From your first bow to broadheads, targets, and tuning – Fletchwise breaks down every piece of archery gear in plain English. Fit-first advice for hunters and target archers, with no hype.
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2026
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Three Numbers to Get Right Before You Buy Anything
Most archery buying mistakes are not brand mistakes. They are fit mistakes, made before the brand ever mattered. Draw length, draw weight and arrow spine are measured in that order, and each one is the reference point for the next. Guess at them, or take them out of order, and the gear works against you no matter whose name is on the riser.
| The number | How you get it | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Draw length | Wingspan, fingertip to fingertip, divided by 2.5. A 68-inch wingspan is roughly a 27-inch draw, accurate to about half an inch. | It is read off an age chart instead of a body. Draw length tracks height, not age, so a growing archer needs re-measuring every 6 to 12 months. See youth bow sizing. |
| 2. Draw weight | The weight you can pull smoothly cold, seated and in a heavy jacket, not the weight you can pull warm and standing in a shop. | Listed weight is measured at a 28-inch draw. At 26 inches a bow marked 50 lb pulls closer to 44 to 46 lb. The bow did not shrink, the reference point never applied to you. See draw length and fit and field draw weight. |
| 3. Arrow spine | Read from the manufacturer chart using the point weight you will actually shoot, then buy shafts full length and cut in small steps. | Spine charts assume a 100-grain point. Every extra 25 grains up front is roughly one spine group weaker, so a chart-correct shaft quietly goes soft the day you fit a 125-grain broadhead. Cutting is the one irreversible step in a build. See spine, grain weight and FOC and cutting shafts. |
One trap sits underneath all three: draw weight does not mean the same thing on every bow. A compound’s cams cut what you hold at full draw by roughly 75 to 90 per cent, so a 40 lb compound may ask you to hold only 6 to 10 lb while you aim. A recurve has no let-off at all and you carry the full marked weight the whole time. That is why a 25 lb recurve can be harder to hold steady than a 40 lb compound, and why the two should never be compared on the number alone. The full version of that argument is in recurve vs compound and bows for beginners.
New to Archery? Start Here
The guides that answer the first questions every archer asks.
What to Spend On First, and What Can Wait
The first question most people ask is what all of this costs. The more useful question is what order to buy it in. A few purchases are load-bearing, everything else gets adjusted around them, and several items that get sold as essentials are genuinely optional for a first year. We do not sell bows, arrows or accessories and we run no affiliate links, so nothing here changes depending on which column you read.
| Gear | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A bow that fits | First | Fit is the only spec you cannot upgrade your way out of later. Start at types of bows if the style is still open, or compound bows if it is not. |
| Arrows matched to the bow | First | No amount of technique fixes a shaft that is wrong for your draw weight and point weight. Start with carbon arrows or arrows for a compound. |
| A target rated for what you shoot | First | Bag targets hold arrows by fibre friction, which is exactly what a broadhead cuts through, and broadhead targets are rated by arrow speed rather than bow type. See choosing a target and broadhead targets. |
| Arrow rest, then sight | Early, in that order | The rest decides where the arrow leaves the bow, and the sight is then adjusted to wherever the arrow already goes. Reverse it and you sight in twice. See arrow rests and bow sights. |
| Release aid | Early, and chosen deliberately | The index-finger trigger that ships in most packages is also the easiest one to punch. Retraining that habit takes weeks, so the choice belongs at the start, not after it appears. See release aids. |
| Peep sight | After the sight | Peep inner diameter is matched to the sight housing you look through, so buying it first is guessing. It is also the one item on this list that needs a press to install. See peep sights. |
| Stabilizer | Later | Length without end weight does very little, and how much end weight suits you is tuned by feel, which is not stable yet in a new shooter. See stabilizers. |
| Arrow saw or cutter | Later | A saw around the 160-dollar mark takes roughly thirteen dozen shafts to pay for itself against shop cutting. Worth it if you build arrows, pointless if you buy them finished. See arrow saws and archery tools. |
| Bow press | Later, often never | At typical shop rates the payback period for a casual shooter runs past a decade. It is a tool you buy because you want to do the work, not to save money. See bow presses. |
| Case | When you travel | Storage in a case is worse for a bow than most people think, and airline rules are about dimensions rather than shell type. See bow cases. |
Buying used changes the arithmetic more than any accessory choice does. Compound bows depreciate fast, and a flagship that sold new around a thousand dollars commonly trades at six to seven hundred within a year and two to two hundred and fifty after a few, which regularly buys more bow than a new entry model at the same price. The catch is that none of the major warranties transfer to a second owner, so a used flagship and a used no-name bow carry exactly the same cover: none. Both sides of that are in buying used and brands compared.
