I don’t want to spend a fortune and so I’m deciding to do classic recurve over olympic since it’s much more cheap. What do you guys recommend to try out? The closest archery place has this kit for $300, should I go with it or pick and choose other stuff individually to start out?
As someone who bought a kit like that for their own kid once, and saw what it could do, I say the following.
It depends on what you want to shoot. If you just want to ship some arrows down range in your backyard, then sure. If you want to shoot olympic recurve in a club with trainers, and not have to invest in a new bow again soon, then buy something used instead. You can’t get a kit for that price that will satisfy more than the utmost rudimentary recurve/barebow archery.
I’m not trying to be a snob, and I’m sorry if I come off that way. All my kid still uses from that kit is the finger taps, everything else got shot with 5 times, and never in the club, the loaners were simply better. And next Christmas we got our kid the proper gear.
In the club we have a bunch of loaners, which are just Sanlida risers and various <20# limbs. But if you want to get your own gear, then the recommended setup is Sebastian flute evo riser which is rumored to be the cheapest riser that won’t warp, arc systeme sx10 sights, which is the cheapest sighting system that won’t start rattling immediately, and avalon tyro arrows. I don’t know what that will run you, but the riser alone is probably more than 300 usd new, the sights are probably 150 and arrows will be another 50.
If you need to invest 500 for the proper setup from new, then spending 300 for a backyard kit is not advisable. Go on your local second hand sites and facebook marketplace, there’s plenty of gear to be had for a remarkable discount, especially in the beginner segment.