Getting back into Archery

So, I think I've been bitten by the bug. I blame my brother-in-law who got bows and arrows for his children. I was clean for about 18 years.

I'm looking at a 40 lb Samick Sage. As a lefty, that's pretty much my only option unless I get a compound or make one myself. If I had skills, I'd do something like this. Katniss' Bow - Man at Arms: Reforged

What's got my head spinning is the arrows. I just want something cheapish to start out with. Target shooting only. My draw length is between 27" and 27.5" Nobody wants to say, "just buy a dozen of these at this length and play for a while". What should I look at?

If it matters, initially a target of a stuffed cardboard box will be used.

scardeal wrote: So, I think I've been bitten by the bug. I blame my brother-in-law who got bows and arrows for his children. I was clean for about 18 years. I'm looking at a 40 lb Samick Sage. As a lefty, that's pretty much my only option unless I get a compound or make one myself. If I had skills, I'd do something like this. Katniss' Bow - Man at Arms: Reforged What's got my head spinning is the arrows. I just want something cheapish to start out with. Target shooting only. My draw length is between 27" and 27.5" Nobody wants to say, "just buy a dozen of these at this length and play for a while". What should I look at? If it matters, initially a target of a stuffed cardboard box will be used.

They make lefties.....I have a right handed 55lb @ 29" Sequoia. Nice shooting bow and I draw out to about 31".

http://pse-archery.com/shop/heritage-bows/sequoia/

Following with interest. I got my son a Barnett Lil Banshee a few years back. It was actually too much for him at the time. Recently, my 10-year old has taken an interest, and we ordered a dozen fiberglass target arrows online. I enjoy it too, but I think I might need something bigger than the kiddie bow.

And as far as arrows, if you're shooting primative, 4" fluted fletching on some Easton aluminum arrows will do the trick.

I looked at several of the Samick bows a while back. The Sage and the Red Stag were the two I was considering, I think. In either case, and with the crappy Bear Blacktail compund I have, I was really surprised to find fletched arrows were really hard to come by at entry-level prices. I shoot with cheap carbon vane-fletch right now and the flight path off a rest is, of course, atrocious. Anybody got a source for cheap backyard-worthy fletched arrows?

I really like the Samick stick bows though. One more hobby I don't have time for....

I dunno, I have a Bear "Game Over" bow and whatever arrows are stiff enough to shoot from it.

It's a better bow than I am an archer....

This looks promising:

http://www.3riversarchery.com/easton-gamegetter-xx75-aluminum-arrows.html

... and then I'm lost.

scardeal wrote: This looks promising: http://www.3riversarchery.com/easton-gamegetter-xx75-aluminum-arrows.html ... and then I'm lost.

I've looked at those, they're about the best deal going when they're in stock. $86/doz still hurts my feelings for shooting a $10 yardsale compound bow in the back yard though...

Archery, you say? Why not roll your own? Shameless build thread plug

In reply to Rufledt:

Oh, I would love to do that at some point. It's fascinating. But right now, if I did commit to making my own, I wouldn't be able to shoot an arrow until 2017 or 2018.

I recently bought a bow as well. I found a 60-70 lb Hoyt compound at a garage sale with all the accessories: Some arrows, broad heads, field points, sight, sight in the string, feather duster nock thingie, triger thingie for your wrist, quieter thingies, bow wax and a case. He wanted $70, but I worked him down to $50.

Now I, too, need some cheap arrows. I understand that arrows are seasonal at wally world, and post season, they go on the discount isle for like nothing. I bought some at Cabelas, but they were not cheap, even for the basic private label brand. Kinda easy to lose them things too, I have found. Pull back and oops, that one's gone. I think it would be cheaper on a per-shot basis to shoot 30-06 with factory ammo than my skillz so far with the bow.

Dr. Hess wrote: I recently bought a bow as well. I found a 60-70 lb Hoyt compound at a garage sale with all the accessories: Some arrows, broad heads, field points, sight, sight in the string, feather duster nock thingie, triger thingie for your wrist, quieter thingies, bow wax and a case. He wanted $70, but I worked him down to $50. Now I, too, need some cheap arrows. I understand that arrows are seasonal at wally world, and post season, they go on the discount isle for like nothing. I bought some at Cabelas, but they were not cheap, even for the basic private label brand. Kinda easy to lose them things too, I have found. Pull back and oops, that one's gone. I think it would be cheaper on a per-shot basis to shoot 30-06 with factory ammo than my skillz so far with the bow.

If you have an Academy Sports in your area they keep a stock of cheap arrows year round.

If you miss the target those things get away fast. It's amazing how they'll plane under the grass and above the dirt for yards from where they hit. And god help you if you have deep tree leaves on the ground

In reply to scardeal:

Totaly understand, it's better to have at least one bow (or twelve) that is pro-made and functional. I'll have to live vicariously through you for now, haven't had time to shoot in a LONG time.

