BOW TYPES
RECURVE BOWS
The most common type of bow in use at our club, the three piece take down bow is the bow most people start with as beginners (indeed we have several of these type as beginners bows for our course). Laiden with an array of stabilising rods these direct decendants from the long bow can look like weapons out of Starwars.
COMPOUND BOWS
These bows are a relatively new invention and rely on cams and strong cables to allow a powerful draw(weight of pull of the string) initially that is greatly reduced(let-off) by the time your hand reaches your face. The power comes back when the string is released. This makes it very easy to hold and shoot accurately at both short and long distances.
With the aid of a stabilising rod, telescopic sight and release aid (so you don't even have to touch the string!)this is easily the most accurate bow (some say it's cheating, but hey! it's great to shoot and looks very impressive).
There are currently four people shooting compound at our club.
CROSSBOWS
A short and powerful handheld bow (that can also be equiped with compound cams and cables.
We do not allow crossbows in our club because they destroy the hard straw targets (called a boss), the bolts will go through these targets, and at indoor shoots at 20 yards they will only smash against the back wall.
They are interesting bows to shoot, but only at targets set up for their use.
TRADITIONAL BOWS
The original (and those who shoot them stubbornly say still the best) bow (a bent stick). At around 5 or 6 foot high and with no aid other than the archers instincts (or piece of string tied around the bow) this is probably the most fun to shoot, as nearly everyone is crap at shooting them over more than 40 yards, and the sight of so many arrows sticking out the ground around the target is reminiscent of a field of flowers.
A few minutes to learn and a lifetime to master (you should see how old the people who shoot them are! it's not just the bow that's bent over).
We have traditional archers in the club shooting a variety of different bows from longbow to short korean bows (pictured below).
INDEX
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