Archers of the West

Main Menu

Members' menu

About Archery

Equipment

This is a big subject, and not one that we can cover in detail, but here are the essentials. We can always provide advice on what equipment is best for the individual archer. Certainly we recommend that new archers should not buy equipment until after completing the beginners' course and then only with our advice. At current prices a complete new set of personal equipment can be bought for about £130 upwards. Used equipment is available from various sources, but please seek our advice first.

There are three types of bow covered by our rules. We do not cater for crossbows.

Recurve

This is the Olympic competition bow, with curved limbs laminated in wood, fibreglass, carbon fibre and more exotic materials. The rigid handle provides a stable mount for the sight and other components and can be separated from the limbs to carry it around.

Compound

These have pulleys at the ends shaped in such a way that the bow stores more energy in the limbs, so the arrow flies faster. They are normally shot with scope sights and mechanical trigger devices to hold and release the string. They are generally capable of higher scores than recurves, and do not compete directly against them. As the weight held on the fingers is lower, compound bows are suited to many people who may have difficulty pulling a recurve bow.

Longbow

Basically unchanged for centuries, there is growing interest in shooting the traditional English longbow. They are difficult to shoot accurately, and tend to need higher draw weights than modern bows to compensate for the lower efficiency. There is a great joy, however, in shooting a bow made from such simple materials.