A dozen arrows can last a good long time. My bow is three years old. My release was purchased four years ago. The quiver I wear is falling apart and is held together with rubber bands. Basically, these are sunk costs.
I’m not replacing the bow anytime soon. I have already had the limbs replaced through the manufacturer’s warranty. The release I shoot with isn’t even a tournament model. It’s made with hunting in mind. Sure, I have two others, but they are secondary products I use specially for training even though they were created with tournament shooting in mind. Both of them are hinge releases. I shoot better with a thumb release. As long as my arrows are straight, not cracked, and have vanes I’ll shoot them. I can get more vanes. Rubber bands are real cheap. I carry a supply in my quiver to replace those that eventually pop.
So, in archery, what is the ongoing expense? It is targets. Yes, they seem inexpensive at around $0.70 a piece in a pack of 20 from Amazon. Lancaster Archery has them (I just checked) for $0.75 to $1.45 each. On average that is $0.96 or around a buck with tax. Still it seems cheap. That is until you add it up.
I go through twelve of these a week. At the low end Amazon price that comes to $8.40 per week. In other words, $33.60 per month or $403.20 per year spent on paper to shoot up, wad up and throw away. The high-end $1.45 paper targets are $904.8 per year. That’s enough money to buy several dozen decent arrows or more than the price of many bows.
While everyone else in archery is trying to get a bow manufacturer to sponsor him or her to get that 20% discount on a product with an 80% margin I think I may turn my attention to Maple Leaf.
I’ll not even go down the path of blocks and 3D targets.