I would like to introduce my 11 yr old nephew to archery, and plan on giving him a Two Rivers 58" 40# longbow.  His draw is somewhere around 23".

Is this a good idea?  Or should I give hime a lighter draw bow?  I haven't show him the bow to try out.  Don't want to get his hope up too soon, then I will never hear the end of it from him.

From your experiences, what is a good weight bow for a first timer.  Is my 40# too much for the young lad?  Thanks for your input.

For a 1st bow I would go lighter.  If the kid is over bowed he'll hate shooting.

But the best thing to do would be to take him to a local shop and see what they have.  Let him shoot a couple.

Yep, like mitch, 25-35# depending on his stature. As kids we used 35# bows for a long time.

my 2 cents

Mike

How big of a boy is he?If the bow is 40#@28" and he is drawing 5" short of that he should only be pulling around 30 or so pounds.Sounds to me like it would work and this way when he reaches 28" he will have a huntihg wieght bow.
Good luck

If you are going to get him into archery one way or another just take  him an see what he can pull .make sure it feels good to him.

I started my grandson out with a 29# Bear Cub I got from my uncle. He was drawing 24". This poundage allowed him to achieve good form and accuracy while having fun shooting.

I would let him shoot a bunch of bows, Let him tell you.

Thanks everyone for your deligent suggestions.  I will have him try out a few bows before I "surprising" him with his own.