Archery a good hobby?

Question

well am 16 and ive just had about £300 for doing well on my exam results and i looking for sumit to do i find myself sitting in front of the TV most nights bord stiff and my mum has been naggin me for weeks to spend more quality time with my dad so i thought that it would be a good idea for us to take up archery as it seems pretty interesting from what ive seen in films like the weather man (the man character does archery as his hobby) but i dont really know much about it so i was woundering:

Is it expensive?

Is it easily to pick up? (as i will only probably going a few times a week)

and overall is it an interesting and enoyable thing to do or is there something else you would recommend?

i would appreciate any comments thanks

Answer 1

i like archery, its really fun, but if you arent prepared, you can hurt yourself. you can pull muscles if your bow is to strong for you. for that much, id reccomend doing something like airsoft, which i do. i do that and i get to spend some AWESOME time with my dad. I picked it up easily, but generally, i pick everyting up easily. uhm in terms of expensiveness....what kind of archery do you plan on? hunting.....yeah expensive.....general compound bow....150 or so where i live, in the us..longbow......not really sure...hope i helped

Answer 2

Archery can be very cheap (think about free in some places) or can be expensive.  But even for someone like me, who spends a lot of money on it, it's still a relatively cheap hobby.  I spend perhaps $3000/year on it for equipment and tournament fees.  I'm not sure how things are run over there in the UK, check out your governing body for archery, the GNAS.  Who knows there might be clubs in your area that offer free equipment like ours here in California.  The website for the GNAS is www.gnas.org.

It's quite easy to learn and like anything else it'll take a lifetime to master. There are also many forms of it, there's the archery you see at the Olympics, this is what I do, then there's 3D archery, where you shoot at foam animals, field archery, where you walk around on a course and shoot at targets posted at unknown distances, etc.

If you don't have a range in the area, you can buy yourself an inexpensive bow like the internature bullseye for US$100, some jazz arrows for $30, and shoot.  The arrows can last you for more than a year.  No other sport is cheaper really.  Just make sure you start with light limbs, somewhere like 20-25lbs limbs should be fun to shoot.

It's very relaxing, I've also found other archers to be the nicest bunch of people.  Find yourself a range and give it a try.