Alpine Micro Compound Bow

The Alpine Micro is a youth bow that refuses to shoot like one - a compact two-cam bow with machined 6061 aluminum cams and limb pockets, an aggressive Stalker II cam rated 280 fps IBO, and eight inches of draw-length range, sold from the early 2000s through 2010 at roughly $200 to $255 for the bow and about $300 for the ready-to-shoot Micro Elite Package. Its strength is exactly the thing most budget youth bows sacrifice: it is built with hunting-bow hardware, not molded plastic, and it shoots hard enough to put a young or short-draw hunter in the deer woods for real. What I keep coming back to is how much bow Alpine packed into a small frame - the machined metal, the hard cam, the wide adjustable weight - for a price that reads like a starter toy. It does ask for a little more setup care than a simpler youth bow, since the two cams have to be timed after break-in and after any draw change, and it is not the right pick for the youngest, smallest beginners. It is an excellent bow for the tween-to-adult short-draw shooter and the parent who wants a first bow worth handing down, particularly strong as a grows-with-the-kid hunting setup. Buyers who need to start a younger or smaller child should also look at the Bear Apprentice; those who want the widest adjustment range in one bow should look at the Diamond Infinite Edge... read full review