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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.

Archery is now a very widespread sport and hobby all over the world, but in the past, long ago, it was even more popular. Every army had bowmen and men hunted with bows for food. Every country or every territory invented its own peculiar design of bow and therefore, even nowadays, there are many different types of archery bows. Modern technology has meant that new types of archery bows are still being invented.

Some bows were invented by people who rode horses a lot. These bows were shorter, other bows were intended for long range shooting and these bows were longer. I will list some of the main varieties of archery bows below with a short explanation of each

The traditional Welsh or English longbow was made from a single length of yew (or other wood) at least the size of the bowman, but up to about six feet six inches (two metres). It was ‘D’ shaped in profile with the flat, bark side, facing away from the string. The curved inner side followed the natural growth rings of the branch. The timber itself was seasoned for two years.

The draw weight of a longbow was roughly 160-180 pounds, which is hard to accomplish by modern man. In the days of the longbow, in the Middle Ages, men and boys were obliged by law to carry out target practice with longbows at the village butts every Sunday. The target range for a man was to be no less than 220 yards by command of king Henry VIII.

The longbow was used to great effect as long range (400 yards) artillery by the British army at Crecy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415, raining lethal three ounce, three foot long arrows down on the enemy. As the armies drew nearer the longbow could be used accurately to aim at particular targets. Shortly after these great victories, which can be ascribed to the archers and their longbows, bows were replaced as military weapons by guns.

Flat bows, just as the longbow, can be over six feet long, are not recurved and can be crafted out of a single length of wood. However, they are rectangular in profile, not ‘D’ shaped.

Short bows are comparable to longbows or flat bows in every detail except size and because they are shorter, they do not have the power or the distance of the other bows. Sort bows are easy to carry and easier to use in confined situations like woods or a forest, so they were used mostly for hunting small animals.

Recurve bows are more effective that any other bow inch for inch of length. The tips of a recurve point frontward when the bow is unstrung and look odd to the uninitiated. The recurve was very common from the Mediterranean to the Far East from about 2000 BC until 1700 AD. Nowadays, the recurve is the only type of bow permitted to be used in the Olympic Games.

Compound bows use very stiff materials in their assembly so have pulleys or cams to help bend or draw the bow. This mechanical assistance to drawing the bow to the best length means less physical force on behalf of the archer, which means that the archer con focus on the target more.

Crossbows have the limbs mounted crossways on a length of timber and the draw string is held by mechanical means until it is released with a trigger. The arrow, or bolt, is much shorter. They are well-nigh half-way houses to guns.

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

Archery is as old as the hills. The oldest bows to have been found date back to about 2000 BC and bows are almost certainly older than that. Archery is so old that no-one knows where or when the bow and arrow was invented. It has always been used in hunting and warfare. Buddhist monks in the Far East have utilized archery in their martial arts regimes for centuries as well.

Archery is still being used by some tribes around the world for hunting purposes and many millions of ordinary people practice archery for leisure. Buddhist monks still utilize it in their meditation techniques. There are basically three types of archery recognized: primitive, traditional and modern archery.

Traditional archery includes such bows as the longbow and the recurve bow. Bows of both varieties have been discovered dating back to 2000 BC. It appears that the longbow was more prevalent in northern Europe and the recurve bow was more widespread in southern Europe and east from there all the way to Japan.

The modern compound bow can attain a heavy draw weight by using relatively little physical strength compared to traditional bows by the use of a set of pulleys or cams, however still many people prefer to use traditional bows. People appear to want to get back to the origin of archery.

Longbows are very simple items, traditionally made from one piece of yew or ash. Recurve bows could also be made from one length of wood, but more often, the tips would be crafted from wood and horn or bone. Remember that the tips of a recurve bow point to the front when the bow is unstrung.

Because of the recurved tips, a recurve bow is more powerful than a longbow weight for weight or inch for inch, but recurve bows are typically fairly short, so the standard longbow is much more powerful than the typical recurve bow.

However, both types of bow require quite an amount of physical strength to draw them to full power and hold that draw to take aim.

This cycle of drawing and holding without shaking or trembling requires a lot of strength and concentration, which normally has to be acquired. It can require years of practice to master traditional archery. The British longbow men of the 14 th and 15 th centuries trained all their lives.

In fact, Henry VIII made it law that all English and Welsh men had to practice with a longbow at the butts every Sunday shooting at targets at a minimum of 220 yards away. Nowadays, 90 metres (100 yards) is about the furthest archers shoot. It would often take ten years to become this skillful, but some archers could shoot an arrow 400 yards and more.

In order to cast an arrow that far, traditional longbows used in warfare had a draw weight of between 160 and 180 lbs, which would send a three ounce, armour-piercing arrow about 300 yards. Not many men could draw a bow like that these days These days, a typical draw weight for a longbow would be 100 lbs and for a recurve something like 60 lbs.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on various topics, 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.