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 Archery Interchange 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?

What’s Traditional? like wild boar and wolves?

French surely? 😆

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 !

You need to turn up like this, otherwise they’ll think you aren’t taking it seriously.

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.

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 🙂

dino by SGMTB, on Flickr

A Field Archery club near you:

http://www.nfas.net/

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!

Grouping with compound unlimited

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1012177_10153003492640257_828847462_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1013152_10153000175090257_1293782925_n.jpg

Grouping with compound unlimited

60 yard uphill 27 deg target

@webradders

White peg… heading for the walk of shame 😉

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 ;-).

P1130610 by SGMTB, 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 🙂