I ran across this as a quick and dirty DIY bow. I want something with an arrow rest, so it doesn't exactly work for me, but I thought it'd be interesting to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XofhpYmaEU

Being a fellow Lefty I felt your pain in my childhood on finding Left hand bows. Then at Scout camp I met a Lefty pro shooter who told me about "Bowhunters Warehouse" who sells left and righty at same price. I still have my Bear white tail hunter bow. Bowhunters Warehouse / Super store

Does all this talk make me an archery snob for shooting a Martin Cougar Magnum and Gold Tip carbons?

Watching with interest. I recently bought a Ben Pearson Collegian and 3 Easton aluminum arrows off of a coworker. I haven't permanently lost an arrow yet, but I have had to search.

I shoot a older compound Hoyt in the backyard. It was my buddy's old hunting bow that he passed down to me. My kiddos have the small Barnet little sioux recurve. I got lucky and caught one of those closeout deals, I got Easton bloodline arrow and some others for about $10-12 a box. Those are what I use.

I enjoy getting to reuse my arrows all the time, but I agree that my bow far exceeds my archery skills.

I decided to hold off on the bow purchase until later in the month. I'd like to see if I can get it locally at a price not too far off from online vendors. Same goes for arrows.

In the meantime, though, I'm going to start constructing a target. This will be temporary but I want it to last a couple months. If it falls apart, I can make another like it fairly easily.

The plan for the target is a cardboard box, glue in additional sheets of cardboard behind the front face, and stuff the rest tightly with some combination of junk mail, plastic bags or styrofoam. I've also got some old tarps that I could use.

A bale of compressed straw shrink wrapped is like ten bucks at Tractor Supply.

Yesterday, I looked at a store which wound up not carrying any recurves, and they highly suggested that I purchase the bow first and bring it in to get the arrows afterwards to make sure that I'd get them cut proper length. That seemed reasonable, so today I chatted with a guy at 3Rivers and decided on a draw weight. He also warned me that my draw might increase as I get more used to shooting. I wound up ordering a Samick Sage 40LB with the left handed riser.

I'm pretty excited

UPDATE: still haven't gotten a chance to shoot, but I now have everything I need.

Got the arrows - Easton aluminum 1/2 dozen with 100 grain field points from the sporting goods store. Not the ideal for the draw weight or for shooting off the shelf (so I'm told), but it was what I could get within a 30 minute drive. It only cost me about $30 all in, so if I don't like them, I can go spend double that and get a half dozen correctly spined carbon arrows.

Finished the target - approx 24" cube, after about 20-25 layers of cardboard, I filled the rest with a compressed combination of grocery bags and paper. I could stand on it fairly easily. Hopefully pulling arrows out won't be too much of a hassle(hoff).

Arm guard - generic 6" 2 strap deal from the sporting goods store. Pretty comfy. Didn't cause my arm to sweat at all.

Glove - went to Harbor Freight and found anti-vibration gloves. What I noticed is that it has reinforcements right at the joint closest to the tip of the fingers. It's got a smooth pebble texture to it. It was about the same price as the cheapest archery-specific gloves that I've seen. Test pulls are a huge step up in comfort from bare hands. I did not dry fire the bow.

(How do I post pictures?)

scardeal wrote: Arm guard - generic 6" 2 strap deal from the sporting goods store. Pretty comfy. Didn't cause my arm to sweat at all.

On first glance, I read this as "6" strap on"

Would not want you to post pics.

It's in storage during #BigMove2018, but the bow is going down with me.  I did a lot of shooting in my basement.  The harbor freight gloves with the padding on the inside of the fingers is starting to get worn out.  I put some black electrical tape over the joint, and I might just have to get a proper glove.  The new house is going to have plenty of room in the backyard to shoot :)

The target with layers of cardboard wound up being really difficult to pull arrows out of.  Not terribly recommended.  I had better luck when I built a new one that was stuffed with old clothes.  Stopped the arrows well and was much easier to pull them out.

The original string started to fray after a few months, so I wound up replacing it.  I'm trying to keep the new one waxed, and we'll see how that goes. 

I haven't been shooting a whole lot because of the move, but I want to get some time in once I'm settled.

Additionally:

The aluminum arrows weren't the best choice.  They had plastic fletchings that didn't work well shooting off the shelf.  They wanted to fishtail all over the place.  I later got some with feathers from 3Rivers Archery that worked much better.  

Although you can shoot arrows over and over again, aluminum arrows will bend if they hit a hard enough target.  Similarly, carbon arrows can break, but they seem much more resilient.  The worst is when you miss a target and the arrow just disappears.  It had either bounced somewhere without you seeing it or snaked under enough foliage as to be invisible.  I've lost or broken at least a dozen arrows at this point, and purchased about 2 dozen.  But I've gotten probably a thousand shots or more out of them.