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There's an archery club in the park behind my house, so it would seem rude not to a least have a go. I'm starting a 6 week course (2hrs each Sat for £50).
Anyone got any advice on bows, arrows and kit, what to start off on?. Give me a laymans run thru the basics of equipment and terminology or point me in the direction of a good online resource. Is there a STW type forum to ask questions on etc?.
cheers
The folks on [url= http://www.archeryinterchange.com ]Archery Interchange[/url] are pretty friendly to beginners.
To start with the usual advice is not to buy anything. Go along for a beginners session to your local club, borrow some club equipment and try a few different styles. If you haven't shot before you'll most likely have to build up your draw weight gradually, so buying kit initially may be a waste of money.
Many clubs are focussed on Olympic style target archery, but you often find some weirdos (like me) who shoot traditional. If you're nice to them they might let you have a go.
Have fun!
James.
'pulls up chair'
interested too
You didn't watch Robin Hood on Saturday night did you? 😉
I'm a big guy .. I'd quite like to ahem 'play' around with a long bow.
My eye has have always been drawn to the starter sets in Decathalon but figured they probably wouldn't be up to much for that price.
Definitely don't buy anything at this stage, go along and enjoy the beginners course, talk to lots of people and see how you get on. After the beginners course some clubs will continue to let you borrow kit for a while. You can then take your time before buying anything.
Warning it's very addictive!
me and my dad did archery for a couple years. Tried it on an activity holiday looked up local clubs when we got back. Did lessons for a month or so then bought some 2nd hand kit off other members. Dunno if we got decent kit or just old crap other members were trying to get shut of but it was fine for what we wanted. I started getting more into biking and my dad's work interfered so we stopped. Still got the gear, tempted to have a go....if I had enough land/garden and a target.
For people interested in traditional / instinctive archery - check out "GreyArcher1" on You Tube. He rambles a bit, but his videos are a good place to start.
You didn't watch Robin Hood on Saturday night did you?
No, but I love Robin Hood, I can certainly see myself in green tights and a jaunty little hat. Some of the kit looks more Mad Max Apocalypse tho.
I have been looking on ebay, but no intention of buying anything until after the course.
....and try a few different styles.
eh? I think it's just targets at the local?
What's Traditional? like wild boar and wolves?
French surely? 😆What's Traditional? like wild boar and wolves?
Broadly speaking there are 3 main categories you might be interested in.
Olympic target archery - recurve bows with sights, stabilisers etc, commonly shooting paper targets between 20-70m.
Compound archery - bows with cams and pulleys which make it far easier to hold at full draw. Again, paper targets at similar ranges.
Traditional archery - a stick with a bit of string on it. If we hit anything we're pretty happy.
Field archery is also a bit of a hoot.
What the others have said. The club will have spare gear, when you're ready to buy something you won't have to ask what.
Broadly, archery (in the UK) falls into two churches, Field and Target.
Target archery is what you see on TV; concentric circle targets, measured distances, cricket whites, indoors or outdoors. Field archery is usually based in woodland, uses pictures of animals for targets and can be uphill, downhill, through gaps in trees and so forth. Your club will probably be one or the other; it's feasible but unlikely that they'll offer both.
Within those, you've got different classes or styles which govern the equipment you use. Some archers prefer traditional bows like longbows, some go high-tech with compound bows (like Rambo's), some fall in the middle. Whatever class you ultimately choose, should you enter an organised shoot or competition you'll be shooting against others in the same class so that it's fair.
!!!!BUY NOTHING!!!!!!!
The club will set up up. You'll want to start off with light kit to develop form before increasing the poundage (the weight you pull back) so don't buy until you've been shooting even then the club will have kit or a stash of 2nd hand gear you can use.
Archery interchange is a nice forum.
It's a great sport with some lovely people involved. Enjoy!
I am an utter bike guy, worked in the trade for 13 years and have raced and ridden all over the place, I needed another sport that is techy but not quite as adrenalin based.
So took up field archery seven months ago and subsequently a member of three clubs an association, class 'B' shooter, loads of kit, excellent coaches, amazing friends and competed for Scotland last week in the European outdoor Championships in Hungary.
Archery is very like the bike world:- Roadie are slender, fickle and orthodox. MTB riders:- Fun times, going for the buzz, taking chances.
Field archery is comparable to MTB and Target archery to road riding.
The kit is amazing and as I noticed, someone mention not to buy anything, very good tip. Until you have a chosen style and are measured up by a qualified coach you could potentially be pishing against a wall.
Any more questions give me a buzz.
