Archery Equipment Help

[markgrutz]

I need some help from the MDS hive.

I am one of two archery instructors for the Howard County 4H program. Apparently all of our camp supplies were auctioned off at a storage auction through a series of retirements and other unfortunate events. It was a lot of stuff, not just archery.

I need to outfit all of the archery equipment again. I am looking for suggestions on brands of everything that are both affordable, durable, and good for kids (5-17).

We used to have nice takedown recurves, piles of arm guards and gloves, carbon fiber arrows, and a bin of all kinds of replacement parts and tools, string jig, etc. It was all donated originally by a fairly rich guy who has since passed, and he never cheated out on anything. University of Maryland isn't going to be quite so generous I am sure.

So where do I start???

Mark G

 

[Inigoes]

What groups are you associated with? USA Archery?

They may be eligible for discounts at places like Lancaster Archery.

If you are a part of the National 4-H shooting sports, contact:

Amanda M. Wahle​

awahle@umd.edu​

301-314-7363​

​

YOUR STATE

Want to get involved at a local level or want to know more of what is happening with 4-H in your county? Find your local Extension office. Below is Information and Contacts for your State 4-H Shoot…

4-hshootingsports.org

 

[Roksfr]

I would also suggest that you look for sponsors and donations. Reach out to manufactures with your story. I used to help organize a local fishing rodeo and found local businesses would donate generously when asked. Once I had a tackle shop that had a bunch of cane poles (one piece) that had been in storage for a long time, they gave us all of them. The kids had a blast flipping bluegill out of the pond, the business got a write off it was a win-win.
Put on your best salesman's hat and go knocking. Today you can e-mail manufactures like PSE, Bear, or 3rivers. If nothing else they might give you a group buy discount, or a nice bow that you could raffle on MDS as a fundraisers.
As mentioned above national organizations should be able to offer help

 

[Grampa G]

Try reaching out to Genesis Archery because years ago they offered deep discounts to youth groups.

 

[fogman]

Which Howard County 4-H club?
Lancaster Archery Supply is the go to choice for recurve target archery. All of the kids end up going there when they decide to purchase their own equipment. 3-5 hours choosing and tuning a set up for the kids is not unusual. Customer service is above and beyond anything you would expect these days.
I've dealt with Alternate Services out of England as well.
Trying to build/rebuild a program from scratch sucks. I'd contact local archery shops, Lancaster Archery Supply. Explain the situation, they may be able to help.
Galaxy Bullseye is a good entry level youth take down recurve, it replaced the Sammick Polaris. 48" for small stature kids, 54" fits most youth and 62" for the bigger kids. Easton Jazz used to be our go to shaft, but don't see them in the Lancaster catalog.

 

[markgrutz]

Thanks for the suggestions, I am going to start reaching out to places today to see what I can drum up. I have to have something done by the middle of June.

If you are a part of the National 4-H shooting sports, contact:

Amanda M. Wahle​

​

Sadly I am sure Amanda has already heard about this. Our extension agent Chris and her are friends and I have known her since she was the AA county agent. As far as I know the camp in western Md has camp equipment, but for some reason we don't want to use that... they have some recurves and a handful of compounds. I don't like the compounds for the kids, they just shoot the arrows into the woods as far as they can. At least with the recurves, it limits the hunting I have to do

Which Howard County 4-H club?

Trying to build/rebuild a program from scratch sucks. I'd contact local archery shops, Lancaster Archery Supply. Explain the situation, they may be able to help.
Galaxy Bullseye is a good entry level youth take down recurve, it replaced the Sammick Polaris. 48" for small stature kids, 54" fits most youth and 62" for the bigger kids. Easton Jazz used to be our go to shaft, but don't see them in the Lancaster catalog.

We do the camp for Howard County. I only do camp and the county fair anymore, I just don't have extra time to get involved in a club. I can't find the list of what we had, but I know Sammick made up a number of the bows. Our arrows were all the real nice carbon fiber ones, and last time I looked at adding some more, they were upwards of $10 per shaft.

 

[Tracker12]

Lancaster Archery is your friend

 

[Spaceballs]

Try reaching out to Genesis Archery because years ago they offered deep discounts to youth groups.

A lot of people LOVE the Genesis bow for teaching kids

 

[Dantheman]

I've heard a lot of good things about Genesis bows. This thread isn't very new but if you want funding - Go join Facebook groups (Maryland Bowhunters, Bowhunters of America, etc...) put your story out there, make sure of a way that people know its genuine. I think that would handily solve the funding issue.

 

[markgrutz]

So, as it turns out. Ended up going to Lancaster and the total wound up being just over $2k. Got a bunch of of right and left Galaxy recurves in a few different lengths. All in all, it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. It was nice having equipment that actually shot straight. The kids groupings were nice and tight for the most part. The guys up at lancaster were super great to work with, and spent the better part of the afternoon getting all this put together.