[Closed] Archery Pic.... from today. A new Expensive Hobby 🙁

I used my medieval warbow in anger for the first time last weekend - great fun shooting at the clankies - makes a change because i'm usually one of them!

Not very accurate as yet though.

What is the draw-weight of that bow? My Yew bow is 60lb @28"

Nothing to macho. Only 25lbs for me and 26 for the GF. But using her bow has made want something new.

She also has new Easton arrows......££££££££££££££££££

But top fun.

how far away are the targets for that "size" bow?

Today we were both shooting not to far at only 20 yards or so.

The GF does field archery which looks fun.

Also... just looking at the Easton site and they have Carbon Arrows............OMG 🙁

http://www.eastonarchery.com/

and another pic...

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Always wanted do archery, so what are the costs? Many years ago I tried a proper target crossbow over 10M. The bolt went incredibly slow but was very helpful in teaching correct trigger and holding techniques for 10M Air-rifle that I used to shoot.

Here are a few shots from the field archery course I go to.
36 life size 3D targets which makes a great archery session.

Near to Chepstow, if anyone is interested google Wye Valley Archers.

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I used to be very good at that game... about 10 - 12 years back!

My bow with easton carbon fibre limbs (££££ at the time) and easton carbon arrows is still at my parents actually.

As for distance used to shoot out to 90m's with no problems getting 5/6 out 6 arrows in the 9/10 rings.

In fact I had the GNAS rating of 1st Class (nice eh!).

I used to shoot with the Bowmen of Pendle and Salmesbury. Only took it up so me and a mate could have a non-alcohol related hobby when we moved out of walking distance of each other.

I got to quite a high standard in 2-3 years coming third in the Lancashire Championships (a national indoor comp) and was encouraged to go for Master Bowman with a view to training for Olympics.

Decided it was taking too much time and I was missing out on riding bikes - my biggest passion - so I quit. It's a kind of all or nothing sport if you want to be any good.

And yes, lots of carbon - Easton ACCs, carbon sites, Beiter long rods etc... I started with a Hoyt Gold Medalist which I bought cheaply second hand and upgraded as I went along. I still have a Hoyt with 50lb/70" Win Win limbs and all the kit, so I could always go back to it in future.

Peter, I dont like the way they've tied that poor bear to the tree, thats not "sport"!

@hadge

My GF spent about £160 on a new bow [above], 8 easton arrows, tab, brace, extra bow string and a quiver.

She went to Wales Archery as mentioned above.
http://www.walesarchery.co.uk

And they have a really kewl range just up the road.

I had a go at archery once it was quickly evident I was never going to be any good no matter how much I spent.

[i]As for distance used to shoot out to 90m's with no problems getting 5/6 out 6 arrows in the 9/10 rings.[/i]

Mate, if you could score like that you'd be GMB, not 1st Class!

Still got my Hoyt, carbon limbs and Easton ACEs under the bed - but it's just a bit dull compared with mountain bikes. Field archery is definitely the way to go compared with target - a bit like MTBs as opposed to roadie maybe?

I have a compound hunting bow, sadly not allowed to hunt with bows in this country.

As for distance used to shoot out to 90m's with no problems getting 5/6 out 6 arrows in the 9/10 rings.

Mate, if you could score like that you'd be GMB, not 1st Class!

Would have been JMB at the time, I was young!

But I never really bothered entering enough comps to get the scores needed...

http://www.archeryworld.co.uk/

This is a good source of kit

Mate of mine won Bronze medals at two Olympic Games in the team competition. Moscow, and another that I can't remember. I had a go with his bow once. Couldn't draw the thing! All sorts of bits sticking out for balance, but it was still wobbling all over the place. He must have been damned good to use it, and get to that level.

www.bowsports.com

Easton arrows?

Maybe that's where i'm going wrong - all ours are handmade and hand fletched!

I must admit, i do have a silent giggle when we do our shows and some bloke turns up to look at the archery display. Invariably he will start to tell us about his sporting archery and proudly tell me he pulls a 30lb bow - he then (usually) gets miffed when the 5'2" bloke in front of him tells him his (my) bow is 60lb!

Personally i much prefer the warbow (longbow is a Victorian term) than all these modern compounds and carbon recurve jobbies. Even stringing a warbow is an effort!
A real warbow should be in the region of 120lb upwards. Some of the ones found on the Mary Rose were destruct tested to 160lb 😯
I believe there are only about ten people in the UK at the moment who can draw and shoot a full strength bow. Medieval ordnances stated that a boy should by law start to learn the bow aged 8 and continue to manhood. By the time he reached 16 and was eligible for military service he should be able to use the big bows.
With an extreme effective range of 300yrds (against non-armoured targets) and an expected rate of shot of 12-20 aimed shots per minute the archer was a formidable weapon.

[url= http://www.eastonarchery.com/products/selection ]shaft selector[/url]? 😳

Once upon a time I hit 5th National juniors, some 20years ago (yikes!)

Archery is something you can be good at with basic equipment, just like mtb'ing, but the magpie factor is present and in full effect there too (oh? Shiney).

Muddy Dwarf, Target archery is rather different to what you're doing. Try doing 144 arrows at 90meters and maintaining any accuracy/grouping over that duration. Impossible given the sizes of the golds. Warbows were never effective as a solo weapon, they only came to the fore in salvo use, where only moderate accuracy was required, and my god, were they effective.

I used to draw 28lbs at 29.5 inches. I still have my TD-01 but I loaned my good arrows out after I stopped shooting and never got them back. All I have is one bent one and the one I split al la robin hood. (this is actually quite common)

I suspect medieval archers were used as an 'area-suppression' weapon rather than individual snipers. With the advent of steel (rather than iron) plate armour in the lateC14th/early C15th the effectiveness of archery begins to decline.
Medieval archers were (i suspect) rather better than all but the top level competitors nowadays, seeing as hunting with the bow was necessary for food as well as warfare.
At extreme range archers are 'lofting' arrows rather than flat-shooting and that is not conducive to tight accuracy. Having said that one of the required practices was to mark a circle on the ground at different ranges (say 250yrds) and you would be expected to drop all your shafts into that area.
At that range with the required speed of shot an archer is effectively asked to have 3 shafts in the air at any given point in time, although of course this does decrease with the shortening of the range.
At 50yrds there is a fair chance of penetrating plate harness given optimal conditions ( short bodkin head 90 degree angle etc) but a charging horse will cover that distance in a couple of seconds so you only get one shot if you are lucky.
If you have not deployed stakes (as at Vernuil) then you are dead.

There were several reasons why archery declined as an effective weapon, armour is one (at Flodden the archery was ineffective against the Scots pikeblocks as the front ranks were heavily armoured, although they did massacre the unarmoured Highlanders under Lennox on the Scots right) and the gun is another.

It took 8-10yrs to train an archer, a 'handgonner' can be trained in a day.

We tend to shoot over 60-80yrds in shows, at armoured moving targets using blunts (sharps are for target only) and i know from personal experience that even low powered bows shooting thin arrows with blunts still bloody hurt at that range - and that is whilst wearing armour!