Archery for a 9 year olfd.

PVCEE !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Buzpjllgo&feature=relmfu

that is cool!

what is his goal?
you can get recurves, traditional longbnows and compound.



Compound bows are not archers. Real archers use traditional bows.

BUTY, they make a lot of good fiberglass and plastic bows for kids that will take a lot of punishment and are very forgiving.

Also, with the alum shafts and plastic vanes, I can strap my bow and quiver to the deck and stump-shoot while kayaking.

I agree but 9 year old boys don’t
have goals beyond launching projectiles.

Shooting trad
means shooting off the shelf.As such you must use feather fletching.Granted you can use a basic rest with plastic fletch but that screws things up by raising the arrow some.Shooting off the shelf is the way to go.

take a look at the mini genesis bows. We have quite a few kids at our local club shooting them. Depending on your child’s size the regular genesis is another option. The one little girl has fancy colored genesis bow strings on hers and she kicks all the boy’s butts in the league.

Just keep in mind the velocities from any bow are enough to seriously injure pets and people - not something to fool with in the backyard. Anything you do get him be sure the kit gets put away somewhere so he can only fool with it under some supervision. I had one as a kid and was lucky nothing worse than some neighbour’s garden furniture got holed :wink:

I used to own an archery shop and I was a staff shooter for PSE for almost a decade.

The first recommendation I have is to ignore any dogmatic crap about what constitutes “real” archery. If you’re launching arrows, it’s archery, regardless of the type of bow use. Let the “adults” bicker among themselves and keep your grandson away from the nonsense.

Are there any archery shops or clubs near your grandson? If so, rather than buying him equipment right away, check to see if they offer lessons. It’s the best way to get him started and gauge his true interest. They’ll typically provide equipment and if the interest is there, you can purchase whatever equipment he prefers. This is what we always recommended and we never had a single person regret going this route. We also found that it’s often easier for a child to learn from someone other that a parent, plus they get quality instruction.

It’s a bit late to be giving advice on this 6 year old thread, but maybe @string can give us an update on how it went for his grandson.

I remember having a lot of fun with an old fiberglass bow that had been left in the garage of a new house my family moved into when I was a pre-teen. I launched just about anything I could with it. Eventually I purchased a set of cheap arrows with wooden shafts, broke most of them hitting solid objects, then went on to get some with aluminum shafts. By that point I had moved on to other things but I do still have the bow tucked away in the basement many years layer.

Check out archery shops where you can rent/test shoot a variety of different bows.
Also try to locate nearest archery club. I think there might be some club members willing to help a young kid “get started”.

I don’t think any kid needs a compound bow with all the bells & whistles, heavy draw weight, and a hefty price tag to get started. “YOU” may end up with a bow you may not want or can’t use, if/when the kid’s interest fades. That has certainly been know to happen…
Check out some youth sized, recurve bows with fairly easy draw weight.

I personally shoot a longbow.
BOB

I just bought a Bear ‘Flash’ recurve bow for my 8 yr old grandson.
I looked at a lot of youth bows and most were no more than toys. This bow seems like something he can learn with and use for awhile before he needs a better bow. I wanted the simplicity of a recurve bow for him to start with. Besides that - I have went full circle and am now back to recurves and longbows.
Compounds are cool for awhile but with the modern compounds it is hardly archery anymore. Just like black powder firearms are barely recognizable anymore.
Also want him to learn to shoot instinctively (without sights) first but the ‘Flash’ has a ‘center shot’ arrow rest that looks to me that it might block the shooters view somewhat.
It has a very light draw weight - Might need to get a shorter string as he uses it more.
My grandson loves it and I think it is the best bow I could have got for him at this time.

For me a big part of the enjoyment of archery comes from making my own bows and arrows. I started doing this when I was about ten years old until I was an older teenager. I oved on to more important things. I taught my sons to shoot when they were cubscout and boyscout age and the got pretty good at it. About five years ago I saw a youtube video by a young guy named the backyard bowyer who at that time was making all kinds of bows from PVC pipe. I thought hey I have some PVC pipe in the garage, it was Christmastime and my sons were home visiting and we ended up have a backyard tournament with a 35 lb PVC bow. That got me interested in making my own bows now, and have made many many wood bows since then. My favorite are English Long Bows and native american short bows. I’ve made a couple of English Warbows now too. It’s very easy to make a childs bow from a sapling, boards from Lowe’s or Home Depot, or PVC pipe. I would encourage you trying this with your grandson. It’s very satisfying making your own bows and arrows from a tree, and the string from natural fibers and then learning how to shoot them accurately at long distances. I won a meetup archery tournament with a bow I made from wood from home depot competing against compound bows with sights, rangefinders, counter weights, releases etc etc. It’s a very addicting hobby and great to do when the weather is bad or if you have an injury that keeps you off the water. Here is a video I made on making a prototype Viking bow from hickory board, it’s part 1 of a four part series I have made on the viking bow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8q2Y3EGxiQ

When I started this post, the kid was 9 , now pushing 15 and archery is long over.

Too bad.
You could have combined Archery and kayaking!
I carry a 41" Longbow in a PVC case strapped to my deck with a dozen aluminum arrows with vanes. All are waterproof.
When I find a nice spot, I beach and stump-shoot!