Okay Robin Hoods, the basic question of 'where to start?' usually will bring you to the questions;
- Where to get the stuff? - get good stuffs
- How much is the price? - get cheap ones
Where to get it?
If you choose not to built the stuff, you can always choose to BUY it. Haha! But where? - The online shops. I have many places that i have been shopping, and i found that certain companies are best in certain type of archery equipment. Here's my favourite list.
- Traditional Archery - Longbows, Recurves, Wood Arrows, Field Tip and some accessories for any traditional archer, i would say my place is 3 River's Archery and Classic Bow. They have a lot of traditional bow with quite an awesome range of specifications and prices. Great starting point.
- Modern Archery - Recurves, Limbs, Risers, Takedown Bows, Carbon-Aluminium Arrows and many other great stuff can be found at 3 River's Archery too. They have wide range of products for starters and advanced archers like Greatree, Tomahawk etc.
How much is the price?
Both traditional and modern archery do not cost much if you are a beginner. The most important thing to remember is, the price of archery equipment depends on the quality of the item in the sense of rarity, build, customizability and guarantee of accuracy. The better the equipment perform, the better the accuracy. Hence, if you are a good archer with good technique then you buy a USD500 bow and arrow kit and it shoots like spit out of a croc's lips, chances are the equipment is not worth the price. Archery is simple as that. The equipment must reach the target with accuracy and precision if the correct technique and judgement used with it.
Both traditional and modern archery do not cost much if you are a beginner. The most important thing to remember is, the price of archery equipment depends on the quality of the item in the sense of rarity, build, customizability and guarantee of accuracy. The better the equipment perform, the better the accuracy. Hence, if you are a good archer with good technique then you buy a USD500 bow and arrow kit and it shoots like spit out of a croc's lips, chances are the equipment is not worth the price. Archery is simple as that. The equipment must reach the target with accuracy and precision if the correct technique and judgement used with it.
- Modern Archery - I would recommend to get a bow set for a starter. Prices range between USD50 to USD500 for modern archery bow set. The set comprises usually a complete bow, a set of arrows (3-6 arrows), a quiver and some accessories.
- The reasonable price for a starter (if the Robin Hood to be is 16 years above) would be around USD80 to USD110.
- I highly recommend the Greatree Youth bow set from 3 River's Archery. Polaris bow set in other way is suitable for older adults (18-20's). The two set is priced as below USD100 and can be ordered according to your specification requirements. The picture on the right shows a Polaris bow set.
- The point of buying bow set is - instead of buying individual items and risk mismatching them, you can take a complete bow set without worrying for mismatching. For matching guide, read the article What Archery Equipment to Get.
- Traditional Archery - This kind of archery is usually for seasoned archer and/or collectors. But discussing about the price, the cheapest hand made bow is around USD100-150. Traditional bows usually shoot traditional arrows - wood arrows. And they never were found in sets like modern archery bow set.
- The design is purely traditional and usually come in ethnic styles like Schytian, Hun Bow, Turkish Bow, Korean Bow and many more. They sometimes are referred to as primitive bow, exotic bow, medieval bow, handmade bow and other names. But basically all those are for traditional archery only. FITA is not going to let you compete in Olympics with a Magyar (on the left pic) or a Turkish Bow. Haha!
- Traditional bows sometimes were not traded for their accuracy or anything like it. But for the historical or aesthetic values. If you got yourself bow that shot the arrow that killed Elvis Presley and if by fact he did appear dead with an arrow on his side, then you might as well be a future-millionaire-but-condemned-criminal. Too bad it didn't happen that way, isn't it?
After all has been said - go and get the bow kit. Next post would be about how to find the correct size and specifications for you. See ya!