Equipment

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Equipment

Don't get distracted by it. Don't overspend. I did.


On one occasion I was complaining about my bow's quality and blaming the limbs and bow for having not been able to shoot consistently. Our coach, Serdar Şatır, a veteran archer contested in olympics games in Sydney as a national athlete, with no warming up, grabbed my bow  and arrows ( cut to my arms length, not his ) shot 3 arrows with a proximity that I had never done before.

On another, two youngsters at the competition, one with a 3000 USD bow just barely won over another kid with a 400 USD set over 30m at shoot off.

Equipment matters, but not to the extent you think. Your style is far far more important. Though being an engineer  I have the reflex of putting a percentage of how much emphasis should go over style and to equipment. But with moderate gear, 90% consistency comes not from gear but yourself.

That is more true in indoors where no wind is present to take advantage of different rod and fletching styles you may afford to have. And you will start indoors anyway.

Budget

Allocate something 500 USD at starter set, 2000-2500 for medium ( lasts 2 years ), 3000+ for follow on years. Quivers, base, and all relevant accessories inclusive in this budget.

So how to spend your money ?

Start with  a moderate bow where you may be able to change the limbs for pro . There are some standard clutch settings internationally used thus you may interchange freely , your coach should guide you on details.

After the basic  equipment, generically you will opt for a  WinWin, or Hoyt bow and similar brand limbs. They are various options amongst a wide spectrum of price even with well known brands. I have worked with a Sebastian Flute bow and limbs for the first 2 years. They are still at use , though at some different hands. That is, they don't wear out that easily.

Your bow and limbs

A moderate aluminium bow and carbon limb would possibly endure 80000 shots if you  don't dry shoot. The first half would be enough to sustain shooting consistency  at even 70 m for new bee for 2 years.

However while your style gradually improves , a better bow configuration would enable you to shoot not only better ( at least at first ) but would enable you to understand your errors as the bow "speaks" to you

A better bow reflects your move on you, while with the bow with less precision also adds its own discrepancies  to you while it "speaks" to you. At some stage you will be able to sense this "noise" which generally becomes audible in a year  and a half.

Full books could be written on bow selection. Average is good enough at this point.  Pricepoint should not exceed 1000-1200 USD to my hunch. You could easily overspend for some 3000 USD bow-limb equation without really understanding the difference. Spare that money for future.

Shafts

If you are training alone, you will be breaking too many arrows. Start with a fund enough to spend 10 or more arrows. You will break them. Many of them. Starter shafts , around 5-7 USD each are generally sold with point, knocks and fletches mold together.  Since at the very start you wont be using the infamous "clicker" you wont be cutting them for fine tune anyway. The starter shafts are not designed for precision. just for your self to start. if you are able to hit gold of 30m target face at  18m  distance, thats more than fine.

You would mostly be using those shafts starting with your starter bow, and it would be no surprise if the club has a number of them  at different lengths. You may be confused on why to have different lengths. Idea is not precision at this point. Rather more of you improving yur feeling among your shoulder, forearm , stance etc.

Next shaft set would be the ones you would be using in your first personal aluminium based riser and carbon limbs. Those shafts will be tailored to your clicker.  they would be sold in dozens.

They will be cut, and re cut and may be recut.  Each cutting operation will wear down the precision and lifetime of your shaft since points will be heated taken away, and re inserted after cut. Anyway, you would possibly crash them at closed quarters, loose them at open fields. So you possibly be advised to go for something like Carbon One. Moderate precision but low endurance. They wont last a year. But by the end of a year, which would be your  first and a half year in your journey, you possibly would be going for another dozen of them.

Only after your second pack, based on your quality of shooting opt for something better shaft like ACE or X10. Champions shoot with them as well. They are double the price of Carbon Ones. So each miss in the open field  is something close to 40 USD, accessories included. Buy those shafts only if you are

• very rich
• good enough not to miss the target at one arrow per day.

It is so boring to look for your arrow among the wilderness while sun sets. You would be wandering twice if not more if you loose a X10. Done that...

Pros do spend an extra money on shafts. Although  high end shafts are packed based on their proximity of weight and other attributes, they are not the very same in milligrams. Pros buy a couple of packets and regroup them for more consistency. An exercise which is too costly and cumbersome for a serious hobbyist.

Points

Don't  go for tungsten. Don't even get tempted at your first years. I have seen so few pros using Tungsten in recurve.

The idea is that Tungsten is more dense , so the arrow insert part is shorter, making the arrow stiffer. However flexibility of the shaft is important as well as its stiffness. We want the shaft to bend during the release and stiff after it leaves the rest.  There are steel points costing 25% of tungstens. And many champs still use iron points. Do spend your money on your coach if you have surplus. Buy him a beer.

Fletches

I have tried so many of them. As for a starter, SpinWings is more than enough. It does not cost much, multiple colours to your like and differentiate amongst other trainers, and they are used by champs.

Learn fletching though. You will need it. Coaches don't have the time to rectify your fletches any time you break or wrinkle them. Fletching is not easy as it seems. Making them 120 degrees apart for an adult having a hard time in near sights is not that trivial.

You may be willing to explore other fletches such as Xwings. I prefer them but could have tested the significance of them only after 3 years. They are much more durable and less flexible than SpinWings but  half more in price. but there are many different lengths and widths you may try to use to understand the flight dynamics of an arrow

Regardless of the brand, I would advise you not to use dark coloured fletches. They are so hard to find in wilderness. Glowing yellow, orange would create more contrast in field, much easier to find in open air.

