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Buying a compound bow online might seem the same as buying any other piece of hunting gear. But, if you buy a bow from Amazon and you expect to go hunting with it, you’re in for a project or fees from an archery shop. That’s because bows need to be adjusted to fit an individual and then tuned for good arrow flight, which requires a bow press and know-how.
Pyramyd Air says they’ve solved that problem. You can buy a completely set-up bow online that will arrive tuned and adjusted to your specs. I’ve been tuning my own bows for years, so I know that’s easier said than done. I decided to give their process a try to see if it lives up to the promise.
Step one is to choose the bow you want from Pyramyd’s catalog. Then add a Complete Bow Setup to your cart. When you click “add to cart,” a pop-up will appear with a list of prompts to complete.
You’ll add in your draw length, draw weight, and eye height or custom peep height. You can also add arrows and accessories in this window if you’re not buying a bow that comes with an accessory package.
I selected my usual draw length and draw weight. But I decided to roll the dice on one of the most critical measurements — the peep sight location. If you have to hunt for your peep sight or put your head in a weird position to see through it, your shooting will suffer. Instead, you want to hit your anchor point and see through the peep without moving your head. The margin for error on the peep location is really small, and even a ¼ inch makes a big difference.
The fool-proof way to get the peep in the right spot is to measure my peep height off of my current bow, which is the distance from the d-loop to the center of the peep. But I wanted to try out Pyramyd’s eye height measurement method.
Pyramyd has a unique approach to setting up peep height remotely. They ask customers to measure the distance from the corner of their mouth to their eye. I followed the steps in the video above, and you’ll see how it worked below.
The Complete Bow Set Up is free and includes accessory mounting, bow set up, and tuning. One caveat is that you have to add a Plano bow case for shipping the bow in, which costs $55.
Tips for New Archers Buying a Bow
Draw length is a measurement for how far you pull the bow back. In general, the larger your wingspan the longer your draw length. If you don’t know your draw length, there are a ton of different ways to guestimate it. One of the most common is to measure your wingspan and divide it by 2.5. That method should get you within an inch of your actual draw length. Draw length can be adjusted on most bows without specialized tools, so you can tweak that on your own.
Draw weight is a measurement of the force required to draw a bow. The biggest mistake new archers make is starting with too much draw weight. You want your bow to be easy to draw, so you can shoot a lot of arrows as you perfect your technique.
Does the Pyramyd Air Complete Bow Set Up Work?
The bow safely arrived in the Plano bow case with all the accessories mounted. I took the bow out of the case and checked the draw weight. When I placed the order, I purposefully chose a custom draw weight to see how close the Pyramyd Air technicians would get to my specified 57 pounds. On my scale, I got a 55.8 average from three pulls. That’s just a pound off my request, which is really good. It’s very difficult to adjust a compound bow to an exact draw weight, and +/- 1 pound is totally expected.
Next, I checked the peep height. To my surprise, it was dead on. If the d-loop is at the corner of my mouth, the peep is perfectly aligned with my eye. If you’re new to archery and shooting a wrist strap release, the d-loop in the corner of your mouth is a good starting point for an anchor point.
It’s worth noting here that my usual anchor point puts the d-loop slightly lower than the corner of my mouth, so if I were to order a bow to be set up I’d use the custom peep height entry instead of the eye height.
The real test was to see if the bow is tuned and ready to hunt. When I placed my order, I included in the notes the arrow I was shooting and its spine (Easton 5.0, 300 spine). That way the technician would tune the bow with something similar.
The bow shot a perfect bullet hole through paper. I’ve chased tears in circles with budget bows in the past, so getting a perfect paper tune right out of the box is impressive.
All I would need to do to hunt with this bow is sight it in and make sure my broadheads are flying. And of course, practice.
Final Thoughts
I’ve visited a lot of archery shops, and the vast majority of them are staffed by kind and knowledgeable people. They are the go-to place for trying out a variety of bows and having your eventual pick professionally set up and tuned. But if an archery shop is too far away from your home, buying one online makes sense. The issue is you’ll still need to get the bow adjusted to your draw weight and draw length, then tuned before you can go hunting. Unless you plan on buying a bow press, that’s not an easy task to do on your own. The Pyramyd Air complete bow set up solves that issue. The bow arrives ready to shoot. All you need to do is adjust the sight and make sure your broadheads are flying well before you take it hunting.
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