I bought both the Lil Sioux and the Lil Banshee bows for my kids (ages 9 and 11). Here is a summary of things you need to know.
1) The Lil Banshee (being a compound bow) is much easier for a child to draw. My 9 year old daughter, and 11 year old son both prefer the Lil Banshee. They simply find it more fun to use. So as it stands now, my 9 year old gets the Lil Banshee and my 11 year old is stuck with the Lil Sioux. If you are only going to buy one, make it the Lil Banshee, as your kids will be less likely to give up.
2) Both of these bows are too small for an adult to use. I tried. Seriously, you don’t want to mess around with these small bows. If you want to join your kids cheaply, purchase the Bear Archery Titan Bow. The Titan is large enough for an adult, and you can give it to your kids when you want to move on to something better. The Titan, however, is a quality bow!
3) The arrows that come with both the Lil Sioux and Lil Banshee stink. They will work if you are careful about what you shoot and and how you remove the arrows from your target, but buy additional arrows! The best, cheapest arrows I could find are the Easton Genesis II aluminum arrows. Any non-kid arrows are going to cost about $5 each, so suck it up and buy 6 or 12 of them.
4) You will need 29 inch arrows or longer.
5) You don’t need a fancy target. Take a large Amazon box and fill it with crinkled newspaper. Have your kids draw a zombie on it, or whatever they like. You have now created an excellent target.
6) These bows are so inexpensive (but well made!), you don’t have to worry about replacement strings.
7) You do NOT need finger gloves or tabs with these bows. They come with ingenious finger rollers attached to the string.
8) You MAY need an arm guard. The first time your kid gets string burn on the inside of their forearm, it may make them afraid of the bow. An arm guard should eliminate this problem. Arm guards are difficult to purchase online because of the vast array of sizing. They all seem too big, so try to make sure you purchase a child-sized guard.
The Lil Banshee is a solid, compound bow. It is built very well for a bow that costs so little. Both of my kids have no problem using it, and they prefer it over the Lil Sioux.
If you have any additional questions, just let me know.
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This review is from: Barnett Outdoors Lil Banshee Jr. Compound Archery Set (Sports)
Purchased this for my 12 year old daughter. She became interested in Archery after having gone to a weekend camping trip with her school. Of all available activities she discovered Archery was her favorite. So, for Christmas this is what Santa brought for her.
Overall this is a nice archery set. It comes with everything you need to get started. The build quality of the bow seems to be very good. I don’t have any experience with this sort of thing but you can tell cheap from quality and the Barnett set is nice. Needless to say my daughter loved it and couldn’t wait to get out and show off her new skills.
She knew exactly what to do and actually hit the target (2 included with the set) at what I considered long distance for a beginner. Very good. The only downside I see to this has to do with the 2 plastic arrows that come with the set. The metal tips are pressed on and seem to be cheaply made. She kept popping the metal tips off the arrows and finally completely lost one of them.
If you get this definitely consider getting the additional arrow set. You’ll need to replace arrows on a regular basis from what I’ve seen so far.
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This review is from: Barnett Outdoors Lil Banshee Jr. Compound Archery Set (Sports)
The bow is very high quality and I can tell it will last quite a while. The arrows themselves are very nice, but the fletchings are not durable. They will hit parts of the bow while flying out and over time will begin to tear. I suppose you can always insert your own feather fletchings though.
I’ve used this bow with about 20 other kids at a camp and they all loved it. In fact, they couldn’t put it down! I recently bought one for my friends who are ages 15-22 yrs old and they all enjoyed it. You can always stand closer if you have trouble hitting or you can stand farther for more of a challenge.
For those who are getting hit by the string when it recoils after shooting, you can always bend your arm at the elbow a little so that it doesn’t touch. This way I have no problems at all with the recoil. You can also make your own arm guard by using a long sock and cutting the end where the toes go for a thumb hole and 4 finger hole–it’s an excellent substitute!
