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Archery has been practiced for a long time. Bows have been found from at least 2,500 years before Christ, so 4,500 years ago. It is also likely that archery goes back several thousand years before that, but because most bows were made solely of wood, they have not lasted.

In the early days, bows were utilized for hunting and keeping raiders away. Nowadays, there are still some cultures that rely on hunting with bows and arrows to put meat on the table and there are also people who decide to do it that way for sport.

The equipment involved in archery is essentially a bow and an arrow, but it goes deeper than that. If you genuinely want to get into archery, you might want to think about making your own bow, your own arrows and your own practice targets.

There are superb kits for making your own bows, but there are too many varieties of bows for us to go into all of them in this article. However, be assured that if you do want to make your own bow, you will find a description of the materials and the techniques on the Internet.

You can also make your own arrows and that is an easier subject to deal with. If you begin with the shaft, it can be made of wood, aluminium alloy or carbon fibre, all of which can be bought easily. Then, at the sharp end, you can choose your tip or point.

The arrow head should match the job that the arrow is meant for. If it is meant to kill, then a broadhead, if it is meant to make a hole in a piece of paper, then a simple brass tip.

The flights can be bought separately too. You can feathers or plastic and with a little experience, you can use feathers that you have acquired yourself. Goose feathers were traditionally the ones preferred.

Finally there is the nock, which is the part of the arrow that connects with the string. The nock can be as simple as a ‘v’ or a ‘u’ cut in the arrow, or it can be a plastic or metal casting that is fitted over the end of the arrow.

The bow string is too hard to make oneself, unless you really want to go into that technology. The bow string is more easily bought.

Archery targets, the round ones, you connect with target archery are a different kettle of fish, because you definitely can assemble them yourself. You first have to get hold of a pile of straw and then grab handfuls of it. Truss these handfuls of straw into ‘ropes’ and make a circle like a Catherine Wheel out of them.

Stitch these together until they form the size target you require. Place this on an easel or nail it to a tree and then pin the traditional archery target to the front of it.

You can paint the traditional concentric circles on cloth, canvas or paper. It does not have to cost a lot to take part in archery. Remember that 5,000 or 500 years ago, people did not have much, yet they still enjoyed their sport or hobby of archery.

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

We are all being encouraged to get out more frequently, so many people are looking for a reason for doing it. You could choose 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 football 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 strenuous. Men like to take aim and shoot things even if not kill them. Golf is an option, but I want to recommend that you give archery a try.

Archery has the advantage 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 acquire some more upper-body strength, especially if the most strenuous 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 might buy your own bow and you may move from indoor target archery to outdoor target archery or even field archery, which is virtual hunting. From there, you will almost definitely meet people who take archery a stage 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 lead 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 means research.

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

You will also meet people who like to make their own arrows and even their own bows. This is another interesting feature of archery. You can purchase the different components that go to make up an arrow and you can buy a kit to assemble 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 lead you down yet another tangent to archery, but it will enhance your understanding of archery, increase your enjoyment of the sport and, as they say, add another string to your bow.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various topics, 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.

Archery can be classed as a sport or a hobby and it has its own class at the Olympic Games. Archers either hunt wild game animals or aim at targets or both. If you aim at targets in a competition, it is the collective score of all your arrows that determines your position in that competition. The nearer the centre of the target that the arrow hits, the higher the tally.

Target archery can also be sub-divided into two classes: field archery and target archery. In target archery, the archer stands in a preset spot. If there are a number of archers, they can stand in a row and all aim together on command from the person in charge of enforcing the rules and safety. Any type of bow can usually be used in target archery, although only compound bows may be used in the Olympic Games.

In field archery, the targets are of different sizes and are placed at different distances. The archer moves around the course, so there is no one set shooting spot. The targets may be the well-known round targets with concentric rings or they may be life-size effiges of wild animals like mountain lions, deer and rabbits.

The bows used in field archery are more often than not traditional style bows: longbows, flat bows and recurves, although archers may use any bow that they like. When stalking live animals, compound bows are usually used because they are smaller, so more manoeuvrable, yet they are still very powerful.

Archery targets are traditionally made from straw bundled and tied together to make ropes. These ropes of straw are then wrapped around themselves like a Catherine Wheel and sewn together. The cloth or paper target is pinned to the face of it.

The other name for these targets is ‘butts’ and many old towns and villages in Britain still have a recreational area called ‘The Butts’. Nowadays they play football or cricket on it, but Henry VIII decreed that all males must practice his archery skills every Sunday at the butts using a longbow, so that there would be a lavish supply of archers for his army.

