Archery

[chrismahon]

I think someone on the forum is/was an archer. I'm looking for something to do for recreation during the Autumn/ Winter closed season for clay target shooting. They have a closed target season here for safety reasons during the hunting season. So I thought archery was worth another try having done it 50 years ago and enjoyed it, even though I was pretty useless. Safety isn't an issue because we have plenty of space. Intend joining a club perhaps and will be making enquires shortly, despite needing a €40 licence to do so.

Settled on a modern recurve bow (handle with branches) and am searching for one suitable. 66-68", 24-28 lbs. There is a fair bit of advice on the internet which I am going through carefully, but what is lacking is some guidance on good brands of equipment. I can see Decathlon should be avoided and Win&Win will probably always be too expensive. Hoyte have their own assembly system so best stick to the ILT brands. I'm in the process of making a cardboard target and have started searching for material- need a lot of boxes! Any advice for this novice please?

 

[Icemaiden]

Hi Chris. It's good to hear from you after all this time. Rick posted a few days ago for the first time in ages too...

My only experience of archery was at a hotel a few years ago, where it was one of the activities on offer. I came second in a beginners' competition & won a half bottle of rum .

I'd have liked to carry on with it when I got home, but in Kent they shoot outside in the summer & wouldn't allow beginners to shoot outside. So that was the end of that...

If you get good at it, you'll be able to kill rats & stop the chasse dogs in their tracks if they come after your flocks...

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Chris. It's good to hear from you after all this time. Rick posted a few days ago for the first time in ages too...

My only experience of archery was at a hotel a few years ago, where it was one of the activities on offer. I came second in a beginners' competition & won a half bottle of rum .

I'd have liked to carry on with it when I got home, but in Kent they shoot outside in the summer & wouldn't allow beginners to shoot outside. So that was the end of that...

If you get good at it, you'll be able to kill rats & stop the chasse dogs in their tracks if they come after your flocks...

Hi Icemaiden. Why they wouldn't let beginners shoot outside puzzles me? Common sense would say "make the sport as attractive as possible to newcomers". Congratulations on your win.

Always very busy here. On the face of it this place was in good condition, but neglect, ignorance and downright laziness of previous owners had taken its toll. Big job to turn things around but we are making serious progress now and the more we do the more time we have and the faster things progress, hence having time for clay pigeon shooting and now archery. No rush to get started. Todays job is to rebuild the oven enclosure properly and then install the new one we bought. The old one was good quality when new but it takes ages to warm up and consumes a lot of electricity. Warms the kitchen though!

No problem with chasse dogs here because we are surrounded by livestock and electric fences. No rats anymore either, but a big problem with mice and field voles which would be too small and fast to hit with an arrow. Archers do hunt here. Crossbows are banned for safety reasons but compound and recurve bows are used, although they are far more powerful than target bows and the recurves are much shorter with no sights or balance weights ('bare bow archery').