Inspecting and Preventing Damage

After repeated use of your equipment it may become damaged putting yourself at others at risk. It is important to make frequent inspections of all of your equipment to make sure there is nothing wrong which could cause problems in any part of its usage. Checking all of your equipment every time you use it before and after can prevent injury and make your equipment last much longer saving you money.

Inspecting the limbs of the bow is always important, repeated flexing of them during drawing puts a lot of stress on them and may cause splintering especially if it doesn’t follow the curve of the bow when drawing. You should also avoid pulling back the string farther than the intended design or dry firing. Dry firing is when you shoot without an arrow. This puts all of the stress that’s normally put into the arrow directly back into the limbs which can end up in broken limbs or worse (Engh 100). As long as you take care of your bow and make sure to check it thoroughly it will be fine. Make sure there are no splinters, check screw tightness, and make sure parts aren’t too worn.

Obviously to be able to shoot effectively you are going to need arrows that are in good shape. Shooting them can over time put a large amount of wear on them from hitting hard objects or pulling them out any way other than straight out. After shooting them “Look for tightly glued vanes or feathers and tightly glued points and nocks. Also, inspect for any broken nocks or cracks or splits along the length of the arrow. Finally, examine the arrows for straightness (Engh 102). Shooting a broken arrow is a good way to get hurt or damage other equipment. You could try to repair arrows if you know what you are doing but replacing them is probably a better idea. Bent arrows can be straightened over time, but the condition they are kept in will need to be changed or else they will most likely get warped again.

How often do you check your archery equipment? Do you think this is often enough?

Engh, Douglas. Archery Fundamentals. IL: Human Kinetics Inc, 2005. Print.

Putting Accessories On a Bow

Choosing accessories to go on a bow can greatly enhance your capability if chosen well, but may also be a hindrance if you just buy something fancy without thinking about what type of shooting you are going to be doing, and possibly discuss it with others. When starting off you will learn better what to do if you are not using extra gadgets. However once you are proficient enough that you think you can add some accessories there is quite a large range to pick from. A few of the ones you can get include arrow rests, armguards, finger tabs, quivers, sights, plungers, clickers, and chest protectors.

One of the few of these that I have is an armguard. Engh when talking about armguards says that it is “…a very simple accessory and does nothing more than keep the string from striking your arm or sleeve…If the string were to glance off your sleeve, it would also affect the consistent speed of the string and cause your accuracy to suffer as a result” (Engh 91). If you have any experience with a bow you have probably shot wrong at least a few times. I personally know that the pain from having the bow string snap against your arm is quite painful and having it strike your sleeve, whereas better, does mess up the shot pretty badly. This makes the armguard a very useful accessory as well as being easy to use and normally quite cheap, I always wear one when I’m actually shooting.

Another accessory that I own is a quiver. Although what you are thinking of when I say quiver might be different than what I actually have. Most people probably think of a bag like device on your back holding all of your arrows like Robin Hood, however Engh states that quivers fall into three main groups. These groups are bow quivers, side quivers, and ground quivers. The side quiver is what most people think of just attached to your side, allowing for easy and safe carry, making it what is generally recommended. I own a bow quiver which is a holder for your arrows built right onto the side of the bow, only really useful for hunting as it can mess up the balance and function of the bow. There is also a ground quiver which is just something that holds the arrows upright on the ground, made from things like traffic cones, tubing or formed wires (Engh 92). Quivers make it a lot easier to carry more arrows without having to go and grab the ones you have already shot. Although I have a bow quiver I would recommend a side quiver as like previously mentioned the quiver being on the bow does mess up my shooting.

The sights on my bow

My plastic armguard

My bow quiver holding 4 extra arrows

What kind of accessories have you used/owned in the past? Do you think you should get more?

Engh, Douglas. Archery Fundamentals. IL: Human Kinetics Inc, 2005. Print.

On The Subject of Stances and Drawing a Bow

Building a strong base is a very important factor as you need a stable platform to support the parts of your body actually handling the bow. You’re going to want to place your feet far enough apart to keep balance comfortably and have your weight evenly distributed between them. Aligning your feet square to the target is how most archers stand but some variation is okay, finding what is most comfortable for your body and preference is important (Engh 52).

