Fitting a bow to a youth

[John C Keith]

I did a search but did not come up with anything.  If your interested there are over 300 hits from 2007 alone when searching "youth bow"  Just a little tid bit for ya.    

I am looking to buy my 3 year old a bow here soon.  Is it very critical to fit the bow to him?  I mean in 3-4 months he will be bigger.  How critical would you call draw length to a kids bow?  Honestly, I never really pay attention to mine, just tune up the set up and shoot.  Not into all the mathmatic calculations, I just want to shoot and hunt.  :eek:  

How would you determine eye dominance for a 3 year old?  He is pretty much ambidextrious with everything, but does favor his right hand.  I don't think I could keep his attention long enough doing normal dominance tests.

Who makes a nice small youth bow that is not very expensive?  I know I could make one, but do not have the knowledge, time or equpipment (which I can not afford right now plus would add way to much to the cost of a kids bow).  


I have heard Rhino bows are nice.  Any others?  I also posted a WTB in the sales forum.

[A.S.]

I'm right in the same boat. My son will be 4 in May. Hoping to find him something, I'm not even sure what size or draw weight to look for.

[Randy Morin]

My 3 year old daughter has been shooting the $12.00 kids bow from 3rivers for a year now.  Lots of good hunts around the house (inside or out) with the suction cup arrows.  I did have to serve the string and glue on real arrow nocks so the arrow would actually attach to the string while she learned.  It's a cheap and easy first bow. At this age they rarely shoot for more than 5 minutes but I bet that will change soon as the other day she/we shot her bow in the basement for 15 minutes taking turns.

[Hot Hap]

Try a pointing game and keep an eye out for which eye lines up with the finger.
I don't think that I would worry about the draw length.
Hap

[Rubiolio]

For eye dominance get him to look at something through a paper towel tube, the eye he naturally holds it up to is the dominant eye.

[Mark Baker]

Both my boys started  with  the cheapo bow  with the suction cup arrows, at two years old.  I took a piece of broom handle, and taped it to the bow for a riser...shaping a bit of a handle  and shelf on  it.   I also upgraded  the string, then  put those rubber "no-gloves" things on  it.   This gave the youngsters a definite place to nock the arrows...and  protected  their little  hands.   I used these "no-gloves" for  years in  fact...until I could get them a glove that fit.   For arrows, they used old broken arrows of mine, with rubber blunts on  the  ends for a long time.   We  made up shooting games to learn safety first, and to  have  fun.   After a year  or so, I upgraded them to the red fiberglass  longbows...and  they got  to  have  some "sharp"  arrows for  shooting  at  the  target  as  well.    Only  supervised  shooting session,  though, for  many years.

As far  as  draw  length,  and  poundage...this  is  something  that I never really worried  about,as most bows  have the ability for them  to "grow"  into more weight.  As they got  older, I paid more attention to  it.   I never  worried about  teaching form  much  until  the  age  of  5, as  they really could'nt grasp   alot of  it.   Just let  them have  fun  with Dad!

[Bjorn]

I made bows from tree limbs for my kids till they were 9 and did not worry at all about dominant eye-both eyes are open anyway-it is not like aiming a rifle. We made and scrounged arrows from wherever we could.
At age nine they got used 20# bows off the auction site and progressed from there. My son and daughter became pretty good shots-always placing and winning at 3D meets, and my son-he is now 14-hunts with me whenever he can.
I would say keep it real simple and let them find the way themselves, archery is a pretty natural thing that we tend to over-mystify.

[MW Gray]

My boys (7 & 9) shoot one of the lil' Indian bow sets (fiberglass) from 3-Rivers.  It is a great kids bow, durable and cheap ($50 for bow, arrows, quiver, arm guard and tab).  I thought is as they get older and hopefully keep interest in shooting/hunting, I can then buy them better equipment or even encourage them to save their own money (which I could then subsidize).

[702plmo]

A few months ago I bought a roughed out kids board bow from Sippsey River Traditional Archery.   i think I gave $25.00 for it.  That was with shipping.  
  All I done was finish sanding it.  Stained and sealed it.    I took an antler tip and affixed it to the bow for a self.  I them made a leather grip for it.   A little extra thing I did to make it unique was took a metal clothes hanger and made a Letter "L" and branded the leather grip.   Lani is almost 3 and loves it.  I making some rubber blunt arrows for her.  

  SRTA is alos a sponser on this site.   They are great people to deal with.

[robslifts]

sent you a pm

[Kingstaken]

A fiberglass bow form a local sports shop is the best way to start. Th handle will fit their hands at your son’s young age. You could always trick out the limbs if the paint is no good.

I personally would never build a bow for my kid due to safety reasons.  The risk of it breaking and injuring them far out weighs any possible injury I would get from my wife should they get injure themselves.

Kustom King has the Bear Kodiak Cub recurve for I think is now about $175.00. Not really cheap for a youth bow but both my older son who is now 16 and now my youngest who is 8 have used it and is really well made. I think I have it about 7 years now. Being better quality they've taken care of it.
The youngest has been shooting it for two years now and will get at least another year for too out of it. It is 20# @ 24".
Just as with all bows, the shorter their draw length the lighter the bow. I think he's only pulling at 15# at 16".
Most importantly this bow has the best handle grip size I've found and being a recurve gets the arrow out there.
I have a youth longbow I paid about $110.00, but the handle was too large and turned them off and quite honestly there was no comparison to the quality.
Keep them interested and they will always be your best shooting partners.

[joekeith]

Check out MADDOG.  They make great "little" bows too.

[BMOELLER]

I got my daughter a bow from SRTA (sponser here) pretty nice longbow for the money and cheaper than Black Rhino.  I think you can even trade it back towards a newer bow when he outgrows it.