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We are all being encouraged to get out more frequently, so many people are searching for a reason for doing it. You could undertake a spectator sport like football, but that is not really going to do your body much good, you should be looking for a participation sport.

If you are younger, then play soccer by all means, but if you are getting on a little, you will most likely be looking for a sport that is not quite so taxing. Men like to take aim and shoot things even if not kill them. Golf is an option, but I want to suggest that you give archery a try.

Archery has the edge over shooting a gun because it requires some physical fitness. It is not just a question of pulling, sorry, squeezing a trigger. If you take up archery, you will most likely want to develop some more upper-body strength, especially if the heaviest work you have done for the last twenty years is pick up a pen.

Archery is an all-round sport in many ways, depending on how much you get into it. The majority of novices will start out by going to an archery club and joining in for the day. People will lend them a bow and teach them the safety aspects and the correct way to hold a bow and shoot an arrow. This should give you a good notion of which kind of bow you would like.

After a week or two, you may purchase your own bow and you may move from indoor target archery to outdoor target archery or even field archery, which is simulated hunting. From there, you will almost definitely meet people who take archery a step further. You will meet competition archers, bow hunters and people who assemble their own equipment.

You may find one of these aspects of archery fascinating. You may take up bow hunting or even bow fishing. This will take you off at a tangent, because you will have to learn about the animals that you stalk. You will have to learn where they live and what their habits are. This involves research.

Or you can take up the archery equivalent of clay pigeon shooting, which is called field archery. In field archery, the archers walk around a course and replica animals or standard targets will become visible at diverse distances. This is enjoyable.

You will also meet individuals who like to make their own arrows or even their own bows. This is another fascinating feature of archery. You can purchase the different components that go to make up an arrow and you can buy a kit to make a bow or you can start from scratch with an axe, a knife and a lathe. Again you will need to do a lot of research, in order to get your archery equipment just the way you want it.

This will take you down yet another tangent to archery, but it will improve your understanding of archery, augment your pleasure in the sport and, as they say, add another string to your bow.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with longbows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

There are two main points that an archer has to do well to guarantee the best chance of consistently hitting the target. The first is to hold the string stable at full draw until the archer is ready to shoot and secondly, releasing the string in the correct manner every time. Most suggestions for beginners should help the novice to achieve these two states.

‘Creep’ is the first issue that a novice should guard against. Creep is the phenomenon of the arrow, string and hand creeping forward as the archer takes aim. It is important to hold the arrow at full draw for consistency. If the archer permits the hand to creep forward, the shot will not be constant. Creep is caused by lack of concentration and strain.

The strain comes from trying to shoot a bow that the archer is not yet strong enough to control. People, especially men often attempt to shoot a bow that is too powerful for them. If an archer is experiencing creep, the bow is probably too powerful for him or her at the moment. The archer should use a weaker bow and exercise more until they are stronger.

The effects of creep on the shot are that the archer will not learn how to determine the fall of the arrow over distance and so will almost certainly undershoot, that is, the arrow will possibly fall short. The only way to learn how to use the bow properly is to always shoot at full draw.

Weariness can also lead to creep, but the archer can regulate this by resting well before a competition, staying fit and not using a bow that takes so much muscle that it cannot be shot for the duration of the competition.

The beginner archer has to learn how to let go of the arrow as well. It is much more difficult to hit the target if the release is not right. The novice should get an experienced archer to give a demonstration of the release so that he or she does not develop bad habits. The correct way to release the string is to relax the muscles in the tips of the fingers used to draw the string.

Novices often hurt their fingers after a couple of releases, so they try to let go of the string too quickly which can lead to pulling the string to the side a little. This little wobble can send the arrow off course.

The release should be clean and to the rear of the arrow, not to the side. If the release is to the rear, the arrow will fly accurately to where the archer pointed it. If the archer is having a great deal of trouble toughening up the finger tips, it is possible to use a string release device, which will take the strain off the finger tips until they can be toughened up.

An archer could try the karate techniques of hardening the skin and the hand. One of these is to thrust the straight fingers into sand. An archer could also try a guitarists’ method, that of daubing the finger tips with methylated spirits from time to time.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various subjects, but is presently involved with longbows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Do you have a leisure pursuit that you like to carry out out of doors or are you permanently stuck to the chair in front of your computer? If you never get out, then that is a shame and you ought to take that common piece of advice and get out more often .

And do what? – you may ask. Yes, well that is your concern, is it not? But there are hundreds if not thousands of things that you can do in the open air and they are all better than sitting down in front of your computer no matter what you are doing with your PC.

I will admit that I spend too much time at my desk, although, in my defense, I will say that that is how I make my living. However, I do like to get out-of-doors sometimes as well. I live in a country where foreigners, such as myself, are not permitted to own or carry anything that might be thought of as a weapon. This encompasses penknives as well.

When I go out into the glorious countryside it is only to stroll with my wife and look for animals – mostly snakes and birds.. However, I have had a lifelong fascination for archery.

Something within me desires to be able to hit a target from a long distance. I do not want to kill anything, but I am alright with people who do so long as it is for a good reason.

It would be fantastic to make a bow and the arrows to go with it. I am Welsh and have always wanted a Welsh longbow, although it requires a great deal of strength to pull a longbow. The minimum draw weight in medieval days used to be 160 lbs for a war bow, for hunting it was 100 lbs, but these days it is more like 60 lbs.

However, this is still pretty heavy for modern man, who does not usually pick up anything weightier than a pint of beer.

There are some great archery dealers, but if you do not live near one, you ought to go on line and either order from there or get a catalogue sent to you. Two good places to begin are ‘Footed Shaft’ and ‘Three Rivers’ archery suppliers.

Both of these companies will send you your chosen goods through the post and they have any type of archery equipment that you could require. For example, they have finished goods such as bows and arrows, but they also supply nocks, feathers, arrow shafts and points so that you can create your own arrows.

Do you want to make your own bow as well? No problem. You can either purchase a kit with all the bits and instructions or you can buy a book or DVD and buy the parts yourself.

These and other on line archery supplies dealers offer good value for money and have very wide-ranging stocks of archery products. Their catalogues and web sites are easy to browse and use as well.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on various subjects, but is presently involved with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery played a large role in human daily life for thousands of years from ancient times until about 1750, when the gun began to replace it for hunting and warfare quite rapidly. Societies all over Europe, north Africa, like Egypt, Persia (Iran), India, China and Japan remember their most skillful archers. I am sure that other countries do as well.

Wales had Twm Sion Catty; England created Robin Hood and Switzerland memorializes William Tell. Greek and Trojan archers are told of by name in Homer’s ‘Iliad’. Archers all over the world were thought of as popular heroes like footballers are today.

It seems that bows were first invented in different parts of the world practically simultaneously in the late Paleolithic Age or the early Mesolithic Age. It is remarkable that different forms of bows were invented by the different peoples around the world and each type of bow was invented to match the style of warfare that that people conducted and to the environment in which they hunted.

There are too many types of bow to explain them all here, but some of the most common archery bows are: the longbow, flatbow, shortbow, recurve bow, compound bow and crossbow.

The longbow and the flatbow are similar in size, both can be six feet or more in length, but the cross section of the longbow is ‘D’ shaped, whereas that of a flatbow is rectangular. A flatbow is usually wider than a longbow. Both can shoot heavy 36 inch arrows long distances with great force – enough to pierce the armour of the Middle Ages from 250-300 yards.

The shortbow is shorter, as you might gather from its name. It is a short range bow, used for hunting small animals in areas where a large bow would be too unwieldy such as in woods or forests.

The compound bow is also a shorter bow, but it is extremely powerful because the limbs are not very supple. In order to flex the limbs, use is made of a system of pulleys or cams.

This gives the compound bow enough power (more than 50 pound draw weight) to permit it to be used to hunt larger game such as deer or bear. The compound bow is a new style, which was only invented in 1966.

Recurve bows have tips that ‘point the wrong way’ when the bow is unstrung. This gives the recurve more power inch for inch than the long or flatbow, allowing it to be used as an effective weapon for warfare or hunting from horseback.

Crossbows are specialized bows, which can be pre-loaded like a gun and shot later. In general, it requires less skill and physical strength to soot a crossbow.

The arrows are very important too. Arrows can be interchangeable between the bows to a limited extent, but the length should match the draw of the bow. Crossbow bolts are usually very short.

There are two kinds or shooting: instinctive and sight shooting. Sight shooting means using sights of some kind to aim, either by looking down the arrow or using optical fibre sights. Instinctive shooting is more demanding because it is intuitive. It cannot be learned, you have either got it or you ain’t.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

If you are American and you are keen on archery, you will probably have heard of Three Rivers Archery products. In Europe and the rest of the world, you most likely have not heard of them. Three Rivers Archery products are some of the finest in the world. In their own words, they specialize in longbows and recurve bows.

Three Rivers Archery also offers arrows and other archery equipment such as the materials to make or repair your own arrows. These materials include carbon fibre, wooden and aluminium arrow shafts, arrow heads, feathers and nocks. They also provide quivers, arrow rests, bow strings and everything else to do with archery.

The cost of these outstanding quality items is reasonable and professional archers, hunters, hobbyists and sports people all use Three Rivers Archery goods. There are types of archery equipment to suit every application and every pocket.

The equipment sold by Three Rivers Archery is of Olympic standard. That is to say that their recurve bows meet the requirements set by the Olympic committee. Their traditional selfbows are authentic replicas of original longbows.

The arrows are made of modern resources as well as timber. The modern composite arrows are often better because modern carbon fibre and aluminium alloys are better for producing arrow shafts than wood. That is hard to confess for a traditionalist, but modern carbon fibre and aluminium alloy arrows do not splinter like a wooden arrow might if shot from a heavy-duty longbow.

The steel arrow points that Three Rivers Archery has are far better than the old brass arrow tips as well. The old brass arrow tips would often buckle or dent, whereas these new steel points are practically unbreakable. They sell whistling steel points too, although I am not sure why anyone would want a whistling arrow point. What is the point?

If you are not sure where you can get hold of Three Rivers Archery goods, go online. They have an outstanding web site which is huge although still easy to navigate. If you are interested in archery, then I am sure that you could easily spend an hour or more just browsing the web site.

Their web site is very well laid out with distinct sections for every aspect of archery including ready-made items such as bows, arrows, paraphernalia and apparel; there are additional web pages on targets, quivers, accessories, books, DVD’s and adolescent archery. There are further web pages on medieval archery, hunting and bow making. There are even special offers only available to their web site visitors.

If that is not impressive, then there is a forum, an email service and an off-line catalogue. Three Rivers Archery will of course deliver your order to your door. You can order by post, by telephone or over the Internet.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several subjects, but is presently concerned with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery is about hitting a target with an arrow shot from a bow. The bow can either be an straight bow or a crossbow, although most people think of upright bows when they hear the word ‘archery’. Within the sport or hobby of target archery, there are two kinds: target archery and field archery. The champion is the archer with the highest combined score of his arrows that struck the target.

Target archery involves shooting arrows, usually six, from different distances typically 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres. The archers stand in a line before their targets beginning at 90 metres and shoot an arrow on the command of whoever is in charge.

Then they all move forward to the 70 metre mark and shoot again on the order and so on. After the six arrows have been shot, the archers proceed to their targets and add up their scores.

Field archery necessitates walking around a course where targets are set at a variety of distances. The targets can be the traditional round ones or they may be replicas of wild animals like rabbits, elk or bears.

Traditional targets are made from straw. Handfuls of straw are tied with string and crafted into a sort of rope. This rope is then wound around and around itself until a target of the right size has been crafted. The rope is held in situ either by pinning it or tying it. A canvas or paper target is then pinned to the front of it.

Target archery can be practiced outdoors or indoors and the target sizes are different to match the various distances. An outdoor archery target can be either 122 centimetres or 80 centimetres in diameter. The centre of this target is 24.4 centimetres in diameter and there are four concentric circles around this. The indoor target is 80 centimetres in diameter. The centre of this size target is 16 centimetres and also has four concentric rings around it.

Each ring is about eight centimetres wide on the smaller target. The targets are coloured gold in the centre, then red, blue, black and white. At the middle of the gold is what many archers call the ‘pinhole’.

It is a small cross of about two millimetres in width. The target should then be put on an easel or stand with a tilt of about 15 degrees. The pinhole ought to be 130 centimetres off the ground (plus or minus five centimetres).

If there is more than one bowman, the pinholes should all be at the same height off the ground and the targets should be clearly numbered. The shooting line should be clearly marked and an archer’s shooting spot should be clear too. Five yards behind the archer, there should be another line, behind which non-competitors may watch.

The danger zone between the archers and the targets should be cordonned off to prevent spectators wandering into the line of fire. Knowing that the spectators are kept well back helps the archers to focus on their archery.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on various subjects, but is currently involved with longbows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archeology all over the world shows that hunting tools, that is, weapons, were some of the first items that we crafted in the ancient history of mankind. Flint arrow heads and spear tips are some of the most prevailing articles found around the world.

In those ancient times, people hunted for food and fought each other. We do not know, but it likely that men and non-pregnant young women hunted animals and collected fruit, nuts and berries, while the older family members looked after the children.

It is unclear when bows were invented, but certainly more than two thousand years before Christ or four thousand years ago. Earlier than this, hunters almost certainly crept up on or ambushed their quarry and then ran after it, throwing rocks and sharp sticks or primitive spears perhaps with fire-hardened or flint tips.

It is unlikely that they often killed their quarry out-and-out, they probably wore it out until it bled to death. This method of hunting deer is still practiced by some hunters in South Africa and elsewhere.

As people lived and learned, so more sophisticated hunting articles were invented and improved on. The first such item would have been the spear and the second either the throwing arrow or the bow and arrow. It is likely that the throwing arrow came first. This weapon is still used by some traditional Aborigine hunters in Australia.

Recurve bows and longbows dating back to 2,000 BC have been found all over Europe and Asia. It seems that the longbow was more prevalent in the north and the recurve bow in the south. Recurve bows can be shorter than longbows and still preserve their power, which is perfect for shooting from horse back or chariot.

As farming became the norm, so did society and more and more often, hunting wild animals was left to experts. The animals that they killed would be swapped for other amenities or, later, sold for money.

For most people, hunting became recreational, a sport or a game and the animals they killed in their free time they called ‘game’ and we still do today in English.

Most peoples of the world did not only develop weapons to hunt with, they also trained animals to assist them. Dogs, whose forebears were wolves, were probably the first whose help was enlisted. Some dogs were used to retrieve the gave after it had been shot and fallen into the undergrowth or the water, other dogs really did the killing.

Later still, the upper classes would hunt with no intention of eating the animal at all: foxes in Britain and lions in Afghanistan. This is still being done today. Likewise with falcons and eagles.

Other animals were trained to help chase prey. Horses equalized the speed difference between man and buffalo or deer. Elephants were used to equalize the prowess of tigers and offer a safer platform from which to hunt.

In this day and age, few people need to hunt to survive, but it is still a popular pursuit, even though for many it is a one time a year event. The most legendary hunting expeditions were or still are the safaris, although now more people shoot with video cameras than with rifles.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on various topics, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery is as old as the hills. The oldest bows to have been found date back to about 2000 BC and bows are almost certainly older than that. Archery is so old that no-one knows where or when the bow and arrow was invented. It has always been used in hunting and warfare. Buddhist monks in the Far East have utilized archery in their martial arts regimes for centuries as well.

Archery is still being used by some tribes around the world for hunting purposes and many millions of ordinary people practice archery for leisure. Buddhist monks still utilize it in their meditation techniques. There are basically three types of archery recognized: primitive, traditional and modern archery.

Traditional archery includes such bows as the longbow and the recurve bow. Bows of both varieties have been found dating back to 2000 BC. It appears that the longbow was more prevalent in northern Europe and the recurve bow was more widespread in southern Europe and east from there all the way to Japan.

The modern compound bow can attain a heavy draw weight by using relatively little physical strength compared to traditional bows by the use of a set of pulleys or cams, but still a lot of people prefer to use traditional bows. People appear to want to get back to the root of archery.

Longbows are very simple items, traditionally made from one piece of yew or ash. Recurve bows could also be made from one length of wood, but more often, the tips would be crafted from wood and horn or bone. Remember that the tips of a recurve bow point to the front when the bow is unstrung.

Because of the recurved tips, a recurve bow is more powerful than a longbow weight for weight or inch for inch, but recurve bows are normally quite short, so the average longbow is much more formidable than the average recurve bow.

However, both types of bow require quite an amount of bodily strength to draw them to full power and hold that draw to take aim.

This cycle of drawing and holding without quivering or trembling requires a lot of strength and concentration, which usually has to be acquired. It can take years of practice to master traditional archery. The British longbow men of the 14 th and 15 th centuries trained all their lives.

In fact, Henry VIII made it law that all English and Welsh men had to train with a longbow at the butts every Sunday aiming at targets at least 220 yards away. These days, 90 metres (100 yards) is about the furthest archers shoot. It would often take ten years to become this skillful, but some archers could cast an arrow 400 yards and more.

In order to cast an arrow that far, traditional longbows used in warfare had a draw weight of between 160 and 180 lbs, which would send a three ounce, armour-piercing arrow about 300 yards. Not many men could pull a bow like that these days These days, a typical draw weight for a longbow would be 100 lbs and for a recurve something over 60 lbs.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on various topics, but is presently involved with archery bows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Bow hunting or bowhunting is one of those sports that you either love or you hate – a lot like fox hunting in the United Kingdom. Town people abhor it and anybody involved with it and country people see it necessary to cull wild animals that could otherwise become a nuisance.

Despite its macho image, which was encouraged by the film the Deer Hunter, there are growing numbers of women who go bowhunting. The big difference between hunting with a rifle and hunting with a bow is distance. A hunting rifle with telescopic sights can deliver enough punch at 600 yards to take down a deer with a single shot virtually wherever it is hit in the chest.

On the other hand, a hunter using a bow with a fifty pound draw weight will have to be within about forty yards to be able to deliver the same sort of lethal punch, if the shot is accurate to the heart.

This means that if you seriously wound an animal from 600 yards, it will probably be dead by the time you get there, climbing over fallen trees and rocks, but if you seriously wound a deer from forty yards you see its anguish.

This has a salutacious effect on most bow hunters. The overwhelming majority of bow hunters do not want to see this and they do not want the creature to suffer either, so they wait for the perfect shot. If it is not there, they do not shoot.

A hunting bow has to have a draw weight of at least fifty pounds to kill large game and that used to mean quite a hefty recurve or longbow, but the compound bow was invented in 1966.

A compound bow makes use of pulleys to assist with the draw, which allows less beefy people to achieve a draw weight of fifty pounds, which has opened up bowhunting to women and adolescents.

Large wild animals are risky and some will attack without notice if they feel in danger. This leads to a danger zone around wild animals. Every sort of animal has a danger zone, for a lion, that could be pretty large and for a deer less so. This danger zone is an area outside of which you are relatively safe.

If you are hunting with a rifle, you can remain outside that danger zone easily, but with a bow and arrow, well, you often have to go inside it. This enlarged risk supplies a superior rush for bow hunters – a bigger thrill. Especially if they are hunting bears or mountain lions.

In contrast to the Deer Hunter, most bow hunters go on organized trips these days. The hunting excursion is organized with the aid of a specialized firm which will present guided trips into regions known to have large numbers of the animals you want to hunt.

These expert guides know how to bait zones to lure your prey; they can give advice on safety aspects and they take a big gun in case a hunter is too stupid to take their advice. Regrettably, the gun is for use on the animal, not the idiot.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various subjects, but is currently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery is now a very popular sport and hobby all over the planet, but once, long ago, it was even more widespread. Every army had bowmen and men hunted with bows for food. Every country or every region invented its own particular design of bow and therefore, even nowadays, there are many different styles of archery bows. Modern technology has meant that new varieties of archery bows are still being invented.

Some bows were developed by people who rode horses a great deal. These bows were shorter, other bows were intended for long range shooting and these bows were longer. I will list some of the main varieties of archery bows below with a short explanation of each

The traditional Welsh or English longbow was made from a single piece of yew (or other wood) at least the length of the bowman, but up to about six feet six inches (two metres). It was ‘D’ shaped in profile with the flat, bark side, facing away from the string. The rounded inner side followed the natural growth rings of the limb. The timber itself was left to dry for two years.

The draw weight of a longbow was between 160-180 pounds, which is hard to accomplish by modern man. In the days of the longbow, in the Middle Ages, men and boys were obliged by law to do target practice with longbows at the village butts every Sunday. The target range for a man was to be no less than 220 yards by order of king Henry VIII.

The longbow was used to great effect as long range (400 yards) artillery by the British army at Crecy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415, raining lethal three ounce, three foot long arrows down on the enemy. As the armies drew closer the longbow could be used accurately to aim at particular targets. Not long after these great victories, which can be attributed to the archers and their longbows, bows were superseded as military weapons by firearms.

Flat bows, just as the longbow, can be over six feet long, are not recurved and can be made out of a single piece of wood. However, they are rectangular in outline, not ‘D’ shaped.

Short bows are similar to longbows or flat bows in every detail except size and because they are shorter, they do not have the potential or the distance of the other bows. Sort bows are easy to carry and easier to use in confined situations like woods or a forest, so they were used mostly for hunting small animals.

Recurve bows are more effective that any other bow inch for inch of length. The tips of a recurve point frontward when the bow is unstrung and look odd to the uninitiated. The recurve was very common from the Mediterranean to the Far East from about 2000 BC until 1700 AD. Nowadays, the recurve is the only type of bow allowed to be used in the Olympic Games.

Compound bows use quite stiff materials in their assembly so have pulleys or cams to help bend or draw the bow. This mechanical aid to drawing the bow to the best length means less physical strain on behalf of the archer, which means that the archer con focus on the target more.

Crossbows have the limbs mounted crossways on a piece of timber and the draw string is held by mechanical means until it is let loose with a trigger. The arrow, or bolt, is a great deal shorter. They are practically half-way houses to guns.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on various topics, but is presently concerned with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.