Posted: 9/3/2012 1:11:25 PM EDT
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I also posted this in the traditional archery forum on arfcom, but:
Hi guys, I'm new to archery, mostly clueless. I've done some reading, but needless to say I'm at a crossroads. A family member gave me a Damon Howatt recurve and best I can tell they're supposed to be pretty good. Anyhow I needed to get arrows and a stringer so I headed over to Cabela's. The guy that helped me showed me how a stringer works, simple enough. Then on to the arrows...the issue then came from it being a RH bow and I'm left handed. At that point he showed me how dangerous it can be to shoot left handed on a right handed bow since he himself was left handed. After which, he took back the items, returned my bow to me and sent me on the way without selling me the items. My question is: is this accurate? I feel like my options are to sell it, do it anyway, or try to learn to shoot right handed. My right arm is weaker so I thought about buying a cheap 30# recurve until I get used to it then use my current bow as its a 50#. Any thoughts or advice or even other forums where I could get the best response please let me know. |
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If you're starting out, you will be opening yourself up to injury with a 50# bow. 30# is a good place to start if you have a little experience drawing a bow.
Sell the thing and get one that you can shoot. There are plenty of LH shooters out there, so it shouldn't be a problem finding a LH bow. Visit www.lancasterarchery.com or your local pro shop for more info. Don't trust the big box stores, and I'm hesitant to even suggest local archery shops because most may be educated in compounds, but have very little knowledge of anything traditional. Blame the commercialization of what used to be a simple sport. Are you wanting to hunt or use the bow for target archery? There are vast differences in the way the two are set up. I'll be buying my first Hoyt Horizon pretty soon and can't wait to try out the Olympic style archery after a few years in regular trad shooting. If you go the route of target archery, you don't need heavy poundage. 25-30# is the recommended starting weight, and you can work on your form, which is most important anyway, then move up in poundage. The Olympic archers were shooting 48-54# and hitting targets out to 90m. Arrows: This is a difficult thing and will need to be fine-tuned to your bow as much as possible. Go to www.eastonarchery.com and look up the chart to get you started. Once there, you will need to get various tip weights and fletchings to get the arrow balanced right for your type of shooting. Below is one of the best reference guides you will find. Read it and come back with any questions. http://www.archersreference.co.uk/download.html Start with the guide, then get yourself a LH bow. Nothing good will come out of learning to shoot opposite your eye dominance. Let me know if you need some help and I'll do what I can. |
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I shoot a bow right handed. My shoulder is getting bad enough that I decided to try a left hand Browning Wasp bow.
If I was inside the barn,I couldn't hit the broad side left handed. Get a left hand bow. I use cedar arrows for hunting. I get them hand rolled at the local archery shop. |
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interesting. i'm RH, but after my left elbow replacement, i can't even draw 50# without pretty sharp discomfort in the joint. all of our bows are RH, and i was considering trying to shoot those LH––was unaware of the injury potential. i guess i need to bite the bullet and go to a LH bow. and i have to admit, the letoff of a compound is starting to sound nice.
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| I'm sure the answer is somewhere in this thread, but I am missing it. Could I get a #30 LH bow and work up to the #50 RH bow that I have?(Using it Left handed of course) or is that too dangerous/dumb to consider? If so I'll have to look into options. I just intended to do target shooting since all I needed were some arrows and a stringer, so I'm unsure how to proceed at this point. |
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Quoted:
I'm sure the answer is somewhere in this thread, but I am missing it. Could I get a #30 LH bow and work up to the #50 RH bow that I have?(Using it Left handed of course) or is that too dangerous/dumb to consider? If so I'll have to look into options. I just intended to do target shooting since all I needed were some arrows and a stringer, so I'm unsure how to proceed at this point. Pulling right handed and pulling left handed involves different mechanics and muscles. I'm not going to say its impossible to do what you want, but I'll say you probably can't. I would suggest you get yourself a LH bow. Is your current bow a takedown, meaning you can take the limbs off? If so, then the whole point is moot, because you can just put the 50# limbs on your LH riser when you work up to it. Let's not forget about eye-dominance. You *might* be able to train your muscles up to 50#, but it will be very difficult to train your eyes. Go here and you can find an entire setup for cheaper than you would get in the US, even including the shipping. I suggest the Hoyt Horizon or the Samick Vision packages. |
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My two cents. I am a left eye dominate, right handed person. I shoot pistols right handed, but bows, and rifles left handed. Don't try to fight your eye dominates (I wish I would not have with my pistol shooting, but am to far to go back now). I would give the bow back, or if he dose not want it back try to sell it and buy a left handed bow with removable limbs. Start in the 30 lbs range. Pretty much what every one else is telling you to do. |
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Quoted:
I'm sure the answer is somewhere in this thread, but I am missing it. Could I get a #30 LH bow and work up to the #50 RH bow that I have?(Using it Left handed of course) or is that too dangerous/dumb to consider? If so I'll have to look into options. I just intended to do target shooting since all I needed were some arrows and a stringer, so I'm unsure how to proceed at this point. HERE IS THE ANSWER: If you are a lefty get a lefty bow. For all sorts of reasons listed above. Shooting traditional is hard and to further handicap yourself with the wrong equipment is just dumb. I have been shooting a 50# Martin (Damon Howat) Hunter for 12 years as my main go to bow. |