- MAKING IT EASY FROM THE START – We didn’t cut any corners with the Atomic from Diamond Archery – it delivers all the engineering of an adult bow in a youth size; Leave the plastic longbows and start your archer off right with the Atomic 1.9 LBS mass weight bow
- EXTREME ADJUSTABILITY – Many bows for kids require a new cam or module to adjust the draw length; With the Atomic rotating modules, you simply remove the module screws, adjust anywhere from 12 to 24″, re-tighten and they are set
- VERSATILITY – To start an archery experience off right, great equipment is half the battle; That is why our extremely adjustable Atomic Youth Compound Bow features 6 to 29 lbs of draw weight and is quickly and easily adjusted to grow as fast as they do
We’re actually really excited to write this Diamond Atomic Youth Bow review, because we like this bow a great deal. We’ll get into the details below, but there are two big reasons:
1) It’s a youth bow that *looks* like an adult bow. That’s a rare thing for youth bows—many youth bows look like trinkets, but the Diamond actually looks like a professional bow that adults would use. If you’ve got kids, you know what a big deal that is. They *know* when something you get them isn’t the real deal—and they’ll quickly remind you about it! So we love that, and
2) It’s really easy to adjust—that means the original set-up, but it also means that it’s easy to re-adjust as your kid gets older and needs a bigger bow. Because it’s adjustable, you can change the measurements of the bow to meet the measurements of your growing kid.
Alright—we’ll expound more on all that in a moment, so let’s dive in to our review of the Diamond Atomic Youth Bow:
Features That Make a Youth Bow a Youth Bow
There are two measurements that are incredibly important when you’re looking—for a youth bow, and they are…
draw weight
and
draw length
…with the weight of the bow itself coming in a distant third.
The draw weight on the Diamond Atomic is adjustable, and you can set it anywhere from 6 pounds to 29 pounds. That’s just where you want to be, for a youth—6 pounds is about as light as bows coming (some higher-end bows go down to 5 pounds), and 29 is about as high as you’ll go before an adult bow is necessary. That range—6 to 29 pounds—can make this bow a tool they’ll use for years.
(One thing we should mention: 29 pounds usually isn’t enough to meet state bowhunting requirements—usually bows need a draw weight of 35 pounds or 40 pounds—so if you want a bow that your son/daughter can use for bow hunting game like deer and turkey, this ain’t it).
The other measurement is draw length. For those of you who are new to archery, draw length is the distance you pull the arrow string back, and it’s roughly equal to your height in inches divided by 2.5. So if you’re a person who is 5-foot-5-inches, your draw length would be 26 inches: a person who is 5-foot-5-inches tall is 65 inches tall (5 x 12 inches + 5 inches = 65 inches), and 65 inches divided by 2.5 is 26 inches, so your draw length would be 26 inches.
The Diamond Atomic has an adjustable draw length from 12 to 24 inches, making it a good option for youths up to about 5 feet tall (and here’s the math, if you need it: 5 x 12 inches = 60 inches, divided by 2.5 = a 24-inch draw length). If that’s confusing, we’ve written a couple of posts on how to determine your draw length, so feel free to check them out.
As for how short your child can be, the Diamond Atomic Bow truly is a youth bow—in a YouTube video (here), BowTech Archery’s National Accounts Sales Manager, Seraphine Gott, explains that kids can use the Atomic as soon as they can walk. We want to be very clear about this: we don’t suggest that (and we think she was just being glib), but her point is probably that the Atomic is designed especially for kids and youths, and it’s small enough for little kids as well.
It’s Incredibly Easy to Adjust
We mentioned above that the most important feature for a youth bow—or any bow, really—is how easy it so to adjust.
We found this video on the Diamond website, and it’s such a fantastic intro on how to tune your bow, that we’ve actually been showing it to adults. Here it is:
We mentioned above that the two most important features of a youth bow are draw weight and draw length, and that video really shows how easy it is to adjust those features.
That Distant Third We Mentioned…
Remember above when we said that the weight of the bow is also important? That’s another thing we like about the Atomic: at 1.9 pounds, it’s on the very light side.
Other bows that have a wide variation in draw weight (like the Diamond Infinite Edge, which usually has a draw weight from 5 pounds to 70 pounds) don’t make great options for kids, because they’re heavier. Those bows may only be heavier by a pound or two (the Diamond Infinite Edge is 3.2 pounds, last we checked), but after a few ends, that difference in weight can be very tiring—especially for a child.
The Clothes Make the Man?
Getting back to our opening thought, we think Diamond did a great job with the style of this bow. This *looks* like a Diamond bow, and Diamond bows—in our humble opinion—look pretty rad. It may be a little more dressed-down the adult bows with fewer specs, but it’s still sleek and steam-lined and dense-looking. Looks matter—especially to kids.
But, of course, the clothes DO NOT make the man—it’s the other way around. And that’s the last reason why like the Atomic—it’s a quality bow. Many youth bows are… how shall we say this? Hot garbage. You can tell by looking at them that they’re not that solid. Diamond has a great reputation for excellence, and we’ve been long-pleased with their products. So…
Diamond Atomic: Thumbs Up!
We think this is a great option for younger archers, both girls and boys, and it can be a lasting tool that can grow with your young archer. It’s built to be sturdy and it can be adjusted as your kids grow to meet their measurements. So… five stars! Before we close out, there are some details we should mention:
> If you’ve got this bow tuned to a very low draw weight—and for the Atomic, that’s down to 6 pounds—be sure you’re using a soft target. Sometimes bows with that low a draw weight will shoot arrows that don’t penetrate an archery target, and it can be a little discouraging for little ones to see their arrows pop out of a target.
> Speaking of draw weight, the feet-per-second measurement when this bow is dialed all the way up to 29 pounds of draw weight is 191 FPS. That’s pretty zippy. Again, it doesn’t pack enough punch for bow hunting, but that’s a pretty quick shot.
> Make sure you get the “package deal” you want. Like many youth bows, the Atomic is packaged in different ways—for instance, sometimes it may come with a stabilizer, other times it may not. If you’re purchasing it, make sure you know exactly what comes with the package you’re getting.
> While this bow is probably easier to tune than most compound bows, it’s probably not as easy as other models. If you’re having difficulty adjusting the draw weight or draw length, a quick trip to a bow shop or outfitter can be a great idea, and they can tune you up. Lastly…
> Remember that your kid’s measurements will change frequently, so you’ll need to re-tune the bow when he/she grows.
That about wraps up our review of the Diamond Atomic Youth Bow.
- MAKING IT EASY FROM THE START – We didn’t cut any corners with the Atomic from Diamond Archery – it delivers all the engineering of an adult bow in a youth size; Leave the plastic longbows and start your archer off right with the Atomic 1.9 LBS mass weight bow
- EXTREME ADJUSTABILITY – Many bows for kids require a new cam or module to adjust the draw length; With the Atomic rotating modules, you simply remove the module screws, adjust anywhere from 12 to 24″, re-tighten and they are set
- VERSATILITY – To start an archery experience off right, great equipment is half the battle; That is why our extremely adjustable Atomic Youth Compound Bow features 6 to 29 lbs of draw weight and is quickly and easily adjusted to grow as fast as they do
Have fun, and safe archery!
