• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Archery

A

Andy Kev.

Nordic Pine
Joined
Jan 4, 2021
Messages
681
Reaction score
36
I was just watching a bit of archery on the telly: targets at 50 m and nobody scoring below an eight, which I think at that distance is quite impressive.

Then I noticed the "bows". I put that in inverted commas because they are barely bow shaped. There are rods sticking out all over the place, weights (presumably to adjust the balance) and a frame which is like a big version of a Knew Concepts saw.

I can see that the equipment has been evolved and refined over the years to get to a logical conclusion, but wondered if there might be more skill and indeed satisfaction, involved if one used a bow simply made of a bendable rod and a string.
 
I knew a lady who competed, fairly successfully, in archery competitions using a traditional ("Robin Hood") style of long bow. I never understood how she could do so. The problem is that she is quite small, short and relatively weak. She could not pull a "heavy" bow. The low-powered bow she could pull wouldn't allow her to reach the target, or if she could reach it her arrows slowed down so much they wandered all over the place at the end of their flight. To get around this she had to fire the arrows high in the air, much higher than is normal. When she held the bow up to do this, her arm blocked her view of the target, so she was firing blind. How she ever hit the target is a mystery to me when she could not even see the target.
 
Just4fun said:
I knew a lady who competed, fairly successfully, in archery competitions using a traditional ("Robin Hood") style of long bow. I never understood how she could do so. The problem is that she is quite small, short and relatively weak. She could not pull a "heavy" bow. The low-powered bow she could pull wouldn't allow her to reach the target, or if she could reach it her arrows slowed down so much they wandered all over the place at the end of their flight. To get around this she had to fire the arrows high in the air, much higher than is normal. When she held the bow up to do this, her arm blocked her view of the target, so she was firing blind. How she ever hit the target is a mystery to me when she could not even see the target.
Click to expand...
That sounds incredible! Slower arrows would also increase the effect of the wind.
 
Just4fun said:
... in archery competitions using a traditional ("Robin Hood") style of long bow.
Click to expand...
A few years ago I went to the annual Chalke Valley History Festival, (about five miles from Wilton) which if you've never been is very good indeed with loads of excellent displays and some great speakers in the marquees. One of exhibits was on the 'war bow' and the chaps manning the stall had several prime yew examples, all 6' or so long. They were using the bows to shoot at a target in an adjoining field and all the school kids were completely entranced with these things. After a few bodkin point arrows had been fired he turned to the kids (all about 11-12) and said to the group..."here you are, have a go. If you can draw it (the bow) like me, you can keep it"

All the kids were eager to try, but unsurprisingly he still owned the bow at the end of the Festival - Rob

Edit - the one I tried to draw was nearly as thick as my wrist!
 
Many years ago, when I was a "junior" I used to compete at Scottish Junior level in the Scots Field Archery scene. Field archery is in the woods, up and down hills, along a course of 18 targets in between the trees, so not dissimilar in concept to a golf course. Much more fun than the Target Archery scene, which is in a level field. Targets ranged from 80 yds to the "bunny" which was down to 20 ft minimum. 4 arrows at each target. Some of the targets were "fan" which meant 4 different shooting points/"pegs" at same range. Some were "Walk-Up", with 4 different shooting pegs at different ranges. The 80 yd was a Walk-Up - 1 arrow at 80, one at 70, one at 60 and one at 50. The "bunny" was 35 ft, 30, 25, 20 ft and had 4 different target rings, one for each arrow, and each very small in size. Overall target size depended on range being shot at.

More on topic was the different types of bow that you could use. From traditional bare long bow, through wooden bare "hunter" style recurve bow, through modern alloy and stabilised "recurve" bows with sights and then into "compound" bows, which had wheeled cams that the strings routed around, so that the weight being held at full draw was actually less weight than the bow would deliver to the arrow during the release. Clever stuff.

Each of these classes of bow competed in their own classifications, so a long bow wasn't in direct competition with a recurve or compound bow user.
Some of the classes were then subdivided into different levels.
For instance, the compound bow "unlimited" class allowed telescopic zoom sights with spirit levels, weighted stabilisers and "release aids" that were strapped to your wrist and held the bowstring in jaws that could only be released using a mechanical trigger. "Limited" didn't allow telescopic/zoom sights or release aids.

The poles attached to bows are stabilisers - the job of which is to keep the bow stable in the same place and same orientation when the arrow is released - at least until the arrow is clear of the bow. Without them, when using the classic "non-grip" technique which allows the bow to nestle in the crux of your hand instead of keeping it gripped with your fingers, the bow tends to jump and twist around on release of the string, upsetting the arrow flight consistency. You also need a "sling" around your wrist to keep the bow attached to your arm when using the "non-grip" technique...