I was looking at local clubs just the other day. Interested to find out a bit more. Historical and or field for me I think.
The longbow is indeed the MTB of archery ....... but beware - before you know it you'll get all historical and look like me !
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You need to turn up like this, otherwise they'll think you aren't taking it seriously.
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I think my 'style' would be more running thru the bushes, stripped naked, daubed in war paint and screaming like a banshee.
I think my 'style' would be more running thru the bushes, stripped naked, daubed in war paint and screaming like a banshee.
B.A.Nana yesterday.
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From a beginners perspective, I've had a go a few times, maybe 6-7 hours in total and always enjoyed it. Never took it any further as i just don't have the free time for another hobby but it was always fun.
Longbow is great but slightly had as no aiming aid, stabilising, or other components to help out and because of that, less tinkering.
Compound and recurve unlimited give you all the bells and whistles such as sight, scope, stabalisers, release aid, arrow rests ect ect. Tinker to your hearts content.
You can use compound and recurve without or with less adaptation in barebow and limited classes, less tinkering but more accurate than longbow if you're wanting more reward from hitting the target more often.
Get to club and before you chose a style take on board feedback and also try and get a go of each style to see which appeals most.
You'll have to shoot for six weeks at the club before joining an association will then give you insurance to shoot outdoors on courses.
Where are you based?
Do it 🙂
Very addictive.
Do Field Archery the MTB of Archery.
and you can shoot Dinosaurs 🙂
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/58162507@N07/9392834819/ ]dino[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/58162507@N07/ ]SGMTB[/url], on Flickr
A Field Archery club near you:
and
for Yorshire:
http://www.riggwelterfieldarchers.co.uk/
As someone who has shot both target and field, recurve and compound I'm loving the comparisons between mountain biking and road biking... but would have to say that longbow isn't quite the MTB of the archery world - more the rigid 29er singlespeed with a quirky handlebar!
I do miss the technical aspects of it, as it is (depending on what style you shoot) a very technical sport as Brad pointed out, and would probably return to the sport as a target archer... and I am also enjoying my road riding more these day!
[url= 
]Grouping with compound unlimited[/url]
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Grouping with compound unlimited
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60 yard uphill 27 deg target
I always thought that, really, you should start at the closest peg and move back if you miss; if you weren't shooting at pretend animals wouldn't they be more likely to be further away by the time you've nocke another arrow..?!
We were quite fortunate on this one with only two peg walk up so no massive messing about with sights, some of the targets on the Euro champs course were mind blowing.
Not further away if you injured them and need to put them to peace with a more accurate arrow from closer range.
New target for today 🙂 Bit tight on the would line ;-).
[url= http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5322/9392889349_f0f9222838_b.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/58162507@N07/9392889349/ ]P1130610[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/58162507@N07/ ]SGMTB[/url], on Flickr
+1 for the buy nothing yet.
In my experience the usual way in to archery is through learning on club provided/owned bows then moving on to buying a recurve bow towards the end of your course of lessons if you are really enjoying it.
As with most things you can spend a lot or a little. I would expect a beginner to be able to pick up all the kit they need for around £400 brand new for a mid range set up (ie Sebastian Flute riser and limbs were all the rage for beginners a couple of years ago). This would take you up to shooting at about +/- 80 yards.
Often people tend to learn recurve and then discover ye olde Longbow and the more modern Compound along the way once they have gotton started and reached a level they are happy with in recurve.
Best of luck with the course. I caught the bug and shoot twice a week.
Not further away if you injured them and need to put them to peace with a more accurate arrow from closer range.
If you miss them completely then you haven't injured them..!
Which one would you aim for?
Predator then prey.... but the Great Tit is a bit fat.
Field archery is comparable to MTB and Target archery to road riding.
That's quite a lovely analogy.
" Field archery is comparable to MTB and Target archery to road riding.
That's quite a lovely analogy. "
But it's true 🙂
Thanks 🙂
What would clout be then?!
Clout Shooting:
A white cloth is laid out on the ground an archers have to hit it from distances of 160, 200 or 240 yards.
Great fun 🙂
Did archery at school, and really enjoyed it, still got my little bow and arrows upstairs, somewhere. Only about 30lb draw...
Last time I drew a longbow, it belonged to one of the Marcher Lords recreation society. Stocky little fella, about 5'8" or so, and about as wide, shaved head and wore a steel skullcap.
Drew 150lb, I could barely get it half-way back... 😳
This looks good for starter info
[url= http://www.discoverarchery.org ]http://www.discoverarchery.org[/url]
Being a biker, mountaineer, climber I think Field will appeal to me much more than Target, but the local club is Target. Presumably learning Target will be no detriment if you want to move on to Field at a later date???
