Opinions Wanted - Start-up Kit

TommyKnocker

Would any of you knowledgeable folks care to give your opinion on the following as a starter Archery setup please. Items priced from Merlin Archery UK.

1. Easton Bone Bracer - Smoke
   
   1 x £8.31
2. Remove This Item Gompy Elite Leather Quiver PT17 - Black - Right Handed
   
   1 x £68.13
3. Remove This Item Cartel CR Stabiliser with Dampener - Long Rod - 26"
   
   1 x £14.98
4. Remove This Item Edit item SF B92 Tarpaulin Backpack - Blue
   
   1 x £72.14
5. Remove This Item Edit item Easton X7 Eclipse - Ready to Use
   
   12 x £7.76
6. Remove This Item Edit item Brass Nock Sets - (Qty 6)
   
   1 x £1.13 Choose Size Medium
   Details
   
7. Remove This Item SF Elite Chest Guard - Black - Large - Right Handed
   
   1 x £11.22
8. Remove This Item MAC Full Finger Black Leather Glove TD-12 - Medium
   
   1 x £6.75
9. Remove This Item Edit item Decut 120 Click - Recurve Sight - Black
   
   1 x £42.08
10. Remove This Item Xion Super Rest - Right Handed
    
    3 x £0.69
11. Remove This Item Edit item MAC Bow Stringer
    
    1 x £4.23
12. Remove This Item String Flex SUPRA Premium Recurve Bow String - Black/Blue - 68" Bow Length
    
    2 x £12.10
13. Remove This Item SF Elite Fibre Foam Recurve Limbs - 68" - 26#
    
    1 x £85.31
14. Remove This Item Hoyt Horizon Recurve Riser - Right Handed - Black
    
    1 x £152.05

Anything wrong with these choices? Anythings which don't work well together or better options?

TIA for any and all responses

Lardy

I would suggest that you join a club and do a beginners course before you even think about buying your own equipment. Do you know what type of archery you would like to do? Target or Field?

On your list,
The quiver is about £40 to expensive,
Unless you are female or a larger than average fella, you wont need a chest rig,
For the recurve, you will probably want a Tab, rather than a glove,
For the arrows, you will need to know your draw length and bow poundage to get the correct arrow spine and length,
The plastic rest is crap. Invest in a good rest, Spigarelli for example.
Only use one colour for the string. The serving can be a different colour.
26lb is quite a low poundage limb, you will be replacing them very quickly.

Hope this helps!

Minder

My experience - I recently joined a club and did the beginners course. I then shot with the club equipment for about 4 weeks. I trawled the online archery shops and catalogues looking at the equipment and reading reviews. Last weekend I went a shop with a list of items that I'd picked from all my research - and came back with none of it. I did buy a full setup, everything including a bag and a quiver, riser, limbs, stringer, arrows, tab, bracer, stand, arrow rest, button - the whole shooting match. My selection of kit for my shopping list was all about pretty pictures in a catalogue and the sales pitch from the manufacturer. But nothing beats using the equipment and making decisions based on the feel of it in your hand. I was lucky enough to have the club coaches with me and we spent about 4 hours at the shop.

Good luck with your selections, it's a very rewarding sport.

TommyKnocker

Cheers for the input Lardy, much appreciated.

I am lucky that I have 2 clubs close to me and have sent emails to both enquiring about joining and attending the 6 week course. Only 1 has replied so far, but they are over subscribed, so my name is on the waiting list and I will be contacted when a place is available. I am on a weeks holidays though, so I hope to go down to Courtlough once or twice to get my first taste of Archery.

I won't be buying anything before I have a little experience under my belt and hopefully some help from the club I join. I was just looking ahead to the future and getting my own equipment.

I had also looked at the Flybow site (not much shown on site, seems more geared towards traditional Archery) and the Archery Shop Ireland site (I did consider their Intermediate 2 option, but wanted to try to put somethign together myself)

As to your input..

Initailly I would do target shooting, but I may like to give field Archery a try in the future when my proficency with a bow (hopefully) improves.

For equipment I just looked at the one site as was thinking of getting everything at the one time.

The quiver was expensive, but was chosen as I liked the look of it. I can look again for a cheaper one no problem.

I did look at finger tabs, but they looked a little finnicky, the glove looked more straight forward, but hopefully I will get to try a tab before I purchase, so that might change.

For the Arrows, again I hope that I will have more of an understanding when purchase time comes on spine lenghts etc. Judging from the chose your first bow section on the Merlin Archery site, I will shoot Arrows which are 26.25 inches in lenght (measured using a brush handle as a guide). So would need a 66 inch bow. I am 5' 6" so the bow would be as tall as me. Would this be normal?

Will definately change the rest. I like this one as my riser will be black also

704995 Shibuya Magnetic Rest Ultima - Black

£28.06
In-store price: £31.42

Can I ask why you recommend the string be a single colour? I am happy to change, just curious about the recommendation.

Finally I chose the 26lb limbs as a) they did not have them available in 28 lb and b) I had read through the forum, and had noticed a lot of beginners going for a heavier option and being advised to start light to get technique right. I will (hopefully) have had some actual shooting under my belt and advice from the folks in the club I join before I purchase, so the weight might change by then.

