I’ve had an interest in archery for a while. I was enticed Thanksgiving day when I went to meet my friends for the Thanksgiving picnic and saw that the park where we had the picnic has an archery range. My father and his brother competed when they were growing up in Indiana and did pretty well; they both won first place in their age groups IIRC. I’ve shot on a number of occasions and I’m not too bad myself. I’d like a nice compound bow, complete with sights, as well as the little trigger thing for a better release. However, I wouldn’t feel like a real man unless I also achieved a high level of accuracy with a primitive bow and no aid. Any archers out there? Any advice as far as the best equipment, proper stance, etc? I’ll probably purchase mostly used equipment. I’ll be doing some research on my own, hitting a local archery store, but I thought I’d post this in the meantime.
Somewhere in my basement is a 40 lb oak longbow. It is by far the most painfully annoying piece of sporting equipment I’ve ever used. Let your elbow bend just a bit, and the string leaves a tasty red trail up your arm.
Beacuse I’m habitually lazy, but adamantly opposed to compound bows, I’ve been searching for a competition-quality longbow myself.
As a fellow searcher, the only advice I can offer right now is, “Don’t ask about longbows in hunting stores. They’ll laugh at you for about ten minutes.”
Make you a deal:If you find a place that sells good new/used longbows, give me a call or something. If I find one, I’ll do the same.
Sound good?
Just about every type of bow you might want to buy will be for sale on eBay sooner or later. That’s where I bought mine (nothing fancy, just a 50# Fiberglas recurve bow). A web search will turn up any number of sellers of bows.
I believe competition bows used to be made of Fiberglas with a wood core. That may have changed in the last 10 or 15 years, though. For self bows (made from one piece of wood), yew is usually considered to be the best material, with osage orange, lemonwood, and snakewood acceptable alternatives.
Someday I’d like to own a reproduction of a traditional medieval English yew longbow. Estimates are that the of the draw weight of those babies was anywhere from 65# to 150#, depending on which expert you ask. The consensus seems to be somewhere around 80#.
I did for a while - but now I dont have much time for it.
I was pretty okay for a newbie I guess 
(and like all newbies I can only use recurbe bows cause I am total muscle-less)
dodgy
Over the summer I got my 11 year old son his second bow - a compound to replace his recurve. About $150, with about 15 aluminum arrows. Probably a $250-300 bow new. Man, is it sweet! But it is obviously an incredibly complex piece of machinery this dumb lawyer doesn’t understand. All I can say is it is a dream to shoot. And my review of catalogues and magazines suggests that the area of bow components is essentially a unique culture with language and terminology all its own. So I can’t help you there. All I can do is repeat my recommendation, go for a decent quality compound if at all possible.
As a kid I always shot a recurve. Never tried anything as nice as my kid’s compound. It is so cool when you reach the set point, and can just hold it effortlessly at full draw. Dodgy, why do you believe recurves require less strength? Than what? Compounds can be adjusted in nearly infinite ways to perfectly suit the individual.
We picked my son’s up used. And it is like brand new. My impression is that many bowhunters are gadget-freaks, constantly buying new components. So develop a relationship with any archery stores/ranges in the area, and you should be able to pick up some bargain-priced used equipment.
Also, Strainger, seriously consider using the release instead of your fingers. At least experiment with both. This may all sound like sacrilege to you Robin Hood wannabes, but if your goal is being able to hit what you are aiming at, technology can be a “good thing.” A little hint, you’ll notice that bow hunters and serious target competitors don’t scrimp on the technology. No reason you need to handicap yourself to prove yourself a “real man.”
I used to shoot with a 30# recurve when I was a small lass. The problem with the string thwacking into your forearm can be sorted with the use of a forearm guard and by rotating your elbow outward (that way your forearm is angled down and out of the way and it’s a lot harder to bend your arm).
I’d like to get a simple recurve again, build up my upper body strength and perfect my sighting (as my hand-eye coordination is horrid atm), then move to a competition compound. It’ll be like going from a beat-up Dodge w/ no power anything to a spiffy new Cadillac…
Off to check ebay, thanks for the reminder, Bibliophage.
P.S. I’ve seen reproductions of English yew longbows for sale outside of Warwick castle. They cost about $110 at the time, more than I could afford, but day-um! Wish I’d asked about the draw capacities, but oh well.
Didnt know that wow
My problem always was strenght.
Like they always saied I had a really good “style” but I had big problems getting the bow in the right posission cause it was so damn hard.
I didnt have an own bow - but was allowed to use some old bows from where I trained. But right when I was okay with that one they just gave me a harsher one… grrr
I just started percution now - so instead of my shoulders my hands will hurt now
I too think that longbows rock by the way 
So what did you hit when you started?
Strange as it is, I never hit my arm - that s cause they didnt let me get near the bow until I could hold my arm in the right posission I guess - but I did hit my lips continuously hehe…
dodgy
Just a quick recommendation. Get some archery mags at your local book store. If you’re really looking at a compund bow, you’ll need to know really what you’re looking for. I’m not an archer myself, but a good friend of mine used to hunt with nothing but bows. When he showed me his new bow, I was amazed at how much actually goes into it. Complicated little suckers, they are.
If you don’t want to do the research, most places have pretty knowledgable employees. Ask a bunch of questions while you have their attention. Ask them what everything does and what options you have if you’d like to change something.
Not much help, I know, but it’s something. Good luck.
I used to shoot with a Ventura <insert model number here> longbow. It was not very difficult to find, actually. I didn’t own it, but it was purchased at my neighborhood sportsman’s store. Sure, the owner might have laughed, but he special ordered the bow anyway.
MR
I hear those Two Rivers Longbows are pretty powerful.
c_goat, you are asking for a serious beat-down.
BTW, you read Winter’s Heart yet? 
There’s a shop here in the Lansing, Michigan area that deals with “primitive” archery equipment. I have some friends in the Society for Creative Anachronisms that deal with them and recommend them. The yellow pages ad says they deal in longbows, recurves, and accessories. The name of the place is Traditional Archery Shoppe, 140 E. Benton, Potterville, MI 48876, 517-645-7729
My apologies to the mods. if this is too far over the line.
Museum Replicas has longbows for sale, in either Yew, ash or Elm. It looks like they’ll make them in any draw weight from 25-70 pounds, which is a little light compared to some of the 11o pound monsters the English used to use. They’re a little pricey as well. The Ash and elm ones were going for $344, and the Yew bow was around $500. Their web site is at http://www.museumreplias.com
Since I’m part of the military guild at the Bristol Renaissance Faire ( http://www.gsmbristol.org ), I’ve had a chance to shoot an 80 pound draw long bow a few times. It’s fun, but trying to be all historical and pulling it back to your cheek is definately work.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
Plavacek
Deal!
Dinsdale
Nah, I would get a longbow for the fun of it, basically to see how they did it in “the old days” and challenge myself to see how good I could shoot with it. I would also want a high-tech bow (as high-tech as I could get within my budget anyway) for serious target shooting.
Note to prospective bow hunters: It is my understanding that hunting with a primitive bow is illegal in some states, the theory being that they are not powerful enough to dispatch the animal humanely. Here in Maine, the rule is that you must be able to send an arrow 150 yards. I can’t do that with my 50# recurve, but the medieval English longbows were supposed to have a range of 250 yards.