Archery

Now obviously, even I am not legally allowed to bring a bow and arrow around on any patrol.
So archery is more of a skill for your own private property defense, building arm strength and hand eye coordination. Additionally it's fun.

So grab a bow and get arching, and share your experiences! Does anyone have archery experience, and what kind of bow do you shoot?

I prefer recurve bows, they feel more natural and can be reloaded quicker than compound bows, although compound bows generally have more power and are easier to aim with the help of sights.

I like to instinct shoot however, which involves shooting with no sights using instinct to determine what angle you have to hold your bow at.

Practice involves a couple of things, form, distance, precision...
Proper form allows you to shoot consistently.
For proper form (the basics) you need a consistent release point, good feet position, and you need to make a straight line from one hand (the one holding the string) to the other (holding the bow). Also, you cannot grip the riser of the bow (the handle) tightly.
The line that comes from your hands points towards your target.

Once you are comfortable with your horizontal position you need to make sure your vertical position is set. If you don't have aiming pins you need to do this by eye, which involves sort of knowing your bow's power to know how high it will impact targets at certain aiming angles from certain distances.

Precision is a combination of both. The only way to improve precision is to shoot targets at different distances over and over until you can hit a small grouping on targets from varying distances. Starting from 10m away and moving back 5m at a time is a useful way to do it, but you will notice that as you move backwards the grouping will get bigger and bigger. Over distances things like wind, the fletchings on your arrows, even any sand or mud caked on making extra weight on your arrows can affect the accuracy of your shot, making the grouping more variable.

Of course, the better you get with form the more this can be reduced. The stronger your bow is (its draw weight) and the weight of your arrows (along with its aerodynamic design, as an arrow with a broadhead won't fly as far as an arrow with a point tip) combines to determine how far you can shoot.

There is a maximum range, 45 degrees is the best angle you can shoot from for maximum distance, depending on air resistance, (it is probably more like 35-40 degrees with air resistance).

I have a 32 pound draw weight on my recurve (I wish to increase this eventually with a 50 pound draw weight, but bows are pricey), and I can get the arrows to reach a distance of about 120m away, of course at that distance accuracy is minimal, although I can hit a body sized target (I shoot at a stuffed bear which is way too small to be a bear) with accuracy from about 75m I just can't call where I will hit it. With a 55 pound compound bow I can hit the bear target in the central mass virtually every time. But again I prefer recurve as I find it takes more talent and it is faster to reload.

So when choosing a bow realize your own strength and decide how far away you want to shoot.

Have fun!

You might be interested in this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1KC1Os-_NE

I was doing archery for a while with a local SCA group, so they were old fashioned with recurve bows. I own a compound bow a friend gave me, but I prefer recurve. I was pretty good after a while.

Personally, I've only shot a bow once. I was fourteen, on a trip with a church group. We went to a park somewhere, and one of the activities available was archery. IIRC, the bows were compound bows, but my memory of that time is really hazy. My first shot was lined up, but fell short of the target. The second was at the high edge of the target.

Two years ago in Missouri they opened up handguns and crossbows for use during the alternative methods (used to be black powder only) season for deer hunting.  I brought down three does that first season, two on my tags and one on my inlaws land owner tag.  Since I had already stocked 4 deer in the freezer for the year during the normal firearms portion I donated all three deer to a program here in Missouri that feeds the needy.  It's a great volunteer program that tests and processes the deer meat and distributes it to needy families and homeless shelters.  So I get to enjoy even more hunting without overstocking and wasting meat in my freezers.  A lot of states have programs like this, it's a good way to give back and hone your marksmanship skills with a variety of weapons.  Now the limits on deer are different from state to state but in missouri you can pretty much drop as many as you buy tags for (for non antlered deer) because we have pretty serious overpopulation problem which is leading to diseases cropping up in the population.