Again, thank you for your response and pointers, it is much appreciated.

TommyKnocker

Minder wrote: »

My experience - I recently joined a club and did the beginners course. I then shot with the club equipment for about 4 weeks. I trawled the online archery shops and catalogues looking at the equipment and reading reviews. Last weekend I went a shop with a list of items that I'd picked from all my research - and came back with none of it. I did buy a full setup, everything including a bag and a quiver, riser, limbs, stringer, arrows, tab, bracer, stand, arrow rest, button - the whole shooting match. My selection of kit for my shopping list was all about pretty pictures in a catalogue and the sales pitch from the manufacturer. But nothing beats using the equipment and making decisions based on the feel of it in your hand. I was lucky enough to have the club coaches with me and we spent about 4 hours at the shop.

Good luck with your selections, it's a very rewarding sport.

If you are located in Ireland, can I ask which shop you went to? as I would much prefer to go to a bricks and mortar shop and get advice from hopefully someone involved in the soprt who knows their stuff. Also if the retailer is Irish, I am helping our economy rather than sending my money out of the country.

Lardy

The reason for the single colour string is, if you decide to shoot in any of the major comps, you will be told to change your string if it is multi-coloured. A lot of Trad archers had issues with this exact thing at the European champs this year.

Minder

UK based - sorry.

brianzilla

FITA rules allow multi-coloured strings

johnreck

First if you can get a beginners course take that.
second if you contact shooting style. (link below)
http://www.shootingstyle.ie/
speak with paul.
you can head out there and get yourself properly set up and also get some coaching.
he has a good range of equipment and the shop has years of experience with new archers.
great place to get information as well as your gear.
you may also find that you can pick up some of equipment second hand.
hope this helps.
ph there in summerhill just past past trim.
all info on the web page.
this is assuming you are Irish based.
if you need any other help just fire me a pm.

TommyKnocker

I have actually started my 6 week beginners/introductory course last tuesday

Do you know if ShootingStyle have a bigger range in stock then shown on thier website? as to be honest I have looked through their website previously and was not really impressed with what is shown.

For instance they show 3 risers and 1 pair of limbs. I know that I am only new to the sport, but I would like a bigger choice than they have advertised.

So far the only Irish store in the republic that I have come across that have an anyway decent variety of equipment is Archery Shop Ireland. The other store I have come across is Flybow, but they seem more geared towards traditional archery (wooden bows and arrows), which is not something I am interested at the moment. My interest is in Oympic style recurve archery.

brendan597

theres nothing wrong with a multicolored string and anyway trad comps are not major comps. and theres nothing wrong with a white plastic rest especially for a beginner, in fact i was told that a korean shot a world record with one.

you should try to avoid the brass nocks, buy some serving and just tie on your own nocks, the brass ones slow down the string.

did you have a cushion plunger (button) on your list? there quite important...

TommyKnocker

brendan597 wrote: »

theres nothing wrong with a multicolored string and anyway trad comps are not major comps. and theres nothing wrong with a white plastic rest especially for a beginner, in fact i was told that a korean shot a world record with one.

you should try to avoid the brass nocks, buy some serving and just tie on your own nocks, the brass ones slow down the string.

did you have a cushion plunger (button) on your list? there quite important...

Noo-b here Can I ask what a cushion plunger (button) is and what it does

Lardy

brendan597 wrote: »

theres nothing wrong with a multicolored string and anyway trad comps are not major comps. and theres nothing wrong with a white plastic rest especially for a beginner, in fact i was told that a korean shot a world record with one.

you should try to avoid the brass nocks, buy some serving and just tie on your own nocks, the brass ones slow down the string.

did you have a cushion plunger (button) on your list? there quite important...

Who said anything about Trad comps? If you go to the likes of EBHC, you will not get away with a multicoloured string. But since the OP has now said that he is interested in Olympic style archery, that no longer applies.

OP, the button plunger works in conjunction with the rest. The arrow sits between the the rest and the plunger.

greysides

Lardy wrote: »

The reason for the single colour string is, if you decide to shoot in any of the major comps, you will be told to change your string if it is multi-coloured. A lot of Trad archers had issues with this exact thing at the European champs this year.

Lardy, what rule does that come under?

I've had a look through the IFAA rule book and can't find a reference to multi-coloured strings.

I imagine anyone turning up to a major competition abroad to find their string was illegal would have a bit of a problem. Unpleasant.

Lardy

greysides wrote: »

Lardy, what rule does that come under?

I've had a look through the IFAA rule book and can't find a reference to multi-coloured strings.

I imagine anyone turning up to a major competition abroad to find their string was illegal would have a bit of a problem. Unpleasant.

As far as I know, its not even in the rule book, but it happened at this years EBHC in Italy. Anyone shooting unaided, (Bowhunter/ Trad etc) Where only allowed a single colour in the string. Trad archers even had to use Fastflight and where not allowed to use Dacron! It may have just been the Italians, but I wouldn't want to chance it at the next UKIFAC/ EBHC, as a Trad archer myself.

greysides

Thanks Lardy.