bought the ASD Electrocution take down recurve bow, www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151857707017?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT i suppose im just strong ^.^ P.S. it's soo much fun...
If you make the shafts too thin/weak for the bow you shoot, they may eventually snap as you loose the arrow. This could cause injury as the broken shaft (with some sharp, splintered ends now) whips around unpredictably. However, I think that making your own is really cool
I am sorry...in my country some archery store only need profit. The seller not have knowledge. Last day i have seen a beginer child have buy a bow in 40 lbs... May be...our country store archery have small knowladge and our son is very strong..
There's nothing I'd recommend above others. This mostly depends on what you use it for, and spine matters more. If you need a starting point, I use Gold Tip Traditionals with mine.
You pick the draw weight you want. From memory, you can choose from a low draw weight (20#) to a very high draw weight (over 45#). It is a takedown bow, so you can swap the limbs for different draw weights.
the only archery shop where I live doesn't even have recurve bows on there website they only have compound bows and I'm not into that stuff so I have no choice but to buy online
yea where I live youd think there would be western shops and archery shops but there aren't our only western wares shop is closing its doors for good so I'm planning to move out of the city at least so that I can have some peace and quiet of the country again.
Love the videos, but could you stand still or sit. I find I need to listen your videos rather than watch as I get distracted by the constant movement. Either way, I enjoy the content and be a continued subscriber.
Just seems so dishonest to say you could experience archery at a club for "a fraction of the price of the bow" when bows are so cheap and can last you for years...
A session at a club can cost around 20 bucks. A lot of people spend hundreds on a bow and leave it lying around after they get bored or find out that getting good at archery requires a lot of commitment. It is true that there are good, affordable bows in the market - more so today than when the video was made.
