If you or your parents decide to buy a bow there are four things to consider:

1. Draw length

2. Draw weight

3. Growth

4. Price

Draw length is easy to calculate. First, get your "wingspan" by holding out both arms fully to your sides and measure the distance from fingertip to fingertip in inches. Divide that number by 2.5 and round UP to the nearest half-inch. For example, I'm 5'8 and have a wingspan of 72 inches, so my draw length is 28.8 or 29 inches. I have to use arrows longer than 29 inches so they're long enough to extend past the grip of the bow, so I have a bunch of 30" arrows.

Draw weight is how much force it takes to pull the string back all the way. You hold the bow out toward the target, then pull the string to your anchor point (somewhere on your face). Whatever force that takes is the draw weight of the bow at your draw length. With traditional bows (longbows and recurves), the longer the draw length, the greater the draw weight. Whatever force you can exert, that's your maximum draw weight. Can that draw weight increase? Sure. If you do this for a while, your draw weight's going to go up because you'll get stronger. If you're buying a recurve bow, you need to make sure that you get limbs that have a draw weight that you can pull or nearly pull. Let's say you can pull 35 pounds, but you want to be able to pull 40. Go ahead and get some 40-pound limbs and start working on it and you can build up to it. You can also get 30- or 35-pound limbs and hold them quite comfortably and work on your shooting. Why would you want heavier draw weight? In general, the heavier the draw weight, the faster your arrow will go, because more potential energy gets stored in those limbs as they bend. I say in general because there are always other factors.

When you buy a longbow or recurve, the weight is usually written on the lower limb and tells you two things. It might say "45# @28". That means that at a 28-inch draw length, you're pulling 45 pounds. At any length shorter than that you're pulling less than 45 pounds. That gives you an idea of whether you can pull that bow. If you buy a bow and it's a single piece, it's the same thing. It has a specific draw weight at a specific draw length. Most recurve bows sold these days are breakdowns, meaning they're three pieces, and you can buy limbs separately. A riser is usually more expensive. With compound bows, you can actually change the limb weight or the draw weight by adjusting how tight the limbs are held to the riser with a couple of hex wrenches.

It used to be that if you bought a compound bow for an adult, it would be adjustable from 45 to 70 pounds and for draw lengths of 27-31 inches. Now most major brands offer very flexible compound bows that vary as much as 15-70 pounds and 13-31 inches. These bows can be used by kids as young as six or fully-grown adults.

Kids grow up and some do so sooner or later than others. Their draw lengths and draw weights will change rapidly until their late teens or early 20s. Buying an expensive one-piece longbow for a youth who's still growing might not be a good investment. An adjustable compound or a breakdown recurve where you can buy lighter or heavier limbs is more likely to last for years, but those start at well over $100, so if you want to get a “starter” bow to make sure your archer will continue shooting first, here are some options for you. Just keep your archer's current draw length and weight in mind.

Here are some breakdown recurve bows to consider in the $120-150 range: 

• Galaxy Aspire (aluminum)

• Galaxy Sage (wood)

• PSE Nighthawk (wood)

• Samick Sage (wood)

Interested in getting into competitive Olympic Recurve archery? 

Here are some setup packages suggested by Mike Cullumber (Level 4 NTS Coach of multiple world champion Olympic Recurve archers). Prices are based on the 2025 Lancaster Archery catalog. Here you can see some of the components mentioned below.