Don’t rush out and just buy archery gear, read this first.
Purchasing archery gear is not like buying other sports equipment.
It needs to be fitted and sold by an archery professional.
There are many dealers of archery gear out there that are either
sports stores or hunting stores selling bows off the shelf.
We highly recommend you do not purchase you gear from these
places.
In Victoria the specialty archery stores are
Urban Archery
Oz Hunting and Bows
Eliza Archery
Urban Archery is operated by two members of Diamond Valley Archer
Buying secondhand is very risky if you are a new archer. You
could end up with a bow that won’t fit you. It may seem OK,
but with a compound bow it is vital that the draw length is
exactly right (within 1/8″) and with a recurve bow that the
draw weight is comfortable.
A major problem with secondhand bows is that they are often
old bows with little adjustment. You may find a new bow will
be a similar price with much more flexibility.
If you buy secondhand please purchase it from an archery store where they will stand by and support your purchase.
Archery technology improves greatly every year making
shooting good scores easier and easier. While old bows can
and do shoot well, some of the technology has been long updated
and replaced for good reason.
Some bow companies are selling bows using VERY old technology
(20 year old)
as new bows to unsuspecting buyers.
When purchasing a bow make sure that company has a manufacturer’s website. With compound bows most are made in the USA. With recurve bows most are made in the USA or South Korea.
Some major bow companies include
Mathews
Gillo Archery
W&W Archery
G5 Prime/Quest
Hoyt
PSE
Bows require maintanence and be sure the place you buy it from
does that. Buying from eBay will provide you with no after
sales service. If the bow requires complex adjustment the store
you bought it from will be happy to provide that. If you did
not buy the bow from them then expect to pay for any service
they perform. This is reasonable as you did not buy the bow
from them.
Like cars different brands of bows require different knowledge. Most
of the dealers listed above are capable of working on any bow
brands, however they will tend to specialise on particular brands.