Hi fellow archer trying to share tips, do you have any experience with homemade bows? Looking to hel pboth of us grow

My father has a recurve bow that I've tried out occasionally.  I never really got the bug, so to speak, but ever since reading Zen in the Art of Archery, I've wanted to learn how to do it properly.

@sage do you plan on experimenting with outher bows

Well, I've tried a compound bow, and while it seems much more accurate and powerful, I'm a traditionalist.  I don't like the mechanical nature of a compound bow.  It feels like cheating, honestly.  

I'm curious about the long bow though, as I think those were what Zen archers used.  Ultimately, I'm only interested in the discipline involved.  I'll have to root around in the garage, and see if I can find my dad's bow and arrows.  It would be a fun hobby

@sage i feel it man but im training to possible be in combat with a bow(not close courters thou) so a compact colasable bow would be my best choice

I had a recurve bow but had to leave it when I moved back to New Orleans. Looking to get a new one soon.

COOL UA are you still active in the SCA?  I am not Utah suck for the SCA.
But yes I am a fan of recervs and instinct shooting nothing like shooting at a person.  For that matter getting shot at.

ThePanther wrote:

Hi fellow archer trying to share tips, do you have any experience with homemade bows? Looking to hel pboth of us grow

I do not have experience with homemade bows but I have tried a traditional horse bow.
I much prefer to shoot with an arrow shelf, using a traditional no shelf bow is very difficult and much different then using a modern bow with an arrow rest

You know my dim view or archery. It's legal in like… NO states.

   But given that, and thinking that you are using it as only a means to defend either yourself or more importantly, another person in a life or death situation, in MOST states it becomes temporarily legal.

   Don't ask me how that works. It's all about the intent. And despite the outcome you will most likely still be charged about the weapon and intent. Which means you're screwed, go to prison. Not jail, prison.

Does this get rid of any of the "Arrow" fixation with you guys?

Ohhh, you think you're going to "Escape?" Then prison time is definitely your future. Good luck on that and the cops not having dogs. This is REALITY, not TV.

Well said, Geist. Additionally, it is not a practical skill. As much as I usually discourage them, if you want a lethal projectile weapon, just use a gun. Much more efficient and practical, and less of a legal hassle.
Not that archery isn't fun for target practice, or perhaps hunting.

I may get into it for discipline and sport, but for mentioned reasons I'd only use bow and arrows in a survival or post collapse situations; guns and ammo cost money, bows and arrows don't.

I've been interested in it as a sport, but I agree there seems to be no place for it for regular self-defence or a patrol. Hunting however is a different story. Although I'd prefer to use a gun or rifle for that.

Personally, outside of sport, archery just seems to me like it would be good exercise, at least for strengthening the arms and chest.

nobody is going to carry around a bow as a patrol weapon.
Although, there are a variety of ways you could make less than lethal arrows, something that is less easy to say about a gun.

For example, I have made concepts of pepperball arrows, blunt force arrows that don't penetrate, grappling arrows, although this requires an additional piece of equipment, a rope and climbing gloves.

As for not thinking there is practical use, you don't think someone holding a knife will drop it if you point a bow and arrow at them?

I would never use my bow on a patrol because its illegal to carry around and its big and unwieldly, but it is generally in my car because I often go to the range. As such I believe it is a very good weapon to know how to use in case I come across trouble while driving around.

Anyman wrote:

Personally, outside of sport, archery just seems to me like it would be good exercise, at least for strengthening the arms and chest.

its actually mostly upper back strength, if your doing it right, but arms and chest are used too

anyone interested in combat archery should watch this video by Lars Anderson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk 
he is the closest things to a real life green arrow you can get and has gotten to the level of shooting recurve bow arrows shot at him out of mid air with his own arrows.
In the video he even splits an incoming arrow own the middle with an arrow of his own.

Other awesome feats are shooting 3 arrows in 0.6 seconds among other things.

he proves that the bow is truly a weapon to be feared.