The skill level is still required for competition - it's just that the average scores of unlimited compound bow were much higher than recurve which were higher on average than hunter and long bow.

I used to really enjoy it and sometimes toy with the idea of buying a new bow, although there are precious few field archery courses south of the border where I now live.
 
Many years ago I was on a train and got into conversation with a blind man in the next seat. He told me about his love of competitive archery and how he had a house with a disused railway tunnel in the grounds, which was ideal for practising safely.

I didn't think it was a wind-up at the time, but typing that made me wonder. A quick web search just now shows that he was speaking the truth.

 
AndyT said:
Many years ago I was on a train and got into conversation with a blind man in the next seat. He told me about his love of competitive archery and how he had a house with a disused railway tunnel in the grounds, which was ideal for practising safely.

I didn't think it was a wind-up at the time, but typing that made me wonder. A quick web search just now shows that he was speaking the truth.

Click to expand...

I think I'd heard of that before and of the system of "guides" that are used by some of the blind archers - where a sighted person can guide them... "up a bit, up a bit more, down half, half left, hold, hold...... FIRE..."
Sounds brilliant.
 
We have a field archery couse in the woods next to us that a local ish club set up. At least I think its field archery - they use 3d animal targets. Nice bunch of guys. The bows they use are pretty conventional looking but some are surprisingly expensive most are at least 1K but one guy had got a custom made job - 6.5K it cost him apparently.
 
jimmy s said:
We have a field archery couse in the woods next to us that a local ish club set up. At least I think its field archery - they use 3d animal targets. Nice bunch of guys. The bows they use are pretty conventional looking but some are surprisingly expensive most are at least 1K but one guy had got a custom made job - 6.5K it cost him apparently.
Click to expand...

I have competed there back in the late 80s or early nineties.

I actually bought my first bow second-hand off of an ex-UK champion who lived in Dunfermline - so this was probably his home club/course. It was a Hoyt alloy handled beast and it was definitely not cheap. Arrows were also very expensive as was most of the other kit, including sights etc...

The 3d animals are one of the 3 "types" of target that can be used in field archery. At least it was back then. It may have changed by now????

First was the standard "target" course layout. This had a "regular yardage" layout. All multiples of 5 and 10 yards (or feet for the shorter targets) The round paper targets for this layout were a black centre/bullseye/"spot" on a white (faintly ringed) large background.

Next was the "hunter" layout. Each of the ranges were now marked and pegged at irregular yardage. These were still consistent numbers but not while 5 or 10 yards. For instance, from memory, on the 80 yard walk-up target it would become, if I remember correctly, 73yd, 68, 63 and 58. Always shorter range than the same target range for that target on the standard layout... The paper targets for hunter rounds were inverted into a white spot on a black (faintly ringed) background.
Scoring was 5, 4, 3 from spot outwards for each of 4 arrows per target. Maximum was 20 points per target.

Finally there were the "animal" or "3D" rounds - and each of these styles can be laid out on the same basic course. These animals are the ones you have seen in Dunfermline. I think these were only scored if targets penetrated the "kill" area, which was marked on the target. I've forgotten what the scoring was for this type of round.

I used to belong to Hyndford Bowmen club, just outside Lanark, and my "tutor" was a European champion. I reckon Hyndford Bowmen is no longer operating, though. They had a great course but it was laid out on National Trust woodland - so they had no lasting remit to remain there.

Used to really enjoy the sport and the travel to competitions and particularly seeing the variety of different woodland and meadow targets.


Now that I've dredged all of that from distant memory, I've gone and googled it and everything has changed to new regulations, LOL

It's now a gold spot on a black background and 3 arrows per target for a standard round. Oh well.
 
Years ago on a work-family-weekend away one of the activities was archery.
Only 2 of us put our names down.
At the appointed time you reported to the field site, stretch of sand with some ant hills, trees.
A chap explained what you did and how to use the bow (nothing fancy).
You each get three arrows, fire them and measure how well you hit the target.
This carried on for about 45 minutes, fortunately no spectators!
By Sunday afternoon when we left I could actually hit the target with all three arrows.
Also my left arm was a blue-purple-green colour from the elbow to the wrist.

The following year I signed up for the clay shooting, definitely more my style.
 
My (pretend - really a friend of my parents) was an archery competitor. He taught me as a teenager. Loved it, but no clubs near where my parents lived (Kenilworth). So that was that. Positive memories though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top