Compound Bow Comparator

The Bear Brave is one of the simplest ways to put a genuine compound bow in a young archer's hands. At a $79.99-to-$89.99 launch MSRP - and often nearer $60 on the shelf - it delivers a real cam-and-string bow, a full-capture Whisker Biscuit rest, and an adjustable pin sight in a package light enough for a small shooter and tough enough to survive a backyard. The one thing every buyer has to understand going in is that its draw does not adjust: the Brave fits a kid whose draw sits inside its window today, and it is a bow to enjoy and then hand down or move on from, not one that stretches to cover a growth spurt. Shooting it with fingers, what stays with me is how naturally it carries a child over from a first recurve to a compound - same familiar pull, now with a wall to anchor against and a pin to aim with. For a family testing whether their kid loves archery before spending real money, that is precisely the right bow. An excellent first compound for the eight-to-twelve-year-old learning the mechanics of the shot, particularly strong as an inexpensive, no-tuning backyard bow. Buyers who want a youth bow that adjusts as the child grows should also look at the Diamond Atomic or the PSE Mini Burner. Read full review...

The Diamond Atomic is the bow to reach for when the archer is genuinely small, and it solves that job better than anything near its $269 price. Its 12-to-24-inch draw and 6-to-29-pound range adjust at home without a press, so one 1.9-pound bow follows a child from a preschooler's first backyard arrows toward the day they move up to a full-size bow, and Diamond has kept the formula in the catalog continuously since 2012 for good reason. The all-aluminum riser, cams and limb pockets are the heart of it - on a bow that will be dropped, shared between siblings and left out in the yard, building it out of metal instead of plastic is the choice that keeps it shooting for years. The 191 fps rating marks it plainly as a learning and backyard bow rather than a hunting rig, which is exactly what a first bow should be, and the deep 70 percent let-off keeps a small child steady at full draw. What I keep coming back to is how low it starts: a 6-pound, 12-inch setting puts a real compound in the hands of a four or five year old, and very few bows at any price genuinely do that. It is an excellent choice for the parent putting a durable, real first bow in a small child's hands with room to grow, particularly strong for households sharing one bow between siblings. Families who need the range to reach a full hunting weight should also look at the Bear Limitless, and those who want one bow to carry a child from youth archery all the way into adult hunting might prefer the Mission Menace. Read full review...

The PSE Mini Burner XT is an upgrade to an older youth bow, but offers more draw length adjustment, and the option of a 50# limb set, which equals about 10 fps more. Although PSE offers this rig with the option of 20#, 29#, 40#, and 50# limbs, the 50# limb set offers draw weight adjustments from 10# - 50#, making it the best value overall. The bow can be set to approximately 4# draw weight with the 20# limbs, but the string is has almost no tension on it. With a 26 1/2" ATA, 7 1/2" brace height, and a lot of adjustability, this is a very nice bow to start the youngster out on. Set at 50# draw weight and 28" draw length, this "youth" bow can send an arrow downrange at a very nice 276 fps. Read full review...

• Genuine scaled-down compound build - solid, light in the hand, and well assembled rather than a plastic toy
• Holds up to real use - owners report hundreds of backyard arrows with no meaningful wear
• Full-capture Whisker Biscuit rest and an adjustable 1-pin sight are included, so a beginner learns proper form from the first shot
• Finger-friendly setup that needs no D-loop or release, making it an easy bridge from a first recurve to a compound
• Low entry cost - a genuinely low-risk way to find out whether a child takes to compound archery

• Reaches the youngest shooter of any bow in its class - a 6-pound, 12-inch-draw floor lets a four or five year old shoot a real compound, then grows to 29 pounds and 24 inches on the modules as they do
• Adult-grade all-aluminum build - aluminum riser, cams and limb pockets where most youth bows use plastic, so it shrugs off being dropped, leaned over and left out in the yard
• Feather-light at 1.9 pounds - light enough that a small child can actually hold it up and keep their form through a full backyard session
• Complete ready-to-shoot package including arrows - out of the box to the first shot the same afternoon, with nothing else to buy to get started

• Affordable
• Lots of adjustability

• The draw length is fixed, not adjustable - the 13.5-19.5 inch figure on the box is the cam's continuous window, not a range you dial in, so it will not grow with the child; for that, choose an adjustable youth compound instead
• The included two-arrow quiver is flimsy and also carries the sight bracket, so it has to stay on - most owners simply set arrows aside for backyard target sessions

• It is a backyard and learning bow, not a hunting rig - 191 fps at a 29-pound ceiling is built for form and fun, and a child ready to hunt has outgrown it and should step up to a bigger bow like the Diamond Radian

• Multiple limb sets necessary to meet full adjustment capabilities