My Road to Target Archery in and around Toronto: Researching and Buying my Initial Archery Equipment

After visiting Archers of Caledon in July 2012, I knew I want back in... and I want back in right away. However my wife and I were expecting our first one in about 6 weeks, so this was hardly the best time to start anything new. With a newborn on the way, I knew I have at least 4 to 6 months before I'll step foot in a shooting range.

And this wasn't all that bad, as unfortunately, archery isn't hockey. You can't go to the local SportChek, see it all and buy what your budget allows you. Baby or not, if you want the right equipment in this part of the world, you need about 4-6 months to get it.

So, I took archery like a software engineering problem. Research, research, research.

I used to shoot a Hoyt before, so naturally, first website I go to is Hoyt's website. Have things changed over the past decade... My old bow used to look like ... well, a bow. These days everything on the market resembles a weapon from a Sci-Fi movie.

2013 PSE Omen

After 2 months of Googling, following discussions on ArcheryTalk and studying bow specs, my top two contenders:

Mathews Conquest 8

Hoyt Vantage Elite Plus

And with all the online research in the world, you still don't know what you're getting. Unless you go out there and shoot the bow you're buying, you have no idea what it will feel like or whether you'll like it... So for me, this was a leap of faith - I had a Hoyt before that I liked, so I decided to go with the Vantage Elite Plus.

But picking a bow is only the beginning of it. The Vantage Elite Plus ships with one of two different types of cams, GTX and Spiral cams. The GTX cams I decided to go (the smoother ones with bigger valley and softer wall) with can be used with 6 different modules (#1 through #6) that will control the let-off percentage and draw length, none of which I knew for myself. I approximately measured my draw length at 28", and that was it. So I decided to buy used, fully expecting that some of these things will have to change.

It was late November before I finally decided to buy one on eBay. With this I'd get no warranty, but that's a risk I was willing to take for getting the bow I want for half retail price. I got a 4 month old pearl white, 2012 Hoyt Vantage Elite Plus with #2 GTX cams. Shipped from the States and got to me mid December, just in time for Christmas.

Christmas Gift Un-boxed

Merry Christmas

As somewhat expected, the maximum draw length the #2 GTX cams would allow wasn't long enough, so I ordered a new set - #3 cams with 65% let-off modules from someone on ArcheryTalk (I later sold the #2 cams on the same website, so this only cost me a week of my time and not a penny). I also ordered a new string/cables set from ABB to match the new cams - bow came with a decent set that I'd change anyway.

Similar research (both in terms of time and effort) went in to buying a sight and scope, arrow rest and a release. In the interest of time, I picked up a front stabilizer and 6 arrows at the Bow Shop in Waterloo without any research as I wanted to get going, and was sure I'll replace these later. So I ended up with: