Archery

[Last Visit]

Looked back many pages and couldn't see a thread....apologies if I've missed one. Guess the lack of a recent thread means it may not have much of a following here.

Currently coming to the end of a series of beginner lessons at my local archery club. I've really enjoyed it to be fair. This has been using a beginners recurve bow supplied by the club and shooting at targets outdoors, the club do have an indoor venue but it's currently not available due to Covid.

I had to wait several months to do this as lock down and surfing YouTube reminded me that this was something I wanted to do, but that was in April as all clubs were grinding to a halt.

Anyhow, the club have members using long bows, recurves and compound. Just got to decide what type to pursue now.

Recurve is what I've been doing, but I do like the mechanical structure of a compound and the additional technical construction and accuracy a compound offers. Having shot a few guns in my time I guess I like idea of the more complex sights and so on, but recurve seems to be less expensive.

Any other archers here care to share any thoughts?

[Russ35]

I’ve been doing archery for about 4 years now. We are lucky that we have our own 20m 5 boss indoor range and council field where the club is based. We’ve not done a beginners course for about 10 months now. We were about to start one when COVID hit.

I’ve only shot recurve. Our club only has about 6 active compound shooters and most of them are due to age and/or shoulder problems. We Probably have more wood archers now than anything else.

I would stick with recurve for a while to hone the basic skills and techniques required for archery. Stick with the club bows for a bit and then maybe buy a a cheap recurve kit. If you then decide to go down the compound/wood route you could sell your kit to somebody who has just completed another beginners course. I know there is somebody here that is about the 4th owner of a riser and set of limbs, although it was a good spec bow when first bought.

Also have a look at doing some competition shoots when they start up again. I’ve done a couple when I first started. Good fun. I would do more but I work nights so not good for having to travel early to some other town and then spend all day shooting.

Edited by Russ35 on Monday 26th October 12:00

[Garemberg]

Hi,
Helped to instruct at my local community club, I would stick with recurve and alu arrows, Carbon are too risky and do not wear well with beginners.

[Last Visit]

Thanks, some good advice there.

I think I will go with recurve as you say, but with view to possibly using both disciplines at a later date. Recurve allows me to change limbs as I progress and want a greater draw weight. I may of course change my mind, will have to see.
I do fancy trying some competitions too, makes it a bit more fun and I know my club do run these usually, although again not in 2020.

[Last Visit]

Garemberg said:

Hi,
Helped to instruct at my local community club, I would stick with recurve and alu arrows, Carbon are too risky and do not wear well with beginners.

Why are carbon risky?

My club as it happens don't allow pure carbon as the venue is also used for football and having metalic content allows a metal detector to be used if an arrow is lost or burried, obviously no footballer wants a lost arrow sticking in their leg after a sliding tackle.

I think they allow mixed alu/carbon though

[Zetec-S]

Took up archery with Mrs ZS a few years ago, but a combination of work, a shoulder injury for my wife, and moving further away from the club meant it's fallen by the wayside more recently. We both did recurve and entered a few local competitions which was good fun and you can always pick up a few pointers. I'd agree with the comments above, stick with recurve until you're more proficient.

Also, unless you are minted don't buy new, especially at the start as you're likely to go up fairly quickly in draw weight so will get through a few sets of limbs until you find what works for you. Buy decent 2nd hand and you'll lose very little when you sell on.

[Johnspex]

I was an archer for 32 years. I only gave it up because we moved away from our club (200 miles) and I didn't feel I would fit in a new club.
sold all our gear, 2 recurves and 5 compounds, to help with cost of the new sport, shooting.
If you have more recurve shooters than compound in your club I'd naturally go with the majority. This is just a numerical thing. More shooters equals more advice. Compound archers can be a funny lot. There's quite a lot of willy-waving.
I'd start off with a well known make second-hand. Not all makes , Stylist used to be one of them, use the Hoyt style International limb socket so changing weights and lengths can be tricky. They may have adopted that type of limb since I had one. They also used to do a rental scheme whereby you rented a brand new bow and you could exchange limbs and if you kept it the rental paid was taken off the cost.

Spend your money on a decent sight and good bow. Fancy quivers and so on don't help your shooting one iota.

[Garemberg]

Last Visit said:

Why are carbon risky?

My club as it happens don't allow pure carbon as the venue is also used for football and having metalic content allows a metal detector to be used if an arrow is lost or burried, obviously no footballer wants a lost arrow sticking in their leg after a sliding tackle.

I think they allow mixed alu/carbon though

We found a number of them started to delaminate over time and there was a chance of splinters when pulling them out so just went back to alu for general club use.

[Russ35]

My Kit

Ready for transportation
WP_20171221_15_42_49_Pro


All set up.
IMG_20180425_162906

Current Setup:
Hoyt Epik riser
Hoyt Carbon 840 limbs (40lb), although currently using SF 34lb limbs due to not shooting for 6months of lockdown.
Angel sight with Beiter sight pin
Mybo Certo stabilisers
Beiter button
Spigarellie ZT magnetic rest
Easton ACC arrows

First setup
Hoyt Horizon riser
Various SF limbs (kept the 34lbs) sold others on when not needed.
Decut sight (a grub screw fell out the first time I used it, so the bottom fine adjustment knob fell off).
a cheap button.
Aluminium arrows


Johnspex, looks like Stylist still exist (they have a website), and do rentals, but looking at pics appears not to be an ILF system.

You want to get a riser with ILF limb attachment so you can easily mix and match riser and limbs from different manufactures. ILF (International Limb Fitting) was designed originally by Hoyt and then picked up by other manufactures. its not a proper standard as such, so you can sometimes find limbs from one manufacturer are a tight fit on another companies riser.

If buying a Hoyt riser make sure its from the Grand Prix range as they are ILF, Hoyt also have risers with another attachment called Formula which is not compatible with ILF limbs.

[Last Visit]

Thanks all, some good info there.

Johnspex, majority are recuve at my club so I'll be starting with recurve.

Russ, looks a good set up there, not that im an expert of course. I know what most of your kit list does apart from the button. Does that hold the arrow in place when drawn? And good avice re ILF limbs

[Russ35]

The button positions the arrow on the rest, so yes holds it in place, but they are also sprung loaded so act as a bit of a shock absorber when you release.

The arrow starts to bend/flex as soon as you release, so the button gives a little. But you can adjust the pressure on the button/spring to fine tune the arrow flight. Have a google and you will find loads of videos.

As with most things with archery its finding the perfect combination of a dozen things. If changing something only change one thing at once so that you can see the effect of that change and it might take from a few arrows to a couple of sessions to notice the result. Also make a note of what the previous setting was so that you can always go back to how it was. So if you put more twists in your string make sure that you count how many twists you do.

Back to kit. As with most sports there is a vast range of choice from very cheap to very expensive kit. I would avoid the very cheap. As with most things its about quality and features. Best example would be sights, you can pay as little as £5 upto £400. One will last a week when put on reasonable poundage bow the other a life time. The low end sights will be ok when you first start but you will get very frustrated with them as they use a thumb screws to hold the sight pin block in place so usually work loose very easily so your forever having to re-tighten them to stop your sight pin moving down, and then if you want to make a quick sight adjustment you have to loosen the screw and slide the block up or down. You want to spend a bit extra and get one that has a worm gear so that you can do very fine adjustment up/down/in/out.

[Celtic Dragon]

I shoot compounds and barebow recurve for field events (spots and 3ds) for all 3 organisations. Compounds do have the element of precision with them, but are quite easy to shoot well, thus getting boring. Barebow takes a lifetime to master and far harder to shoot well.

Field club’s haven’t been effected by COVID as much, my club didn’t shut down, so we had about 6 archers in a 60 acre site which was bliss (when you live in a flat)

Field is a good way of making life harder for yourself, usually you have to guess the distance to the target.

[Last Visit]

I can see a Beiter button isn't cheap but does seem to be the best quality that can be bought. Some googling has explained what they do to dampen any oscillation in the arrow as it is shot and thanks for the explanation too.

Last lesson as part of the initial club training will be this weekend, this being on one of their trainer bows. I think the draw weight of the one I'm using is about 25lb or so, hence quite light. After that, I'll be looking to get my first one.

[sociopath]

Not shot for about 29 years, but still got my longbow and hand fletched ammo.

Must get it out after lockdown and see if I'm still physically capable of drawing it.

[chemistry]

Last Visit said:

Recurve is what I've been doing, but I do like the mechanical structure of a compound and the additional technical construction and accuracy a compound offers. Having shot a few guns in my time I guess I like idea of the more complex sights and so on, but recurve seems to be less expensive. Any other archers here care to share any thoughts?

My whole family shoot - wife (recurve) and kids (compound) have shot at county level (all been on Somerset team) and above. I'm not in their league but have shot for a long time, first recurve, then compound. For what it's worth...

I think getting a grounding is recurve is no bad thing, but don't feel that you have to stick with it for years before you switch to compound.

There's nothing too weird/scary about compounds, as long as you are sensible - usual rules about never dry loosing, keep an eye on strings and cables for wear and change them regularly, etc. In many ways they are easier to shoot (although everyone else has the same accuracy advantage).

Compounds can get expensive (relative to recurve) as you have to change the whole bow, rather than just switching limbs. Sights cost more and you have the cost of a release aid or two (or about seven in my case!). A bow press is also required for all but he most basic maintenance.

A bit of a generalisation, but there's a different mindset between the bow types...long bowers are happy when the hit the boss, recurvers are happy when they hit the gold and compounder are upset when they miss the gold. My wife loves her recurve but me and the kids wouldn't swap back from compound. Personally, I like the 'clinical' way they shoot, I like knowing that my bow/arrows are capable of very small groups and misses are entirely down to me, I HATE shooting with a clicker and prefer a release aid, etc.

So, get half decent with a recurve (say low first class scores?) and then give a compound a try...