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Custom Gear: Names, Club Logos, Team Colours
New from us: embroidered quivers, bow bags and arm guards, made to order. One piece minimum – a single archer and a 24-strong school squad get the same answer.
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See OptionsLettered Arm Guards
Names or a club mark on an arm guard – the piece most likely to get lost in a shared kit bag.
See OptionsHow These Guides Are Written
Most archery buying advice is written by people who make money when you buy. That is not a scandal, but it does quietly shape what gets said, and it is why so much of it reads like every accessory is essential. Here is what we hold ourselves to instead.
No sponsorship, no affiliate links
No brand pays for placement here and nothing on the site earns a commission when you buy. That is what makes it possible to write that a stabilizer can wait, that a bow press takes years to pay for itself, and that a used flagship is often the better buy.
Fit before specs
Draw length, draw weight and spine come before brand, speed rating or price in every guide. Speed numbers on a box are measured under lab conditions that almost nobody shoots, so we explain what the number describes rather than repeating it.
Numbers, or we say we do not have them
Angles, grains, inches and pounds wherever they exist. Where the evidence is field consensus rather than controlled testing, the guide says so in the sentence rather than in a disclaimer, and where a claim depends on your state or your airline, it tells you to check the source.
Two consequences worth stating plainly. We do not publish fixed price lists, because prices move and a dated table is worse than no table, so costs appear as ranges tied to what drives them. And several guides end with a reason not to buy at all, which is the part that separates a guide from a catalogue. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and it gets fixed. Our terms and privacy policy spell out the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fletchwise sponsored by an archery brand?
No. Every guide on this site says so directly – we are not sponsored by any bow, arrow or accessory brand, and we do not chase spec-sheet marketing. Recommendations are written to fit the archer, not to sell a particular label.
Does Fletchwise sell archery gear?
Mostly no – the site is 60+ independent gear guides and reviews covering nine archery categories, from choosing your first bow to tuning arrows and picking targets. The one exception is our own small line of custom embroidered gear (quivers, bow bags and arm guards, made to order) – everything else on the site is buying advice, not a storefront.
What is the custom archery gear line?
Embroidered quivers, bow bags and arm guards, made to order from a single piece up. Team and club orders are what it is built for – one logo, one set of colours, each archer’s name on their own piece – and production runs about two weeks from artwork approval. See custom archery gear for details and a quote.
Is Fletchwise for hunters or target archers?
Both. The guides split naturally by use – hunting apparel and hunting-specific bow advice on one side, target and form guides like how to shoot a compound bow on the other – and most gear guides, like arrows and broadheads, cover both audiences directly.
Where should a beginner start?
With types of archery bows if you have not picked a bow style yet, or the compound bow guide if you already know that is the style you want. Both are written to get draw weight and draw length fit right before anything else, since fit matters more than any spec on a box.
How much does it cost to get started?
Three things decide the number: a bow that fits, arrows matched to it, and a target that can stop what you shoot. Everything else on the accessory shelf can wait. A ready-to-shoot package bundles the accessories in and lands in roughly the same place as a bare bow plus mid-range parts bought separately, and in practice only the sight and the rest are worth replacing later. If the budget is tight, the used market moves more than any accessory decision: compound bows depreciate steeply, so the same money often buys a class up. See what to buy first and what it costs and buying used.
I just bought my first bow. What should I do first?
Confirm the fit before anything else – draw length measured from your wingspan, and a draw weight you can pull smoothly without heaving. Then install in order: rest, sight, peep, D-loop, stabilizer last, because each one is set against the one before it. Only then start on form. Doing it the other way round is the most common reason a new bow is sighted in twice and a served-in peep gets cut back out. Start with how to shoot a compound bow and the accessory order.
Do I need a bow press, an arrow saw or a stabilizer to start?
No to all three. A press pays for itself over a decade or more at typical shop rates, an arrow saw around the 160-dollar mark takes roughly thirteen dozen shafts to break even, and a stabilizer without end weight does very little while the feel it is tuned to is still changing. Each is a real tool for the person doing that work, and none of them is a starting requirement. See bow presses, arrow saws and stabilizers.
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