Image | Bow Length | Draw Weight | Recommended Age | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bear Wizard Check Amazon.com's Best Price | 44" | 10-18 lbs. | 5-10 years | Left & Right |
Pros:
- Includes everything you need to get your youth started in archery, including the arm guard and finger tab
- Ambidextrous design makes it great for right-handed and left-handed youth
Cons:
- Only comes with 2 arrows
- Included arrows have stiff plastic fletchings that break off easily
Package Contents
Welcome to this review of the Bear Archery Wizard Bow Set. The Wizard is designed for children aged 5 to 10, and offers a good starting bow experience for these youth. Each package delivered by Bear Archery includes the following items:
- The Bear Archery Wizard bow
- 2 Safetyglass arrows
- Armguard
- Finger tab
- Quiver
- Target
Assembling The Bow
The Bear Wizard comes preassembled, so all you have to do is unpackage the bow, armguard, finger tab, quiver, arrows and target, and then take your youth out to the backyard or archery range to start learning. Be careful when opening the packaging, though, that you don’t accidentally cut the bowstring.
How Powerful and Accurate is the Bow?
The Bear Archery Wizard is adjustable, with a 17” to 24” draw length and 10# to 18# draw weight. This doesn’t make for a very powerful bow, but it is powerful enough to learn the techniques and methods of archery.
The brace height is also very forgiving on this bow, which allows for your youth to learn the skills needed to use bigger, more powerful bows later on in his or her archery career.
Accuracy of the Bear Wizard is pretty good for a beginner’s bow. My youth were able to shoot groupings of around 2” at 20 yards, and 4” groupings from 40 yards. In my own experience with the bow, I was able to maintain a 1” grouping from 20 yards and 1.5” grouping at 40 yards.
Is The Bow Suitable For Hunting?
Since this bow is designed for young children, it does not have a heavy enough draw weight to be appropriate for hunting. You might be able to squeak by with this bow for hunting small game, but I’d worry far too much about maiming or otherwise injuring the animals rather than humanely killing them. I would not recommend this bow for hunting; wait until your young archer can handle a heavier bow, and then move them up to hunting.
Is The Bow Suitable For Beginners?
The Bear Wizard is perfect for any beginning archer in the 5- to 10-year-old age range. It is lightweight, easy to hold, and forgiving of poor stance and draw methods. It includes everything you need to get your young one started in archery, even arrows and a target, so it’s definitely geared towards getting someone with no archery background at all into the sport and hobby. School youth clubs and Scout troops often turn to the Bear Wizard for archery, speaking volumes for the bow’s appropriateness for beginning archers.
Does This Recurve Accept Accessories?
The Bear Archery Wizard is a very simple bow, designed to teach the basics of archery. It was never designed with a mind towards using stabilizers, sights, or Berger buttons, so it does not feature the pre-drilled and tapped holes necessary for installing these accessories. Furthermore, the limbs and riser are so thin and lightweight that adding the holes yourself would likely impact the structural integrity of the bow. Again, let your young one use this bow to learn the craft of archery. When they’re ready for more advanced archery, move them up to a more advanced bow.
Arrows For The Bear Archery Wizard
The Bear Archery Wizard Bow Set includes 2 27” Safetyglass arrows with plastic vanes. These vanes come off quite easily and need to be replaced, sometimes the same day that your youth begins using the bow. When I reviewed the Bear Archery First Shot bow, which includes these same arrows, I noticed a problem with the fletchings catching on the bow handle. I haven’t noticed that problem with the Bear Archery Wizard, but I would still recommend re-fletching the arrows with feathers instead of plastic vanes. Your archer will get a better, more accurate shot and the vanes won’t be as likely to break or fall off.
Is This Bow Comfortable To Hold?
Yes, the bow is very comfortable to hold, even for a man with largish hands. The grip is oversized and ergonomic, allowing you to hold the bow for hours without tiring. The youth who learned archery on this bow also said the bow was lightweight and easy to hold, feeling almost like an extension of their arm.
Materials And Durability (Riser, Limbs)
This bow has an overall length of 44”, and is constructed with durable composite limbs. I found the bow stood up quite well to the torture inflicted upon it by 9-year-old boys, holding up for many seasons of archery lessons.
The design is ambidextrous, so you can purchase this bow assured it will be equally useful to right- and left-handed young archers.
The string, on the other hand, is not so durable. An inexpensive polyester string, I’ve replaced it several times.
What String Fits The Bear Archery Wizard?
Bear Archery sells a replacement string for the Wizard, but any regular Dacron string should work just fine. Do not attempt to use a FastFlight string or a Flemish twist string, though, as the limb tips are not reinforced to handle the extra tension of those types of strings.
Is The Bear Archery Wizard a Heavy Bow?
Because the bow is designed for children, it’s an exceptionally light bow. Despite its lightness, it is quite sturdy and easy to use for children. The Scouts and other youth I’ve seen using the Bear Wizard have no problems at all holding and using the bow for the hours they spend on the range.
Summary
Thanks for reading my review of Bear Archery’s Wizard Bow Set. This bow package comes with everything you need to get your child or any other young person started in archery. The only downside to the package is the cheap construction of the arrows, but that is easily fixed. Even more, two arrows usually isn’t sufficient for a good day at the archery range, so you’ll be buying more arrows at some point anyways.
Take a moment to check out Today's Amazon.com price on the Bear Archery Wizard.
