I love shooting our bows with my kids. Now you have to get some balloons to pin to your target, nothing like popping them all before the other shooters. I have two of these targets and have been using them for the past five years.

http://thirdhandarchery.com/product.asp?PRODID=9

I love shooting a bow, though I haven't done it since I gave up hunting a few years ago. Once you buy your equipment, you can shoot at very little cost. Depending on where you are, they might have some 3-D courses that you can walk through and shoot.

I'd like to get a good recurve or longbow for shooting. I could shoot off of my back porch and be perfectly safe since we've got a large back yard.

Followed your link, why is Burt Reynolds holding a plastic deer?

I've become very addicted to shooting my compound bow. Every morning I try to get 20 shots off before the rest of the family is up and running around.

Think I'm at 60lb draw weight right now..hard to tell since I've just been manually adjusting it. Probably at a point where I can nudge it up a bit though. What I've been doing is as long as I can draw it back comfortably without "sky pulling" or the pull being anything other than smooth I move it up.

Plenty of gear to geek out on as well. I've got my first fletching tool coming as we speak and am having the arrows just cut to my length vs being completely put together (previously I would just have the shop cut/install fletchings/field tip. Suppose that's the equivalent of loading/reloading ammo in the firearm world.

The place I've been shooting at lunch has a 3-d target course and a trail where you shoot paper targets at varying distances.

The way I see it, go out, shoot some rifle at long distance, shoot some pistol. Then go shoot some arrows.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

So what did you buy? It's been a long time since I've bought a bow, so curious what you got and if you don't mind, what you paid. How's it setup? Was it a package or did you build up a bare bow?

I love archery and have several bows. I have an older PSE compound and a few recurves. My most interesting is a Bear takedown recurve that's somewhat collectible and worth more now than when I bought it in the early '80's.

A diamond elite pro. Package from sportsmans warehouse. Did a lot of research and figured it would be like all my guns. I would get it and want to change it. So I got something good for beginners and intermediate. Adjustable so I know what works for me and doesn't. The dude I traded a gun with at work convinced me to get one. .

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Hey man, you should get one, they haven't banned those yet.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

70 lbs draw weight

If you're really only a couple of months into this journey, shed some of the draw weight. Ideally, as low as your bow can go. Archery is driven by technique and supported by your fitness. Once you get your form really, really dialed in (you'll be there when you start shooting 5 spot paper targets because it's too hard on your arrows to shoot at a single spot target at 20 yards), then start raising the weight, but I'm not sure there is much need to shoot 70 lbs when you're just shooting at targets. If you overdo things with poor form, you'll pay for it in the long run with shoulder injuries.

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"Life is fragile - we are all just a slip or a car crash away from being a very different person."

I recently got my USA Archery level 1 instructor license and just spent all weekend teaching 120 girl scouts to shoot.

They all loved it, and I was exhausted :D
They had a number of Samick recurves with wood risers donated, either <15lb draw for the tiny ones, to 20-29lb draw for bigger girls.

Actually I was wrong, it maxes at 70. The fitter set it at 60 for the very reason you said. We initially did 70 and while I was able to draw and have decent technique, he worried I may fatigue before getting enough shots in in a session. I was able to do 20 during the fitting at 60 with no issue and was grouping close enough to pull all three arrows out with one hand.

He said put a couple hundred through it and bring it in for tuning and we would likely go to 70.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

He said put a couple hundred through it and bring it in for tuning and we would likely go to 70.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that. If you are going to go chase an elk or a mule deer and you want the absolute minimum drop at distance, sure, do it temporarily. If you're going to poke holes in paper or shoot at 3D targets at varying distances, there's not a lot to be gained, and you can stress out your shoulders. I'm speaking from experience on that one because I can't bow hunt anymore.

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"Life is fragile - we are all just a slip or a car crash away from being a very different person."

This. Except recurve bows. My kids and I have a blast with it, which makes the annoying clean up worthwhile.

I got a Mathews no-cam this past Christmas along with a starter bow for my daughter - we're having a blast since we can just go shoot in the back whenever the mood strikes us.

I've got mine up to 70 lbs and can shoot inside a 5 in circle at 40 yards, but I think I'm going to take it back down to 65 until I can pull 30 arrows without getting fatigued.

twomarks