Youth Bowhunting
Start Them Young

Youth bowhunting is a great way for a family to enjoy the outdoors together. My son started shooting a bow when he was just a little guy. I don’t know if you would call this youth bowhunting or not but he sure hit a lot of grass. His first bow was a plastic bow that had a hole in the riser that you shot foam arrows through. He soon gave up the foam and started using old aluminum arrows that I gave him. He actually shot pretty good with this toy bow. Eventually the plastic bow broke and his heart was also broke. After telling a co-worker about my son’s bow shooting activities and the demise of his prize bow this man gave me an old bow that his sons had used when they were little. This bow was a simple recurve and was perfect for Ryan once I added a nock to the string. I remember the first time he hit the bullseye. I didn’t think that he was ever going to let me pull the arrow out.

His next bow was a Brave compound bow made by Golden Eagle. He shot this bow for a few years, each year turning the poundage up. This little bow was fun for him to play with but due to the cheap arrow rest it never had good accuracy with the plastic vaned arrows that we used.

Last fall we purchased a Browning Micro Midas for him. The Micro Midas draw length has 10 inches of adjustment from 18 to 28, 40 pound maximum draw weight and 70 percent let-off. He is at the lower end of these adjustments now and should get several years out of this bow. We added a TM Hunter arrow rest, wrist sling and a peep sight. Using an old thumb release he is able to shoot good groups out to 15 yards. Later this year I’m sure we will have to turn the poundage and draw length up and he will probably be out to 20 yards. So far we are pleased with this bow; it is a nice sturdy little bow for a young person at a reasonable price. The bow came with a quiver and sight that we have also installed. It looks like this is a good bow to start a youth bowhunting with.

My daughter is two years younger than Ryan and has followed him using each of these bows and is now the owner of the Brave. If I can keep her away from the shopping malls I think I can make a hunter out of her too. She likes to go with me as long as I can keep her warm and well fed. She’ll be the prettiest hunter in the woods.

After figuring out how to keep them warm and entertained, hunting with my son and daughter is one of the most enjoyable things that I have experienced. Youth bowhunting is a great way to spend quality time with your children.

Ryan's First Bullseye

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