Once you have your stance down you’re going to want to know how to properly draw the bow. “The traditional way to draw a recurve bow with the fingers is to hold two fingers under the nock and one finger above…Try three fingers under at first, and when you’re comfortable with that, move to two fingers under and one finger over the arrow nock” (Engh 55). He mentions that beginners should try the three fingers under because the arrow falls off the rest if you move your fingers weird with one over. This is evident when I was first starting out and just started off with having one finger over and the other two under and the arrow kept falling off. Whereas I eventually got to the point where I knew what not to do to keep it from falling I believe starting off with all three under I probably could have evaded the problem for the most part.

What kind of grip and stance do you take when you are shooting your bow?

Engh, Douglas. Archery Fundamentals. IL: Human Kinetics Inc, 2005. Print.

Beginning to Shoot and Laying Groundwork

Upon beginning archery I put a fair amount of time into it in the beginning but I never really put a lot of groundwork into it. I remember in 6^th grade at camp they gave us a bow and put a target down range and it was like a competition. However, we never just took a moment to really get a good feel for it and just practice so that’s what I thought archery was, all focused on accuracy and such right from the beginning. When using targets, I wasn't great and it frustrated me, I never put the groundwork down when I probably should have. 

When I was first learning to shoot I felt a little too prideful and like I needed to exceed and be good at it right from the start, and a little too impatient to finally get good and shoot something really far away. In the book the author mentions, “Following a consistent routine is the key to becoming a great archer. If you are new to archery, just concentrate on developing proper shooting form. Don’t worry right now about accuracy or even how far away the target is placed” (Engh 39). This is key to success as being impatient will never allow you to reach full potential, practice makes perfect and you have to lay the groundwork before you can actually achieve anything. He mentions hay is a good target because it is unmarked, just shoot into it, not from a distance, maybe 15 feet, just shoot it and practice good form, don't worry about distance, or accuracy, that will come from practicing this now. 

Although later accuracy is of course quite important in shooting, putting arrows just down range will help but you still.It mentions how proper string release is vital to accuracy in archery. And that one way to learn to release a string smoothly with the back of the hand still relaxed is the bucket drop. By filling a bucket to about 10 pounds and then lifting it a few inches off the ground but keeping the back of the hand relaxed, and then releasing the bucket allowing it to fall. Doing this repeatedly will eventually make your release much smoother (Engh 38). After doing this repeatedly for a few minutes and picking back up the bow, as the book said it did feel like I was releasing a lot more smoothly. 

Do you feel like you rushed yourself a little bit when you were first learning to shoot? If yes, if you could go back and take it a bit slower to get a good feel and become an expert at the basics, why?

Engh, Douglas. Archery Fundamentals. IL: Human Kinetics Inc, 2005. Print.

Choosing and Understanding Basic Archery Equipment

So far in my life I have had a small amount of practice in archery, I’ve taken a small class and I’ve practiced with my recurve bow in my backyard. In the book Archery Fundamentals by Douglas Engh, the first two chapters of the book are focused on what the equipment is, and how to choose the right one effectively.

Picking the right bow is a very important element however according to Engh, “No single bow is perfect for all uses. Archers usually decide what kind of archery appeals to them and then choose the equipment that best matches that goal. Many archers eventually own several types of bows” (4). The three types of bows are a longbow, recurve bow, and compound bow. The difference is that a longbow is a single piece of wood carved into shape giving the user a more authentic feel, the type of bow Robin Hood uses. The recurve bow of course curves back, the tips of the bow come back around giving a smoother release and power transfer, as well as the bow itself is often able to be taken apart. A compound bow on the other hand uses a variety of wires and mechanical wheels to take off some of the weight so that you don’t have to hold the full weight the entire time and possibly struggle holding it while aiming. It takes off the weight once you pull it at first and then puts it back in upon release. As stated before I have a recurve bow but I now understand that I may need to get multiple more bow types to suit all of my needs.

Me doing the test using an arrow instead of the yard stick first

On the topic of arrows Engh states that the specific arrow size needed for each person is slightly different. However, you can figure out what an appropriate length for you would be by putting a yardstick against your chest and pointing it out. Once you have this you put your arms out to see how far they reach on it, and then take the measurement you get and add two inches to get the arrow length you need, this is also called your draw length (16). I found this very helpful to me personally because before I was using whatever arrows I had, in this case half of them were right and the other half were a few inches too short, crippling me from reaching full draw length giving me a weaker shot. Of course there are multiple other parts of an arrow that can be different such as width, head type, and flexibility but this is a good starting point because others will depend on what type of target you are shooting at and what type of bow you have.

What type of bow do you use and why? If you don't do archery what type of bow do you think you would want to use and why?

Engh, Douglas.Archery Fundamentals. IL: Human Kinetics Inc, 2005. Print