Starting archery: what to buy, and in what order

A beginners’ course at an affiliated club — typically six sessions, £70–£150, all equipment provided — is the standard route into archery in Britain, and clubs generally require it before membership. That requirement is often read as a formality. It is not.

Two things happen on the course that cannot happen any other way. Your draw length is measured, which determines arrow length and changes the effective draw weight of any set of limbs. And you shoot enough arrows for a coach to see what draw weight you can hold with correct form for a full session, which is almost always considerably less than the weight you can pull once.

A bow bought before that is bought on a guess about both figures, and the failure mode is not merely wasted money — too much draw weight builds compensating form errors that take much longer to remove than they took to acquire, and it is the leading cause of shoulder injury in the sport.

Limb draw weight is marked at a reference draw length of 28 inches. Draw a shorter distance and you get less; draw further and you get more. The commonly used approximation is roughly 2lb per inch of difference, so a limb marked 30lb gives about 26lb to an archer with a 26-inch draw and about 34lb to one with 30 inches.

That matters because beginners choose limbs by the printed number. An archer with a long draw buying "a nice light 28lb" may be pulling 32lb, which for a first bow is far too much.

Typical starting weights on the fingers, for recurve:

Adult beginner

18–24lb at your own draw length

Junior

10–16lb

After 6–12 months

Commonly +4–6lb, and no faster

The test

Can you shoot 60 arrows with the same form as the first one?If the last twenty are worse than the first twenty, the weight is too high.

1. 1

   Step 1: Tab, bracer and finger sling

   Under £40 for all three, entirely personal, and usable with any bow. Buy these during the course.

2. 2

   Step 2: Arrows matched to your setup

   Spine matched to your draw weight, draw length and point weight, and cut to your draw length. Mismatched arrows cannot be made accurate by any amount of technique, and this is where beginners most often economise wrongly.

3. 3

   Step 3: Riser and limbs

   A takedown recurve, so limbs can be replaced as your draw weight increases without buying another bow. £150–£350 for a good beginner setup.

4. 4

   Step 4: Sight

   A basic sight is fine and a expensive one will not tighten your groups at this stage. £30–£80.

5. 5

   Step 5: Stabilisers, plunger, clicker

   Last. These refine an already consistent shot; they do not create one. A clicker in particular is actively counterproductive before your draw length is repeatable.

The one deliberate inversion here is arrows before bow. Arrows are consumable, they are the component most often wrong, and matched arrows on a club bow shoot better than mismatched arrows on your own.

Most people should start recurve: it is the cheapest to enter, it is what beginners’ courses teach, and every club has coaches for it. Compound is a reasonable choice if holding weight is a physical constraint, or if you want mechanical precision sooner and are prepared for the tuning. Barebow is growing quickly and is the cheapest of the three, but it is harder to learn without a coach who shoots it.