This bow/arrow kit doesn’t come with a target, but I made my own using the very same box the item came in and it has been fantastic. The bow/arrow will come in a large and long box. What I did was stuff the box full of newspaper while taping a few old magazines inside to the back for some added weight and armor. I then taped the whole thing shut and use markers to make targets in the front. I’ve gotta say, it saved me quite a lot of money rather than having to buy a styrofoam target that will rip, fly around, etc. Everyone loved the idea and it has been holding up quite well. I can easily pull the arrows out without damaging them as well. Give it a try and have fun!
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Summary of important points about the Lil Banshee and Lil Sioux archery sets,
1) The Lil Banshee (being a compound bow) is much easier for a child to draw. My 9 year old daughter, and 11 year old son both prefer the Lil Banshee. They simply find it more fun to use. So as it stands now, my 9 year old gets the Lil Banshee and my 11 year old is stuck with the Lil Sioux. If you are only going to buy one, make it the Lil Banshee, as your kids will be less likely to give up.
2) Both of these bows are too small for an adult to use. I tried. Seriously, you don’t want to mess around with these small bows. If you want to join your kids cheaply, purchase the Bear Archery Titan Bow. The Titan is large enough for an adult, and you can give it to your kids when you want to move on to something better. The Titan, however, is a quality bow!
3) The arrows that come with both the Lil Sioux and Lil Banshee stink. They will work if you are careful about what you shoot and and how you remove the arrows from your target, but buy additional arrows! The best, cheapest arrows I could find are the Easton Genesis II aluminum arrows. Any non-kid arrows are going to cost about $5 each, so suck it up and buy 6 or 12 of them.
4) You will need 29 inch arrows or longer.
5) You don’t need a fancy target. Take a large Amazon box and fill it with crinkled newspaper. Have your kids draw a zombie on it, or whatever they like. You have now created an excellent target.
6) These bows are so inexpensive (but well made!), you don’t have to worry about replacement strings.
7) You do NOT need finger gloves or tabs with these bows. They come with ingenious finger rollers attached to the string.
8) You MAY need an arm guard. The first time your kid gets string burn on the inside of their forearm, it may make them afraid of the bow. An arm guard should eliminate this problem. Arm guards are difficult to purchase online because of the vast array of sizing. They all seem too big, so try to make sure you purchase a child-sized guard.
The Lil Banshee is a solid, compound bow. It is built very well for a bow that costs so little. Both of my kids have no problem using it, and they prefer it over the Lil Sioux.
If you have any additional questions, just let me know.
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|Great Bow, cheap arrows,
Overall this is a nice archery set. It comes with everything you need to get started. The build quality of the bow seems to be very good. I don’t have any experience with this sort of thing but you can tell cheap from quality and the Barnett set is nice. Needless to say my daughter loved it and couldn’t wait to get out and show off her new skills.
She knew exactly what to do and actually hit the target (2 included with the set) at what I considered long distance for a beginner. Very good. The only downside I see to this has to do with the 2 plastic arrows that come with the set. The metal tips are pressed on and seem to be cheaply made. She kept popping the metal tips off the arrows and finally completely lost one of them.
If you get this definitely consider getting the additional arrow set. You’ll need to replace arrows on a regular basis from what I’ve seen so far.
0
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|Loads of Fun,
I’ve used this bow with about 20 other kids at a camp and they all loved it. In fact, they couldn’t put it down! I recently bought one for my friends who are ages 15-22 yrs old and they all enjoyed it. You can always stand closer if you have trouble hitting or you can stand farther for more of a challenge.
For those who are getting hit by the string when it recoils after shooting, you can always bend your arm at the elbow a little so that it doesn’t touch. This way I have no problems at all with the recoil. You can also make your own arm guard by using a long sock and cutting the end where the toes go for a thumb hole and 4 finger hole–it’s an excellent substitute!
This bow/arrow kit doesn’t come with a target, but I made my own using the very same box the item came in and it has been fantastic. The bow/arrow will come in a large and long box. What I did was stuff the box full of newspaper while taping a few old magazines inside to the back for some added weight and armor. I then taped the whole thing shut and use markers to make targets in the front. I’ve gotta say, it saved me quite a lot of money rather than having to buy a styrofoam target that will rip, fly around, etc. Everyone loved the idea and it has been holding up quite well. I can easily pull the arrows out without damaging them as well. Give it a try and have fun!
0
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|