Beginners Guide to Archery | Buying your FIRST Compound Bow

What's up everyone, welcome back to the channel. We're at Willow Creek Archery today, their new location in Temecula, California, and we're gonna go through what to expect when buying your first compound bow. So you could use this as kind of a template. We're gonna go through the accessories, obviously the bows themselves, sights, all the accessories that you're gonna need to keep in mind when you're putting together your first compound bow purchase. So follow along, let us know in the comments. If you guys got any questions, smash that subscribe button, that really helps us out, and be sure to like the video, but let's get started. So there's a lot of different bows that you can choose from these days. This happens to be the V3X from Matthews. This is the new Hoyt Venom 33. Both these are 33 axle to axle. There's a bunch of different specs that you guys are gonna be looking at, you know, and probably talking about with whoever's helping you out at the pro shop. You know, don't get too overwhelmed. As you can see, there's a lot of bows out there nowadays, and pretty much anything, if you're buying, you know, top of the line equipment at that price range anywhere between six to 1,700 bucks, it's gonna be a good bow. There's not a lot of bad bow manufacturers out there anymore. They've kind of all been weeded out over the years. So don't get overwhelmed. The whole point of this video isn't to focus on just one brand's offerings. It's more to show you guys and, you know, give you guys a little bit of reinforcement of any bow you pick nowadays. If it's gonna be in a, you know, higher price point, like I said, it's gonna be a good bow. A really important factor when you're considering what bow is gonna be right for you is to have your pro shop set it up for the proper weight, your proper draw length, so that you can actually spend some time behind that bow before you make a purchasing decision. So definitely shy away from that pro shop, you know, sales rep who's just gonna say, hey, this is what you need. You know, it's the new V3X top of the line Matthews. This is what you have to buy. You know, get out of there. You definitely wanna find a shop that's willing to, you know, take the time to get you something that's gonna fit your budget and that actually feels comfortable to you. So there are other cam systems, you know, other than maybe the first bow that you shoot that might feel more comfortable to you. That's the case with a lot of shooters and that's why they kind of, you know, they hone in on one brand and they kind of stick with that brand is because that's what they like to shoot. So you'll find that out going, you know, as you get more and more into the sport and you have more and more time behind your bow, but definitely try them all. We cannot harp on that enough. Try as many bows as you can. Make sure that you're picking the one that's gonna be right for you and the most comfortable because that's the bow that you're gonna shoot the most is the one that's most comfortable to you. All right, so the first thing after you pick out your bow is gonna be looking into a good rest. So there's limb driven, cable driven rests. There's super high end like this Hamski Epsilon. Hamski makes a great rest. You could also go QAD. They make a great rest as well. The cool thing about both of these is they have a full enclosure for your arrow. So you don't have to worry about in a hunting situation, specifically that arrow falling out if you're on the move or maybe you, you know, had to let down. Just makes it a little bit easier. Another thing you're gonna run across throughout a lot of archery accessories is the micro adjust or micro click system. As an example, the Epsilon uses a micro click system. You're gonna run across that a lot. So it makes everything a lot easier to fine tune and to just be able to adjust a little tiny bit at a time instead of having to, you know, use an Allen or something that's maybe a little more cumbersome. Okay, so now we're getting right into bow sights. So the two that stick out to me as far as that you're gonna have most choices around are gonna be your fixed sight and your movable or your slider sight. So there's different options within each of those. So you have single pin options, you know, multi-pin options all the way up to about, I believe, seven pins. But the most common that you see are usually gonna be a single pin on a movable or slider or a three pin. And then on the fixed, it's usually gonna be the five to seven pin. So you really gotta just play with, you know, once again, what your budget is and, you know, kind of what you see yourself being most comfortable shooting. A lot of guys have moved to the slider or the movable sights over the years just because it makes it that much easier to dial into an exact yardage. And I personally prefer the single pin now because there's less clutter actually in your sight. So, you know, for example, this is a three pin, but if you just wanna have one pin in there, it makes it so that the whole rest of this sight is super easy to see and it's open. And there's not a lot of, you know, not a lot going on to distract you. By no means do you have to buy that. You know, I don't wanna say that you need to go buy a, you know, three, four, $500 sight. Just comes down to your budget and your personal preference and just pick something that's gonna get you, you know, get you outside and get you shooting. So the stabilizer that I prefer and I'm running right now in my hunting setup is Ramrods. They're Wraith Bar. So I'm running a front and back stabilizer from them. They're micro diameter, so that's gonna help a lot with the wind drift when you're getting into those kind of outdoor situations where wind might be an issue. They're a local company, so