Image | Length | Bow Weight | Draw Weight | Takedown? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Greatree Archery Firefox See on Amazon.com | 54, 62 inches | Unspecified How to: choose arrows, draw weight, and tune your recurve | 16, 20, 24, 28 lbs. | Yes |
| Pros - Attractive riser with great wood pattern - Accessory bushings preinstalled - Inexpensive, but still accurate | Cons - Does not include a bow stringer - String servings unravel quite early - Quite a bit of hand shock and noise |
| Also recommended: Best Geartree Archery Bows |
Hi there, and welcome to another recurve bow review. This time around, we’re evaluating the Greatree Archery Firefox, a youth takedown bow designed for target shooting and just getting familiar with archery in general. This bow’s riser is made from maple, walnut, and oak, and the limbs are finished with black fiberglass on the front and back. The pattern on the riser is quite lovely, and gives you a bit of the traditional feel mixed with the modern aesthetics of the black fiberglass limbs.
What Do I Get With The Bow?
Bundled with the Greatree Archery Firefox, you’ll find the bare essentials, barely. The box includes:
- The Greatree Archery Firefox, including limbs and riser
- Assembly hardware
- String
No bow stringer is included in the box, unfortunately, so you need to make sure you have one. Stringing a bow without a proper bow stringer is unsafe and leads in inaccurate shooting.
How Hard Is The Bow To Assemble?
Since this is a takedown bow, assembly just involved attaching the limbs to the riser with the including hardware, and then stringing the bow.
What About Accessories?
This is also a great time to trick out the bow with your favorite accessories, like a sight, stabilizer, arrow rest, or Berger button. The bow is drilled for such accessories, and has the brass inserts already installed.
You don’t need any of these accessories, of course, but having them can sometimes make it easier to learn the sport of archery. I tend to practice instinctive shooting, or shooting without a sight or rest, but beginners often benefit from having the accessories installed to help learn the proper techniques and stances.
Is The Bow Powerful And Accurate?
The Greatree Archery Firefox is available in a variety of draw weights, from 16# to 28# at a 26-inch draw length. It’s not an incredibly powerful bow, but it’s certainly good enough for practice and target shooting.
Accuracy is quite good for such an inexpensive bow. From 40 yards, I was able to easily maintain 3-inch groupings at the range. Younger archers should be able to use this bow accurately to learn the sport, since it’s very forgiving of poor stance and techniques.
Can I Use The Bow For Hunting?
If you plan on using the Greatree Archery Firefox for hunting purposes, you might be disappointed. The highest the draw weight is available for this bow is 28#, which is well below the usual minimum of 40# required for hunting deer or turkey. However, if you plan on just hunting small game like rabbit or deer, this could fit the bill.
Can Beginners Use This Bow?
As a youth bow, the Firefox is designed for beginners to the art. It’s a very forgiving bow, and is accessory-ready for installing sights or other tools that can help with learning the sport. The brace height is 6.5 inches on the 54“ model, and 7.75” on the 62″ bow.
The drawback to this bow for beginners is the noise and hand shock. I got fatigue in my hand after just an hour of shooting, which is not an ideal thing to have happen. The vibration makes it difficult to use the bow for long periods of time.
What Are The Best Arrows To Use With The Bow?
Choosing arrows is a very personal thing, and depends on what you want to use the bow for. You’ll pick different arrows and arrowheads for target shooting than you would for rabbit hunting, for example. You can get some help with the selection process using our guide to choosing your own arrows.
How Durable Are The Limbs And Riser On The Recurve?
The limbs and riser are quite rugged, since they’re designed for young archers who tend to be very enthusiastic at the chance to shoot a bow and arrow. As long as you are good about unstringing the bow when you won’t be using it, the Firefox doesn’t suffer from limb twist like other bows do.
Unfortunately, the string is not so reliable. The included string is served, and the serving begins to unravel quite soon after the bow is strung in some cases. Greatree Archery has been less than responsive to my requests for help with this issue, so I ended up just replacing the strings myself.
What Strings Will Fit This Recurve Bow?
Speaking of strings, the limb tips on the Greatree Firefox do not appear to be reinforced, so I would not try using Flemish or Fastflight strings with this bow. Other than that, any Dacron or other normal bow string of the proper length will do just fine.
Is It Heavy?
As a youth bow, the Firefox is pretty light. Greatree doesn’t give exact weights, but I estimate this bow to be around 1.5 pounds. It’s pretty lightweight, and easy to handle and maneuver.
How Quiet Is The Bow?
Make no mistake, this bow was not made to be quiet. Therefore, it isn’t. I’ve heard louder bows, but I’ve also heard much quieter bows. Installing string silencers helped a bit, but it’s still clear that the purpose of this bow is to practice archery, not to be silent and deadly.
Recurve Bow Summary
Thanks for reading my review of the Greatree Archery Firefox. This is a decent bow for a beginner, but it’s not designed to be used in a hunting situation. It’ll do, but just barely, and you should think about replacing the string with a better variety, since the serving unravels quite early in the life of the bow. Take a look at Today's Amazon.com price on the Greatree Firefox if you’re interested.
