Image | Bow Length | Draw Weight | Recommended Age | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bear Crusader Check Amazon.com's Best Price | 51" | 10-20 lbs. | 9-16 years | Left & Right |
Pros:
- Includes everything needed to get started
Cons:
- Not as durable as other Bear starter bows
- Wrong arrows for the strength of the bow
Hello, archer, and welcome to my review of the Bear Archery Crusader Bow Set. This bow set is aimed at young beginning archers ages 9 and up, and includes everything the new archer needs to get started. Each package delivered by Bear Archery includes the following items:
- The Bear Archery Crusader bow
- Armguard
- Finger tab
- Quiver
- 2 Safetyglass arrows
- Target
The only assembly required for this bow is stringing the bow, since the bow itself is one piece. Unpack the items from the plastic packaging, being careful not to cut the bowstring, and then make sure you’ve received all of the items listed above.
Stringing the bow may be a bit much for a young archer, so be prepared to help and show them the right way to string a bow. The bow does not include a bow stringer; so make sure you purchase one in advance of setting up the bow.
Once you have everything together and the bow strung, head out to the backyard or archery range with your young archer and get started.
This bow has a draw weight of 10# to 20#, with a draw length of 20” to 28”. This is not terribly powerful, but it’s powerful enough to require proper archery safety training, so be sure to train your young archer in safety precautions.
This bow suffers greatly from poor accuracy, owing to a bad design. The bow is a straight piece of fiberglass about 3/4 of an inch wide, and it does not narrow at the arrow rest. The result of this is that you cannot align the arrow along the centerline of the bow, and the arrow is skewed as it is thrown off the string. This gives the bow very poor flight characteristics, and decreases accuracy tremendously.
None of the youth who used this bow could maintain 25-yard groupings of less than 2.5”, and I could only get my groupings from 25 yards down to 2” after several hours of studying what was happening as the arrow left the bow.
No, this bow is certainly not suitable for hunting. Accuracy issues aside, the low draw weight is too light for anything more than small game, and I doubt that even the most skilled archer could reliably hit the vitals on a small game animal with this bow.
If the bow did not suffer from such severe accuracy problems, it would certainly be suitable for a beginner. Unfortunately, the lack of accuracy will discourage most young archers and turn them away from the sport altogether, thinking they simply don’t have what it takes.
This is a starter bow, and does not accept sights, stabilizers, Berger buttons, or any other accessories.
The Bear Archery Crusader comes with 2 27” Safetyglass arrows. Unfortunately, these arrows are designed for a bow with a maximum draw weight of 10#, and the Crusader has a draw weight of 10# to 20#, making the bow overpowered for the arrows.
If you purchase this bow set, I would recommend buying stronger 27” arrows. The flight characteristics are going to be timid enough owing to the poor design of the bow, but compounding that with lousy arrows makes matters even worse.
The grip on the Bear Crusader is quite nice, and the bow does feel good to hold. The bow is lightweight, weighing only a few pounds, and the 9-year-old practicing with the bow said she was able to hold it for quite a while without getting tired.
The Bear Crusader is made from composite fiberglass materials, and is quite durable. Unfortunately, it’s not durable enough for a strong 13-year-old, who snapped the bow in half trying to overdraw it. I can’t truly fault Bear for this, but I’ve seen other bows withstand much more abuse than that without breaking.
The arm guard, finger tab, and quiver included with this set are very poor quality. They might last for a couple of shooting sessions, but I’d recommend buying or making better quality accessories if your archer decides to stick with the sport.
The limb tips on the Bear Archery Crusader are not reinforced, so you can only use normal Dacron bowstrings with this bow. You cannot use a FastFlight or Flemish string with this bow.
Thanks for reading our review of Bear Archery’s Crusader Bow Set. We like seeing all-in-one kits like this, and wish we could recommend this set to your young archer. Unfortunately, the quality of the bow just isn’t there and the accessories are either poor quality or mismatched to the bow, or both.
Take a moment to check out Today's Amazon.com price on the Bear Crusader Youth Bow.
