Buying your first Olympic Recurve Bow

This is short guide to everything you need to consider when shopping for your first Olympic recurve bow.

How much does it cost?

A basic set of equipment (bow, arrows and other accessories) is likely to cost between £250 and £350.

Shops will sometimes offer bundled archery kits, but these are often not worth your time. They tend to contain inferior accessories, or not enough arrows. Our experience is that if you buy one of these kits, you'll probably end up replacing much of it over the subsequent year, negating any real savings.

Where should I go?

Our two local archery shops are Custom Built Archery at Eakring, and Merlin Archery in Loughborough. Our advice is to pick a quiet day (mid-week if you can), and to allow a couple of hours for your visit. Ask fellow club members about particular members of shop staff they found to be helpful.

What do I need?

The basic shopping list is this:

• Riser and limbs
• String and stringer
• Sight
• Arrow rest and pressure button
• Arrows, quiver, arrow puller
• Finger tab and bracer
• Bow stand
• A bag or case

Riser and limbs

The riser is just a handle to which the other components are attached, but it's also a part of the bow that you're likely to keep for a long time. Risers vary in length, with 25" being the most common size. Cheaper risers may be a bit heavier. Most are made of aluminium or an alloy, with carbon fibre at the more expensive end of the price-range. Some are cast, and others are CNC machined. Above all, choose something that feels comfortable in your hand.

Don't splash out on expensive limbs to begin with. If you shoot regularly, you'll soon outgrow the draw weight; if you're a once-a-month shooter, then there's no real need for fancy equipment anyway. Our club limbs are mostly rated at 18lb and 24lb, so consider whether those were about right, or whether you feel you could easily draw something requiring more power. Remember that you need to draw the bow comfortably dozens of times in each shooting session; picking limbs that are too heavy will make it very hard to improve your technique, so erring on the light side is best. If you keep your limbs in good condition, you may be able to part-exchange them, or sell them to one of our beginners, when you upgrade.

String and stringer

Ask the shop staff to recommend a suitable string. There are a variety of different synthetic string materials available, and prices don't vary much between cheap and fancy. Pick colours you like! Make sure you don't end up with a Dacron string, though, as they are too stretchy and are only really suitable for wooden-handled club bows.

The shop staff may offer to put brass nocking points onto the string for you. Ask them to tie on thread nocking points instead. Or you can do it yourself, with the aid of a bow square. Many people use dental floss for this, although any stong thread will do.

Don't forget a stringer!

Arrow rest and pressure button

Most people choose a stick-on wire rest, although even some top archers prefer the cheaper flexible plastic type You might consider keeping a spare, as it's one of the commonest bits of equipment to break. As an upgrade, you can buy an adjustable rest, which allows you to set arrow position correctly without having to bend the wire.

A pressure button (or plunger) is something that's probably new to you. It screws into the riser and pokes out through the rest. The pressure button helps to set the horizontal position of the arrow, and allows the bow to be 'tuned' to optimise arrow flight. A cheap pressure button is fine. Ask the shop staff to set the pressure button up for you (they may charge you, but it's worth it).

Sight

The sight is just a way to move an aiming dot up and down and from side to side, and yet some of them are eye-wateringly expensive! A basic sight with a metal body should be fine, although you'll probably find that the screws vibrate loose occasionally. More expensive sights will often fine adjustment both horizontally and vertically, and are less prone to vibrating loose than cheap sights. That's unlikely to be worth an extra £50 or £100 to you at this stage, though.

Arrows, quiver, arrow puller

Note that all-carbon arrows aren't allowed at our outdoor range. Cheap all-aluminium arrows aren't a great choice, because they tend to bend and break very easily due to aluminium being rather soft. We recommend Easton XX75 alloy arrows, such as the Easton Tribute. Typical prices for these are around £5-£6 each. You'll want 8 arrows - 6 to shoot and 2 spare, so that's £45ish.

Arrows come in a range of spine measurements (that's stiffness to you and me) and the correct stiffness will depend on your draw length and the weight you pull at that length. Once the shop has your bow set up, they'll be able to measure these two things and select the correct arrows for you. The arrows need to be cut to length - they should cut them so that they protrude around 1.5" - 2" beyond the arrow rest at full draw. This gives some room for your draw length to increase as your technique inproves.

Make sure you buy some spare fletchings. A tube of fletching glue, such as 'Fletch-tite' isn't a bad idea, either.

A quiver is a matter of personal preference. Some just clip on to your own belt, while others come with their own belt. Most have a variety of pockets for stashing bits and pieces. Back quivers aren't something you see a lot of in target archery, but express your individuality however you like!

An arrow puller will be useful outdoors, where we shoot at hard straw targets.

Finger tab and bracer/arm-guard

Most archers choose a finger tab consisting of two layers of leather, a strap for the middle finger, a spacer to hold the fingers apart, and an optional 'shelf', which can be used to help find a consistent anchor point under your jaw. These tabs are a major improvement over the very basic flat tabs we have at the club. Shop staff should be able to help you pick the correct size for your hand. Prices start at around £8. More expensive tabs tend to have a better grade of leather. There are lots of different shapes and sizes of finger tabs, so try a few and pick whatever suits you best. Shooting gloves look cool, but aren't really used in target archery - they're more of a traditional archery thing.

Choose whatever arm-guard or bracer you like. If you never, ever, hit your arm with the string, you can forego the bracer altogether, but most people do it regularly enough to need one. Again, pick whatever's comfortable. Some people find that their inner elbow catches the string a lot - this is especially common for women; there are longer bracers available that protect the whole arm, but it's better to fix this problem by adjusting your technique - ask a coach.

Bow stand

A basic bow stand such as the club uses is fine. An alternative is a 'hybrid' stand which will support your bow in a more upright position; these tend to cost a little more.

A bag or case

Obviously you need something to put all of your archery swag in. Depending on your choice of bag or case, you may also need to buy yourself an arrow tube to store your arrows. Backpack-style cases are a popular option, and are available from around £35; many incorporate an arrow tube. For a cheaper option, there are simple bags with foam inserts that will hold all of your equipment perfectly well.

Other bits and pieces not in the main list...

A few other things you might want to add to your bag are:

• Tube of string wax - this keeps your string in smooth, non-frayed condition.
• A bow square - for checking the setup of your bow. A coach can show you how to use one.
• A chest guard - most top archers wear them - they help the string to move away cleanly without snagging on your clothes (or anatomy)
• A few basic tools such as a set of allen keys, a screwdriver, and a small knife.