we love supporting local companies, you know, especially when they're doing everything, you know, kind of in-house and right here in the US. All right, so now that we got your bow all built up and all the accessories on it, now it's time to pick out a release. So the most common for a beginner is gonna be the index or a caliper style release. They're usually strapped onto your wrist just to make them a little more, you know, stable when you're pulling that, drawing that bow back. The price range is gonna be anywhere from 60 all the way up to over north of $300, depending which release you go with. But, you know, once again, you don't need to spend a ton of money. Pro Shop should have different options at a multitude of different price points. So just go with what your budget allows and what's comfortable. You know, whether that's index style release, thumb release that's more comfortable, you're gonna have to, you know, be the one to find that out. So try different releases. Most Pro Shops will have them out of the package already so that you can pull them back on a shot trainer similar to this. And that'll give you a good, you know, allow you a good way to actually test what's gonna be the most comfortable. So now we find ourself in the arrow aisle and you're gonna see a bunch of different arrows. Depending which Pro Shop you go to, they're gonna have different brands. There's a lot of different brands, manufacturers that are making this stuff. But Victory, for example, this is what I shoot. I love Victory arrows, been shooting them for a long time now. The main thing you're gonna wanna pay attention to in the choice of an arrow is the spine. So they're anywhere from 200 at the stiff end all the way to 600 at the more flexible end. And that's all gonna be determined by your draw length and the poundage of your bow. So if you're shooting 70 pounds and you have a 32 inch draw, you're gonna need a different spine than somebody who's a 28 inch draw shooting a 50 pound bow. So that's gonna be the most important thing when picking out the actual arrows that you're gonna be shooting and the spine. Other than that, the price points are all over the map. You can get arrows for 50 bucks. And once again, well over $200. Let's talk targets. So we got different price points like we do with everything. The bag targets are gonna be the cheapest option, but they're also not gonna last as long as something like this Reinhardt target. So you're able to shoot broadheads into these. You can switch them all different directions. Morrell makes these dice targets, which Travis and I did a video on where we're actually playing a dice game with this. So if you liked that video after watching it, you can pick one of those up. They make the block targets as well. They have the vitals in there so that you can get some practice before hunting season. Once again, you can shoot broadheads into this style of target, which makes them really nice, but they're also not cheap. So the Reinhardt target like this, about 250 bucks. A bag target you can usually get for within like 50 to 100 bucks, depending on the brand. And then, you know, something smaller in this range is gonna run you still like right around 125 to 150. But all good options really just depends, you know, once again, on your budget, where you're gonna be shooting. Are you gonna be shooting broadheads or just field points? Cause maybe you don't need to spend, you know, the more money that it takes to be able to shoot broadheads and a paper or sorry, the bag target will be all you need. You got your bow, you got everything on it and you just spend a bunch of money, get a nice case or just a case to store that thing in. Cause it's gonna get knocked around in your truck, transporting it from your house to your car. They make soft cases, tarantula archery, Easton are just a couple of the ones they have here at Willow Creek. If we walk over, I can actually show you some hard case options. This is gonna be a lower price point, hard case. Plano also makes a mid range price point one. These are 89 bucks. So 90 bucks, that's gonna offer a little more protection than the lower range one. And then SKB, that's gonna be your high end case. Now that we got everything you're gonna need to get started, you got your bow, you got your case, you got your targets, arrows. The next thing to do is to go have fun shooting your bow. So hopefully you have a range nearby where you can actually go and have a controlled environment to take a bunch of shots and really start to dial your sights in and make sure that your peep's adjusted correctly. Go out and get everything set up perfectly just for you. Cause this is a very specific sport where everything's gonna be dialed into the individual. So your peep's not gonna be the same height as your buddies. Your draw's not gonna be the same length as your wife's, for example. So get out there and shoot at the range. And if you need any adjustments done, I would recommend taking it back to a bow shop. Since I'm standing in the range here, I'm actually gonna take some shots with my own setup because I don't want to let an opportunity go where I could shoot my bow. So hopefully that's the way you guys feel about this sport as well. And take as much time as possible to really get comfortable with your equipment and get everything dialed in. Well, that does it for today's video. Thanks a lot for watching and following along on what to expect for your first bow build. Hopefully you guys have a little more information now when you're walking into the pro shop and you'll know what to get, what to look for. Be sure to subscribe to the channel, like the video, and let us know in the comments any questions you guys may have. There'll probably be at least three of them down there, I'm sure, so we'll see you guys in the next video.