​5 Things to Know Before You Buy a Bow

Being new to archery and walking into an archery shop can be overwhelming. There’s a lot of phrases, terms, and acronyms on top of a lot of different gear options. We want to help make it a little easier for you to understand what's being talked about and know what to expect when looking at and trying out compound bows.

Having the archery knowledge provided below will help you make a more informed decision while shopping for archery equipment. Archery can be as simple or as complicated as you want but this is a great place for a beginner archer to start.

1. Determine your eye dominance. Watch the video below to learn how.

Most people have the same eye and hand dominance. If you have the opposite hand/eye dominance (cross dominance) make sure to mention that to the archery proshop staff so they can go over your options and figure out which bow (right or left handed) is best for you.

2. Know what the specs of a bow mean. On every bow company's website each bow has different specifications, when buying a bow the proshop staff may mention some of these specs. Read more about what each of these specs mean here: Buying a Bow: What Do The Specs Mean? - Archery Country

3. You will also need arrows, a release aid, arrow rest, bowsight, and a case so make sure to plan some of your budget for these items. Oftentimes archery pro shops will have different packages of accessories where you can save a little money by buying as a bundle. A release, arrows, and a case are still needed.

Another option are Ready To Hunt (or RTH) bows. These usually come with a sight, arrow rest, quiver, stabilizer, and wrist sling. A release, arrows and a case are still needed.

4. Shoot a few different compound bows and then decide what feels right for you. Every bow has a different feel and many things come down to personal preference. We suggest you shoot more than one before making a decision.

Here at Archery Country we make it even easier to shoot the archery equipment you’re interested in, just fill out this form to schedule a time to demo bows: Try It Before You Buy It

5. What will help make you the most successful at archery is having archery equipment that is the right fit for you. Do you want to hunt, shoot target archery or maybe both? Knowing your goals for archery can also help in deciding which bow and bow accessories are the right fit.

Here at the pro shop we see it often where equipment will be passed from one family member to another but the bow is not a fit for the person it was passed along to. The draw length may be wrong, or the original owner was right eye dominant and the new archer is left eye dominant, or the draw weight may be too high, the list goes on and on. These things can cause a lot of frustration for a beginner archer.

When you buy equipment at Archery Country we ensure that the bow is fit to you so that you have the best archery experience possible. When you buy a bow at Archery Country you get free set-up, free warranty work for the life of the bow, free tuning and adjustments for the life of the bow, 3 free range passes, and any questions you have answered by our archery experts.

We understand that there is a lot of archery information out there and it can make it hard to figure out what is the most important when shopping for a bow. We hope this blog helped and if you have any more questions feel free to Ask The Experts. We are here to help.