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
http://www.discoverarchery.org
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 http://www.aire-valley-archers.co.uk/ 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

A white cloth is laid out on the ground an archers have to hit it from distances of 160, 200 or 240 yards.

sounds like fun 😕
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 shoots 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.

One does not “fire” an arrow. One shoots an arrow. Philistine.

😳 just call me Phil

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 🙂

P1130164 by SGMTB, 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 pedants correct.