anybody into archery?

[chilli_grower]

I have recently started learning archery

Are there any archers amongst us?

[muddled]

I used to be rather good at archery.

I had a 6ft laminated ash longbow of Frankish/saxon designwith a 30 to 50 lb draw (not bad for a girlie).

Will you be doing re-enactment archery or modern 'sporting' archery with plastic recurve bows and all manner of twiddly bits?

[veggiechicken]

I have recently started learning archery

Are there any archers amongst us?

Can't stop singing - dum de dum de dum de dum; dum de dum de dumdum
I blame you CG

PeasnKews and her OH were archers but they haven't been on here for a few years. That's not very helpful either - sorry

[chilli_grower]

That is an impressive draw weight.

I am just about to join a club, and I am keen to learn 'barebow recurve' I.E, no weights, pulleys, stabilizers and sights etc.

All of that extra stuff removes the 'charm' out of it for me. (At the moment anyway).

However, I have been told that most people start on barebow and sooner or later end up using sights etc...

I will be buying my first bow in 2 weeks time.....

I think 30lb draw weight will do for now......

[Bacchus]

It's something I'd really like to do - but haven't just got round to joining a club.


I had some fun with a bow last year at a medieval fair - but it must have been a dodgy bow - it kept pulling to the left. I put it down to poor workmanship ....

[chilli_grower]

Archery is incredibly popular, I was on a waiting list for 6 months just to have 6 lessons!!!!!

My last lesson is this Wednesday, then I will join a club...

It is a challenging sport. I like it so far...

Muddled - What distances were you getting with the longbow?

[Lumpy]

Just to lower the tone - men in tights whey hey!

[muddled]

I did archery as part of re-enactment.
This means that there was normally an audience and, tempting as it often was, shooting them was generally frowned upon .

So we always tended to shoot at targets on mid to close range with a large (castle) wall immediately behind the target. Mid to close being 100 down to 25 yards.

Exceptions to this rule being when we shot fire arrows into purpose built viking ship replicas on rivers....

I do miss it.

I'm not sure if you are male or female chilligrower...
If female I have a top tip for you.
Never 'lock' the elbow on the outstretched arm holding the bow. You must always keep it slightly bent.
This is because women's elbows jut slightly towards the body when locked...try it and see...when the bowstring hits that part of your arm the pain is horrendous, the bruising lasts for weeks and your arrow flies off course!

Finally, draw weight is mainly technique over strength. Use your back muscles and expand your chest rather than your arm muscles.

[Kirk]

Used to do it, actually for several years.
Bought a wooden riser recurve in Holland, didn't even know how to assemble it but it looked nice.
Nice weight to learn with and a nice bow.
Learnt to shoot over here in the UK with the easy one, then bought a Yamaha EX, that was nice as long as you were "smooth" very unforgiving otherwise.

As I worked in Holland I also shot in a club there, Achilles in Alkmaar. Good bunch of people. They hold an "odd" round every year. It is a made up one, half from one round, half from another. So it counts for nothing, just a good day out, shooting, talking and a few beers. The Dutch champion use to come along each year and never submitted his score. I have 2 cups from the shhots, and good memories.

Holland was good, after a number of years here in the UK the politics was too much. Remember someone going to the county monthly meeting, they vowed never to go to another. They said they cannot recall one word or discussion of archery taking place, lots of back-stabbing however.

I eventually shot as an independant, had direct GNAS membership but not club membership. Partly because I was working away from home at times so I was then able to join in at local clubs. Tavistock was a nice bunch.

Still have the EX and 3 sets of limbs, and the original wooden one and the X7's.

[mothhawk]

I'm not sure if you are male or female chilligrower...
If female I have a top tip for you.
Never 'lock' the elbow on the outstretched arm holding the bow. You must always keep it slightly bent.
This is because women's elbows jut slightly towards the body when locked...try it and see...

Mother Nature is so sexist - that's so we can hold babies easily.
And why blokes always look so awkward holding a baby with one arm

[chilli_grower]

I am male!!!!

Kirk - Sounds like you have had some fun over the years. I have been to Amsterdam a few times (but not for work)!!!!!

Clubs seem very keen to push people through awards/medals etc, but I think I have found one now that is a bit more keen on the 'social side' of things...

[Kirk]

Liked Holland a lot, have seriously thought of selling up here and living over there.
Worked in Hengelo and Ijmuiden, developing software.

The 2 cups for the Achilles shoot was by "stealth".
They served beer during the shoot, up until half time I was well down the field, but after half time a lot of the others had a beer or three or five and oddly their accuracy suffered. So twice I managed third.

Good memories of Achilles and Anna-Marie. She "ran/organised" the club, no-one argued with her, no-one dared!
I did manage some "revenge".

It was John Konig the Dutch champion who helped sort out the EX, Anna-Marie told me to go see him and told him to sort my bow out. Did I say no-one dared argue with her?

Tavistock was good as well. I shoot quick, one other person at Tavi also shot quick. So we used to shoot together. He was bare bow. At 20 and 30 meter he was as accurate as I was - annoyingly so.

I said after my second shot once, "Damn it Mike you are as accurate as I am." Just as I was about to release my third he muttered the infamous words, "Well I am the UK champion." I stuck the third in the middle, then called him every rotten name I could think of.

[Snadger]

A mate of mine bought a bow from America. It looked a bit like the bow Rambo used to take out a tank. It was a 60lb pull with articulated ends? and he couldn't pull it. I had a go and launched an arrow about 200 metres.Took us ages to find it! Frightening power but poor accuracy!

[Kirk]

I guess a compound, works with cams, you sort of have to pull them over the "hump".
Actually very, very accurate.
On the indoor rounds if you have 3 arrows out of the 10 and in the 9 you may as well retire, because you are not going to win anything.

[Snadger]

I guess a compound, works with cams, you sort of have to pull them over the "hump".
Actually very, very accurate.
On the indoor rounds if you have 3 arrows out of the 10 and in the 9 you may as well retire, because you are not going to win anything.

That's what they were 'cams'. Once you're over that hump you can take your time aiming..........spose?