Creating a garage or basement bow shop gives you the liberty to tune, tinker and maintain bows at your leisure. It’s convenient and also gives you the personal satisfaction of doing your own bow work. Plus, it will eventually pay for itself — no routine archery shop visits and the expenses involved.

Once you’ve learned how to safely and correctly perform bow work, you’ll need to outfit your DIY bow shop with, at a minimum, the following 10 tools.

 

1. Bow Press 

You don’t realize how handy this is until you have one. I personally use a Last Chance Archery (LCA) EZ Green Press ($399) and absolutely love it. It’s the perfect consumer-grade press that accommodates most compound bows measuring 25 to 48 inches from axle to axle.

2. Bow Vise

LCA’s EZ Green Vise ($99) anchors your bow to a work bench in multiple positions, leaving your hands free to perform work.

3. Bow Scale

A draw-weight scale isn’t necessary but very handy. LCA’s Hand Held HS3 Bow Scale ($79) is my choice.

 

4. Grain Scale

When building arrows, it’s smart to weigh each finished arrow. All arrows should weigh within a few grains of each other. LCA’s Pro Grain Scale ($40) is a topnotch digital option.

 

5. Arrow-Straightness Checker

It’s wise to periodically check your arrow straightness, so a Pine Ridge Arrow Inspector ($34.95) is a must-have item.

 

6. Fletching Tool

Rip off a vane? Quickly re-fletch your arrow on a Bitzenburger, LCA Vane Master Pro ($299) or Arizona EZ Fletch Jig ($49).

 

7. Hex Wrenches

These adjust and tighten almost everything on your bow and accessories. Easton and Pine Ridge Archery have solutions.

 

8. Nock Pliers

Installing a tight, non-slip D-Loop is possible with nock pliers. Easton’s Elite Nock and D-Loop Pliers ($32.99) combine six tools into one that can produce the tightest D-Loop possible and perform several other technical functions.

 

9. Paper Tuner

Are your arrows flying true? A paper tuner will tell you. The .30-06 Outdoors Paper Tune-It ($12.95) will do the job at economical pricing.

 

10. Target

Shooting in a garage or basement can be dangerous. I don’t recommend it when anyone else is inside the dwelling. Even when you’re alone, use a large target that virtually cannot be missed. Block’s Range Archery Target is the standard. It’s available in three sizes. The biggest model, the Block Range 48 ($899.99), measures 48x18x48 inches. Shown below is the Block Range 28 ($499.99), which measures 28x18x48 inches.