Rods

After 4 years I have failed to understand  the  difference between a very good rod and and an excellent rod. True, a starter rod set is so different in feeling than of a  WinWin-HMC 22 and Doinkers high end.. But I have an odd friend who manufactures rods from Carbon tubes with silica poured in, quite giving the same feeling as an HMC 22 with half the price. Most of these shafts use the same graphite tubes. So why you should spending an extra 200 USD if not more at start ?

Cartel, Fivics, or any rod set costing total of 200 USD would do at day one. You may have to double the funds after year 2 for a better feel, to be able to understand how the bow "speaks" to you back after your shot.

( Having said that, a high end Doinker does make me feel different, but price is way up.  Shooting with a doinker is something shooting with a silenced gun. Almost no bounce backs. A slight noise after your shot is released with a "click" noise - thats all. No vibrations.. )

Other Basics

Buy a "good" stance for the bow. It has to endure. You will change many bows but that would hardly change. A stable one would help you to keep your bow intact and safe during trainings and competition. It is so important to  keep the string of the bow clean, you could not exaggerate. That said a solid but short and small would be enough since during competition, you have to pack it up

Buy a good arm protection. Interestingly, I would say, pay more for quality. You should be able to put on easily with one hand and loose it easily.  I have tested many of them. People mock me with me having a collection. Indeed I did.
The surface should be glossy. The string when hit has to slide through surface.  the surface should be large enough to protect your arm at your inconsistent shots, with each time string hitting else where at your arm. Easton has a glossy surfaced , magnetic clipped arm protector which is very handy in this respect. I still use it and would not use any other one. But you may prefer other brand.

Finger tab - I say Fivics. AAE, Gold Tab, develop by the famous Korean archer KSik Lee is a very good option but I did not feel comfortable. You should try for your own ergonomics. But don't opt for the cheap. your fingers would get grated  like cheese. Fivics is good enough, thats is what I have seen at competition fileds.

Sight

This is also a very good point where you may spend an entire fortune on. You would be told "sight is just a bar, not a moving element so dont spend 100 USD .
While that seems correct, it isn not. When you pay more, you pay for the sight elements "not to move" at each shot. inexpensive ones , after 1000 shots tend to create noise and then break apart. Though somewhat expensive, after 1.5 years of your training, go for a 250 USD sight. It pays off.

I have seen sights coming out at my daughter's competition at the instant of the shot. You loose the entire game and focus.

There are so many adjustable 500+ high quality sights.. I have never used them so I dont' have the right to comment, but with barley hitting a competition 3 times a year, those many adjustments are not critical for me. But that said, I have not seen a lot of pros using the most expensive sights anyway.

Sight pins

You have to try and find which sights you feel comfortable with. Try as many as you can. Borrow and lend till everybody is happy. The crucial point is as follows :
When you aim the target, you should not get distracted by the sight pin focusing on the gold. The sight pin should not be blocking  the gold, nor be more luminous than the target it self. I use 2 pins. One is "empty", especially when it gets dark or indoors,  so there is nothing to block the gold and I can focus on the shot rather than wrestling with the sight pin.
The other is a Shibuya, luminous sight pin I prefer in open air sunny days. That gives an extra assurance of being more precise but as I said, try and see. I bought 12 different sight pins till I came at my own conclusion.

Quiver

This is an item less focused on, but important. The quiver should be able to
hold at least three sets of arrows ( you may use different sets for distance or technique training )

• Has to have a solid bottom so arrows wont dig in their way to fall
• Have enough pockets to accomodate your pulling rubber, pens, etc. even holding your monocular. I strongly advise to bear hooks so you may hang on towels etc extra, easy in your reach. It is worth the expense especially on a hot outdoor day.

Binoculars  - or monocular.

You wont need on day one.  It is hard for a recurve archer to handle a binocular. While shooting it becomes distracting to handle it from your back, as  you had to push it back during the shot unlike compound archers. A monocular is preferable. On an open field, if you have a chance, go for a sighting scope. So what should be the specs ?

• magnification  between 10 and 20. Any magnification smaller would not help you to see outdoors, anything beyond would be too heavy and sensitive for 70M
• Exit eye > 10 mm, anything less , you will have trouble accommodating your eye.
• Front lense diameter > 40mm . Anything less, light will not be sufficient to cover the details you need
• Grip : rubber, so it does not get slippery when wet in rainy or very sunny days
• Resolution : that is where it gets hard to find out. Few manufacturers post it.  Not all lenses are equal with above specs being the same. That depends on how the lenses are manufactured.  
• I am using a Celestron monocular for 100 USD, but recently bought a 30 USD spotting scope from Ali Baba, risking my money in, but it was good enough. Clarity under cloudy weather sucks but I had that equipment for outdoor archery anyway
• Weight : lighter the better. You have to travel with it. you wont be willing to pay for extra baggage at the airport for it would you.
• Tripod : If you use a scope, you have to buy it. A light one with a hook underneath would do . Why ? It has to be lightweight at your travel but it has to stand still in windy weather. The hook will enable you to place a bag with load to make the tripod more stable. You may dump the load  when shooting is over.
• A word on scope : there are two different types : one with a bended eye sight one not. Go for the former for obvious reasons.

So how much for scope and tripod ? 200-300 USD would cut combined