Thanks for the info on clubs and associations, I'm in Yorkshire BTW, this is the club [url= http://www.aire-valley-archers.co.uk/ ]http://www.aire-valley-archers.co.uk/[/url] seems to be a good set up.
A white cloth is laid out on the ground an archers have to hit it from distances of 160, 200 or 240 yards.
I know; I was after an analogy - what would clout be to cycling if field is mountain biking and target is road!
B.A.Nana
No mate you'll need to learn the technique, you'll find the club will either take part in or know a place to shoot field. Target is the place to begin, I've shot at 90meters with long bows on the same boss, the end result it usually different for us though a sight and carbon arrows help me a bit!! 😆
what would clout be to cycling if field is mountain biking and target is road!
Singlespeeding?
Re Field Archery, just wondering, from all your experiences. Do the Field Archery clubs tend to be in two camps, either hunt sport (ie the MTB analogy) or reenactment, morris dancing, TimeTeam type?.
Re-enactment is different to field it's like comparing shooting clays to the sealed knot!
If you look at the archery uk site it has a club finder which I think will show you the local field clubs.
The targets will differ some shoot life like foam targets, the FITA (governing body of archery) round is a paper face. I must stress hunting with a bow or cross bow is illegal in the UK.
Field archery isn't a performing art, I think you're confusing the MTB similarities with the Danny Mackaskil videos you've been watching.
Field archery isn't a performing art,
I meant in terms of the type of person they attract which defines the club. Your photos look like what I'd be interested in. Looking on the web photo gallery of my nearest field club and they all look like middle aged geography teachers shooting longbows or some sort of Mongolian/Hungarian recurve reenactment society bow.
What would clout be then?!
IMO Singlespeed is more akin to just shooting bare bow [ modern bow but with no sighting or balancing faffery ]
Clout is maybe the equivelent of riding a splatter paint era kona, set up as a fixie
sounds like fun 😕A white cloth is laid out on the ground an archers have to hit it from distances of 160, 200 or 240 yards.
remember us having a go at whatever the longest distance was at the club, couldn't see the arrows in the target without a scope (which we didn't have) so we'd fire and then listen, if you heard a thud "wahey a hit!". If you didn't "bugger we're gonna be searching for that one" 🙂
interested but not really got time to get into it again, maybe when my kids are older and they might join me....sod all interest in cycling so far 😥
One does not "fire" an arrow. One [i]shoots [/i]an arrow. Philistine.
In the USA you can go deer hunting with a bow and arrow, which is where that Rambo get-up comes in. Seems a bit more invovled than the kind of hunting my father in law likes, which is where you sit in a tree house drinking beer waiting for a deer to walk by.
😳 just call me PhilOne does not "fire" an arrow. One shoots an arrow. Philistine.
I used to shoot as a child, and in my early 30s restarted when I moved away from a drinking buddy and we decided to find a pastime that didn't involve beer!
Got quite into it and was competing at national level (Olympic recurve) within 2 years.
Ultimately though, whilst I loved the technical aspects, and the satisfaction of grouping 6 in the gold at 100yds, I found the people so dull, and the amount of time it took up left no time for my cycling.
I was encouraged to go for Master Bowman by my club, but it was really just a matter of giving up time to travel to comps to qualify... Without wanting to sound arrogant, it came a bit too easy to me. And whilst I could see people struggling to improve, and the motivation they got from that, I found it all a bit boring.
So I hung up the bow, got back on the bike, and I haven't shot for best part of 5 years. I do have a real hankering to get one of those little Samick Mongolian style bows and set up a field course in my wood...
PEDANT ALERT PEDANT ALERT
Cougar - Moderator
One does not "fire" an arrow. One shoots an arrow. Philistine.
Surely one neither fires nor shoots an arrow, but looses an arrow?
Patched up 3D's for tomorrows shoot 🙂
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/58162507@N07/9400688992/ ]P1130164[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/58162507@N07/ ]SGMTB[/url], on Flickr
The longbow is indeed the MTB of archery ....... but beware - before you know it you'll get all historical and look like me !
No, the longbow is the single-speed fixed gear Hercules of archery! And surely if you're going all historical you should be using a one-piece, 120lb yew war-bow rather than a laminated Victorian/Edwardian style sport bow?
Surely one neither fires nor shoots an arrow, but looses an arrow?
Good point, well made. Though you would "go shooting" rather than loosing or firing. So hurrah, we're both [s]pedants[/s] correct.