# Target Bow advice



## Whipkeyrl (Jun 18, 2018)

Hi we are going to be moving our 12 year old daughter from her diamond infinite edge into a Target bow. She shot a Hoyt prevail at a local archery store and didn't love it. We've also been suggested to the PSE phenom. We looked into the Matthew conquest online. Basically I'm looking for advice on what is a good first Target bow? She for what ever reason says she does not like the shoot through riser. I think a lot of it for her is she has shot her diamond for 3 years so she fears change.


----------



## L8APEX1 (Sep 11, 2007)

Get her out trying every one, that’s the only real way to figure out what she will like.


----------



## Whipkeyrl (Jun 18, 2018)

I wish I could get her trying them all but unfortunately we do not seem to have stores around here that carry a bunch of Target bows. Where she tried the Hoyt that's what they deal with mostly and they happened to have a used prevail for sale.


----------



## Caden (Jun 14, 2018)

I currently shoot a PSE Stinger Extreme with a BHFS setup and shot a 291 on Friday, those 9 points I dropped were all me, if that is any indication of how good of a bow that is.


----------



## Beastmaster (Jan 20, 2009)

Whipkeyrl said:


> Hi we are going to be moving our 12 year old daughter from her diamond infinite edge into a Target bow. She shot a Hoyt prevail at a local archery store and didn't love it. We've also been suggested to the PSE phenom. We looked into the Matthew conquest online. Basically I'm looking for advice on what is a good first Target bow? She for what ever reason says she does not like the shoot through riser. I think a lot of it for her is she has shot her diamond for 3 years so she fears change.


A few comments. This is based upon experience from my own child's career plus being a coach for a bunch of teen and pre-teen kids.

1) If she's committing to target archery, be prepared for a bunch of bow changes as your child grows. In my son's current career (he's 16 now), he has been through 14 target bows in 9 years. If she's really committed to target archery, you will find that a one-size-fits-all bow isn't going to do her in good stead and over time, she will be giving up points.

2) Buy what fits her. This means that not only is there the draw length you have to worry about, you have to worry about draw weight, and mass weight of the bow. If she cannot hold the bow straight out (with accessories and stabilizers) for more than 10 seconds...the bow is too heavy.

3) Don't be afraid of a shorter Axle-to-Axle hunting style bow. Frankly, unless your daughter is 5 foot 3 or taller right now (unlikely at 12, but possible), a standard Hoyt Prevail is too big. At 12, she should be looking at a Hoyt Prevail FX or FX Short Draw, a PSE Phenom SD, or a Mathews Stoke/Avail.

4) Using the USA Archery JOAD pin system as a guide, I have a question. Does your daughter currently shoot in the 270's (inner 10) at 18m now, or shoot over 300's at 30m? If not, you need to look at improving the Diamond Infinite Edge with stuff like blade rest, properly spined arrows, a good target sight from Axcel/SureLoc/Black Gold/CBE, and a good trigger/wrist release with a clean, crisp sear break, or a hinge release. 

The Diamond, when properly equipped, is more than capable of producing Bronze level Olympian scores if you have it equipped properly. This means that if your Diamond is set up properly, it will be easily capable of shooting indoor 290 inner 10 scores. I know - I've seen it done, and it can be done.

5) Coaching. Do you have good coaching available? Between that and a good setup, your daughter should be able to shoot that Infinite Edge for a while until she is bumping up against the yellow to Bronze level.

So...there are a lot of other factors that you should look at before jumping into a pure target setup.

Hope that helps,
-Steve


----------



## Whipkeyrl (Jun 18, 2018)

Beastmaster said:


> A few comments. This is based upon experience from my own child's career plus being a coach for a bunch of teen and pre-teen kids.
> 
> 1) If she's committing to target archery, be prepared for a bunch of bow changes as your child grows. In my son's current career (he's 16 now), he has been through 14 target bows in 9 years. If she's really committed to target archery, you will find that a one-size-fits-all bow isn't going to do her in good stead and over time, she will be giving up points.
> 
> ...


 Hi Steve
thank you for your response. Currently she has been shooting with 4H for 3 years. Shooting her Diamond we have the drop away rest on it and beestinger stabalizers arrows are gold tip my husband put a slight twist in the fletching. She is shooting just over 35 lbs. For 4 h she is shooting distances of 20, 30, 40 and her scores are over 300 so far her top has been a 333 out of a 360. 
We just signed her up for JOAD about a month ago and she placed third in her first championship. Her total score shooting 72 arrows at 25 meters was 621 that was her first time shooting that many arrows she had a slight rough start and did better the second half. 
I've been finding it hard to find a shop local to have different bows in stock for her to try. We did luck out with Archery Learning Center having the prevail in stock used for her to try but she said she did not like it. I don't know if it is just the weight of it being heavier to hold in her hand and the fact it's a big difference compared to the diamond. But she described it as feeling rough to shoot.. Another shop was pushing the phenom but they did not have one in stock for her to hold. So I'm torn I hate to order something with out her at least holding and getting the feel of something before making this purchase.


----------



## redleg1013 (Jan 1, 2018)

Thank you! This post was pretty much exactly what I needed to see. My son is very much in the same boat, he's growing out of his Stacey and is not interested in hunting. He's currently shooting for his red JOAD pin and was four points off on his last attempt.

We'll head out to take a look at the Infinite Edge.


----------



## chillidee (Mar 29, 2019)

We are in a similar situation, my 11 year old daughter is 5'5. However, we have found her Infinite Edge gets out of timing whenever we need to make adjustments to it. We are looking to upgrade from it.


----------



## Ready5 (Dec 15, 2009)

We putting together our 13 yr old daughter's first target bow. A lefty with a 24.5" draw limits choices but when I came across a Diamond Medalist 38 for a reasonable price I saw it as a win win. We can spend more on rest and sight and still be in a reasonable budget. A prevail would be awesome but the it certainly makes the total price a chunk of change. 
The diamond Medalist 38 has good reviews and I won't lose much if any when she wants to move on. But hey, we'll have good accessories to transfer over. As for what we add to the bow, we are lucky to have made friends with an amazing young archer who is already moved through what works and what doesn't and will share his knowledge with us.


----------



## mreffner (Feb 26, 2018)

I know this thread hasn't been active in a bit but if you can spend the money, I would recommend getting the bow and then slowly upgrading the rest, scope, etc as you have the bow longer.


----------

