Best Archery Bows for Beginners

Fletchwise guides are independent and hype-free – we are not sponsored by any archery brand.

Coaches and clubs usually start beginners on a recurve because it teaches the fundamentals with no mechanical shortcuts: you feel the full draw, learn a consistent anchor, and build clean form that transfers to any bow later. A takedown recurve is ideal – it breaks down for transport, and you can buy heavier limbs as you get stronger instead of a whole new bow.

• Draw weight – start light. Many adults learn best at 15-25 lbs; you build form faster without straining.
• Eye dominance – choose left- or right-hand by your dominant eye, not your writing hand. Do a quick eye-dominance test.
• Bow length – longer recurves are smoother and more forgiving; match length to your draw length.
• Adjustability – takedown limbs let you grow without rebuying.

Every beginner bow guide we checked – including pages from specialty archery retailers, and even the UK’s national governing body’s own guide – skips a step that costs little or nothing and prevents the two most common beginner mistakes on this page: guessing eye dominance wrong and guessing draw weight wrong. USA Archery’s nationwide network of JOAD clubs and Explore Archery programs run beginner classes with loaner equipment, so you shoot a real bow at a few different draw weights, with a coach checking your form and eye dominance, before you spend a cent on gear of your own. A one-time class fee is cheap insurance against buying the wrong-handed bow or a draw weight that fights you from day one.

If a club is not within reach, ask a local shop for a fitting session even if you plan to order your gear online afterward – most will do a quick fit for free or a small fee, and it answers the eye-dominance and draw-length questions above with a tape measure and a real bow, not a guess in your living room.

The recommended starting weights above look backwards at first glance – 15-25 lbs for a recurve but 40-50 lbs for an entry compound – until you know what each number actually means at full draw. A recurve has no let-off: you hold 100% of the labeled draw weight the entire time you aim, from full draw to release. A compound’s cams reduce the weight you actually hold by roughly 75-90% once you reach let-off, so a 40 lb compound might only ask your arms to hold 6-10 lbs at full draw. That is why the “right” starting weight is so different between the two – the recurve number is the real, sustained load, while the compound number is mostly what you overcome to get there, not what you hold while aiming.

Recurve bows are built to standard AMO lengths – typically 62″, 64″, 66″, 68″, 70″, and 72″ – and your draw length determines which one actually works, not preference. A rough guide: a 28″ draw length pairs with a 68″ bow. Go too short for your draw and the string angle at full draw gets sharp enough to pinch your drawing fingers, make the draw feel harsh, and stress the limb tips – a common cause of beginners blaming “bad form” for a problem that is actually bow length. When you are between sizes, the standard advice is to go longer, not shorter; a bow slightly too long costs you a little smoothness, while one too short costs you comfort and accuracy. This is also where a takedown recurve pays off twice: the same riser can pair with different-length limbs to hit a different AMO length entirely, so a growth in draw length does not necessarily mean buying a whole new bow.

1. The bow – a takedown recurve (or entry compound) fitted to you.
2. Arrows – correct spine for your draw weight, cut to length.
3. Arm guard – protects your forearm from string slap.
4. Finger tab or glove (recurve) or a release (compound).
5. A target – a bag target and a safe backstop.

Budget roughly $150-250 for a decent entry takedown riser and limbs, plus another $50-100 for arrows, an arm guard, a tab, and a basic target – landing in the same $200-400 range as a complete beginner recurve setup. Spending less than that on the bow itself risks the quality issues covered in our quality bow guide, including the five-second limb-tip test – worth running on a cheap riser and limb pair before you buy, not after.