Youth bow roundup

Summer is a time when most of us start pulling out the stick and bow hardware to begin our evening after-work worship of slinging arrows in preparation of the soon-to-arrive season.

For you parents of young future bow hunters, this is a great time to get the whole family involved in an outdoor activity. However, chances are if you have youngsters, they’re probably already involved and standing by your side during your practice sessions. But, their involvement probably doesn’t include shoot a bow.

A very close friend of mine once told me: “You need to have kids so that they can pull your arrows from the target and bring them back to you.” Well, I took his advice and I now have one cooking that should be arrow-pulling ready in a few years. I can hardy wait!

Having your eager-to-help, arrow-pulling offspring make those countless trips to and from your target isn’t a bad thing at all. You’re spending time with them outdoors and it makes them feel useful to get to help out. However, wouldn’t it be even better if they could shoot with you, and you both pull arrows? Maybe even have a little friendly competition between young buck and dad?

Of course it would, but buying another entire bow outfit doesn’t come cheap considering they will outgrow the equipment in a few years. Or will they?

The scalability of today’s bows allow a broad range of change with the growing needs of kids. Some wheel-cams offer up to 5 or 6 inches of draw length changes. Single-cams are no different if they use inexpensive draw modules, which can allow up to 8 inches of draw length changes.

Probably the biggest hurdle to jump when it comes to needing more as kids grow, is the draw weight. Most bow companies offer limb-only sales, which allows you to replace the existing limbs with a new set that will increase the poundage. Some companies even promote this option and offer large discounts.

Finding the right bow for your young bow hunter, while keeping your budget in mind, can be a confusing and rigorous task. There are a lot of bow companies out there, and even more youth-size bows, to choose from. Most companies offer at least one bow that will drop to a 23- or 24-inch draw length. However, many of these bows are adult models and maybe a bit heavy and bulky for youth. And, they probably don’t lower to a draw weight that is suitable.