In competition archery, every archer shoots at his or her own target, but every archer is expected to have uniquely coloured flights, so that if there is a problem an archer and the arrow can be identified. This is useful for retrieving arrows that have missed the target altogether.

There are usually six arrows shot by each competitor in a series and if they are to be shot from a variety of distances, it is usual to shoot from the furthest distance first. Men normally shoot from 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres, while women customarily shoot from 70, 60, 50 and 30 metres.

Archery as a sport appears to be growing in popularity, especially as there is a tendency in some countries, like the UK, to make it more difficult to get a gun license. They say that fashion goes around and comes back again, well British men are back at the butts practicing their archery skills again in greater numbers than there have been since perhaps the sixteenth century.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with archery bows 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 glued to the seat in front of your computer? If you never get out, then that is a shame and you ought to take that common piece of guidance and get out more often .

And do what? - you may inquire. 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 healthier than sitting down in front of your computer no matter what you are doing with your PC.

I will confess 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 too. I live in a country where foreigners, such as myself, are not permitted to own or carry anything that might be construed as a weapon. This includes 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 inside me desires to be able to hit a target from a long distance. I do not want to kill anything, but I am OK 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 accompany 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 times 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 contemporary man, who does not often pick up anything weightier than a pint of beer.

There are some fantastic 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 start are ‘Footed Shaft’ and ‘Three Rivers’ archery suppliers.

Both of these companies will send you your desired items through the post and they have any kind of archery supplies that you may need. 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 make your own arrows.

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

These and other on line archery equipment dealers provide good value for money and have very comprehensive stocks of archery products. Their catalogues and web sites are easy to navigate and use as well.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece 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.

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

Wales produced Twm Sion Catty; England had Robin Hood and Switzerland had 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 various parts of the world practically at the same time in the late Paleolithic Age or the early Mesolithic Age. It is remarkable that different kinds of bows were developed by the different societies around the world and each sort of bow was invented to suit the style of warfare that that society conducted and to the environment in which they hunted.

There are too many varieties of bow to give details of 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 penetrate 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 distance bow, utilized for hunting small animals in regions where a long 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 sufficient power (more than 50 pound draw weight) to enable 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 takes less skill and physical strength to use a crossbow.

The arrows are very influential 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 types or shooting: instinctive and sight shooting. Sight shooting refers to using sights of some kind to take aim, either by looking down the arrow or using optical fibre sights. Instinctive shooting is more difficult because it is intuitive. It cannot be learned, you have either got it or you ain’t.

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 about hitting a target with an arrow shot from a bow. The bow can either be an upright 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 types: target archery and field archery. The winner is the archer with the highest aggregate score of his arrows that struck the target.

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

Then they all advance 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, deer or mountain lions.

Traditional targets are made from straw. Handfuls of straw are tied with string and made into a kind of rope. This rope is then wound around and around itself until a target of the right size has been made. 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 middle 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 centre 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 gradient of about 15 degrees. The pinhole should 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 several topics, but is currently concerned with longbows for sale. 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 almost certainly have heard of Three Rivers Archery products. In Europe and the remainder of the world, you probably 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 superb quality products is reasonable and professional archers, hunters, hobbyists and sports people all use Three Rivers Archery goods. There are models of archery equipment to suit every purpose and every pocket.

The paraphernalia sold by Three Rivers Archery is of Olympic standard. That is to say that their recurve bows match up to 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 tips 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 indestructible. They sell whistling steel tips too, although I am not certain why anyone would ask for a whistling arrow point. What is the point?

If you are not certain where you can get hold of Three Rivers Archery products, go online. They have an outstanding web site which is massive 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 send your order to your door. You can order by post, by telephone or over the Internet.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on various subjects, but is currently 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.

Archeology all over the planet confirms that hunting tools, that is, weapons, were some of the first items that we made in the ancient history of mankind. Flint arrow heads and spear points 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 took are of 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 improbable that they often killed their quarry outright, they probably wore it out until it bled to death. This style of hunting deer is still practiced by some hunters in South Africa and to other places.

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

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

As farming developed, 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 items or, later, sold for money.

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

Most peoples of the world did not only create 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 dropped into the undergrowth or the water, other dogs really did the killing.

Later still, the aristocracy would hunt with no intention of eating the animal at all: foxes in Britain and lions in Afghanistan. This is still done today. Similarly 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.

Nowadays, few people need to hunt to survive, but it is still a popular pursuit, even though for many it is a once a year occasion. The most legendary hunting trips were and still are the safaris, although now more people shoot with video cameras than with rifles.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on various subjects, 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.