Okay, so today I found a small bow that my friend has, that he used to kind of do archery with back in the grade school day. I shot it a few times and absolutely loved it. So today, I got back and asked if my parents still had thier old bows (they used to do archery, which is one cool thing I can say about them :D), and they pointed me to it. They both have thse giant wooden longbows, about 4 or 5 feet tall each. I've never been so impressed with a weapon before, so I'm thinking about taking up archery on my own time (I don't think we could afford lessons). Anyone here do archery, and if so, got any tips for me? Tell me what it's like? Much obliged.

Use one of those forearm protectors or you'll be sorry. Also, as with any projectile weapon, find out which of your eyes is dominant. If you're cross-dominant (meaning you're right-handed and left eye dominant or vice versa), make a decision to shoot from the same side as your dominant eye, or train your weaker eye up (with eyepatches, tape on the glasses, and other methods).

aye.... archery is fun. One of the things I'd like to get into if I ever end up with more money then I know how to spend.

Yeah, I can already shoot a rifle accurately, so I know which eye is dominant... that should help.

I used to do a bit of archery, back in the day... haven't done any in the last two years or so though, unfortunately.

Tips:

-don't shoot at other people
-never shoot straight up in the air

Wow, thanks! Those tips are very helpful, I'm sure they'll help me on the road to becoming a pro archer.

...cough. :p

I did several archery for several years.

Some people are just natural shootings and can shoot fine without doing all this, but 99% of us will need to do this, especially beginers:

Stance is important. You body should look the same every shot you take. Feet should be shoulder width apart pefectly parrellel. Your body should be perfectly straight. You shouldn't be leaning foward or backwards. You but shouldnt be sticking out. Your shoulders shouldnt be slouched, and should be up and you could make a straight line across them.

Holding the bow.. You should not pull back on the string untill you have the bow basically aimed at the level you will be shooting at. Your arm holding the bow should be perfectly straight. Do not tightly grip the bow . It should be a natural feel. Don't close your fingers tighly around the grip. Curl them and anyone should be able to walk up and move your fingers without resistance.

Your elbow off your arm pulling the string back should be at an angle above your shoulder. You should try to maintain this same spot even as hard as it can be everytime you draw the bow.

The string should come into three contant points with your face. Your Nose, lips, and chin.

Now concentrate on aiming. ARCHERY IS NOT A RACE. You're trying to hit a target, nothing more. Take all the damn time you can without stressing out from holding the weight of the bow with a couple fingers. That brings me to another point, you should be holding the bow with the tips of your fingers. This takes practice and strength. You shouldn't be cramming as much finger as possible past the string to hold it. When you release all you should have to do is release the tension in your fingers and the string should silde off. THEN YOU FOLLOW THROUGH. As soon as you release your fingers bring your hand back. Keep the bow aimed, and looking at the target UNTILL the arrow hits.

Hehe...

Study the Battle of Agincourt. You'll find some useless funny trivia in there.

About how the bird came along.


>.>

Yeah, archery is fun. But the Greeks would dissagree. They would say that this is a "Coward's Weapon". But nevermind them, the new bows, even improved, don't seem right if you havn't shot a nice yew longbow.

Thanks, Squirrel King. Those tips are all I need to get started for now. The rest seems to be common sense and instinct. When I shot my friend's bow, I did almost all of those things naturally, so it should be no problem.

I could've used that advice BEFORE I got arrested at the hospital.

I've been also thinking about taking up archery. My grandfather's old bow just needs to be restrung and it should be good. Unfortunatley for me, I'm cross dominan(right handed, left eye).

I'm cross-dominant as well, and it's not such a big deal. I didn't really realize I was until very recently, and I had already done quite a bit of billiards/archery/paintball. I naturally started playing billiards/archery lefthanded without really knowing why it was so much easier. For paintball I shot both left and right handed.

Bracers are nice if you can get your hands on them. Alot of people will shoot for a long time, not really notice too much pain, and then wake up the next day with MASSIVE forearm bruising

Got a compound bow back home (as do my brother and sister), but I haven't shot it in a while.

There is way too much stuff you need to know about archery for it to be taught over the internet effectively. If you're going to college, see if they have an archery class.

Squirrel, I'm pretty sure your supposed to fire off the shot as quickly as possible in one motion, not stand there holding it back pulled and aim. It makes for a weaker shot.

Not true Duke. Snapshots are incredibly ineffective. It takes a few seconds to aim it just right and then release. With enough arm strength this is no problem and no power will be lost.

Yea, as he said...That is probably the WORST way you could make a shot, in one fluid motion.

I used to do this before I took lessons. Sometimes I could pull off great shots doing it, sometimes I'd shoot several feet from where I was aiming. Do it the slow way, you get great shots ALL the time.

[QUOTE=Raoul Duke]Squirrel, I'm pretty sure your supposed to fire off the shot as quickly as possible in one motion, not stand there holding it back pulled and aim. It makes for a weaker shot.[/QUOTE]

i don't even practice archery and i can tell you this is wrong. The power behind a shot comes strictly from how far the string is pulled back (and to some small extent the placing of hands, but that doesn't have to do with the motion). Elementary physics.

You may also want to consider getting a release aid: http://www.lancasterarchery.com/shop/default.php?cPath=48

Not only will it save your fingers a bit from the string, but it also makes for a more accurate shot, as the friction between the release aid and the string is much lower than that of your fingers, and thus won't affect the string as much as it is being released.

Or if you're cheap you could just pull it back with a stick of butter and then slowly the string will cut through the butter. But in the end you'll just have butter all over yourself.

Ric, one of the bows comes with archery gloves.