I'm the pastor of a small spanish-speaking church in northern IL.  Several of our men have expressed an interest in learning trad archery, having heard my frequent stories about how much I enjoy it.  One of the fellas asked me yesterday if I could find him an inexpensive bow to learn to shoot with.  I'll try to refer him to a bow in the tradgang swap-n-sell, but first...

1.  Should he worry about dominant-eye at this point, or shoot right just because he's right handed?  (I personally have no dominant eye, so I don't understand the potential issues...)

2.  What's a good bow that he can buy for $100 or less that will be enjoyable and good for him to learn to shoot with?  (The only non-compound bows I've ever shot are my BW PMA and a friend's Acadian Woods.  I don't know the potential pitfalls of lower-end bows - stacking, instability, inconsistency, vibration, etc.)

Any tips from you more experienced folks?

Just find an old cheap used bow...here, ****, whatever... $85 will buy a shooter! first one I had was a Pearson Wildcat..you can pick them up for about $75 commonly...

Just get a righty.. or... simply perform the dominant eye test... either way... no biggie really...just get them shooting!

Its simple to do a dominate eye test.

But as you seem to be aware not everyone has a true dominate eye. The hole in the card test will force you to chosse one which can be misleading so I dont advise that method.

If you dont have a dominate eye(like me) you are either forced to snap shoot(which will definitely limit your accuracy), or you learn to shoot with one eye shut or squinted.

Archie, a couple of ideas for you. Put an ad out in the community, grocery store, post office bulletin boards etc. asking for older bows. Rockford is a large area, I know. Also, how about building some selfbows, there is problably some osage around there, and you most likely have some craftsmen in your church body. I will try to look around for something here. I can make strings if you would need any.

The problem with self-bows is that our church culture (Hispanic) is such that our men are so busy trying to make ends meet that they don't have a lot of time nor equipment to do it.  

I have no idea how to make a self-bow, myself.

Check the pawn shops and garage sales

Place an ad in the classified here looking for a bow. I bet there are a bunch of bows out there that will fit the bill. Just lay out the situation and I'm sure you will have what you need before you know it. I may have some shooting tabs or glove's and maybe some arrows for you depending what spine you need.

GKLong@comcast.net

Thanks, JL.  I've got enough arrows, tabs, etc. to take care of things, and what I don't have, I know enough to put together.  The main thing to figure out is which direction to steer him for a bow.

Roman send me your address please in a PM.    

I bought a bow like this from these guys:
http://cgi.****.com/ws/****ISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270359309503&ssPageName=ADME:B:FSEL:US:1123
not the straightest or best in the world, but I can put an arrow into a target four inches wide at 25 yards consistently and with enough whack to hunt with it to boot. In other words, I like it.

fill in the **** with the name of a very famous online auction site and I think you'll see what I'm talking about.

Sorry moderators.

Vermonster... PM sent.

Sent you one back. Let me know and I'll set you up.