Archery Equipment

As an archer your bow will always remain one your most precious possessions. Learning to look after your bow will make it last much longer. Here are some tips to help you take care of your bow.

Looking after the bow

* Never lay your bow on the floor or ground. Dust and other material can damage the bow. If you leave your bow lying around people may slip on it and ruin it beyond repair.
* Ensure that your bow does not get wet. If it does fall into water or you are caught in the rain, try and dry your bow as soon as possible. Despite a waterproof finish, water can damage the alignment of a bow particularly if it has metal content.
* Use a good wax or bow polish to maintain the finish of the bow.

Looking after the bow string

The string of the bow gets damaged very easily. Always use a special bow string wax to keep the string taut and waterproof. Do not let others handle your bow carelessly as your best performance depends on the condition of the string more than the body of the bow. Regular polishing of the string will also prevent it from getting entangled.

Looking after the arrows

Arrows are available in different qualities and price ranges. You can buy cheap wood arrows and throw them after only a few days’ of use. You do not need to worry about these arrows getting lost either. However, you may like to buy costly arrows particularly if you want to prepare for a tournament.

Do not allow the arrows to get wet. The slightest of damage to the arrow can affect your performance in a major way.

Target mats and faces

Mats catch fungus easily if left in the rain or allowed to get wet. Clean your mats regularly along with all your other archery items. Target faces tear easily particularly after a few weeks’ use. You can use tape to repair small tears though. Always be careful about the alignment of the target mats and faces to ensure accurate results. You can increase the life of the target faces by using patches.

Checking the nock

The nock wears out easily and should be checked regularly. If you intend replacing a nock, choose one to match the rest of the arrows. You can remove a nock by using a lighter to melt the glue holding it in place. When working on the arrows always keep the arrows pointed upwards and avoid the flame touching any other section of the arrow. Once the glue has melted you can use pliers and sandpaper to take off the old nock. Clean the area and use your finger to spread out fresh glue before putting a new nock in place. Check the alignment several times before the glue hardens. You can check the alignment of the nock by rotating the arrow.

How to replace a feather

Correct alignment is the key to replacing an arrow feather properly. Always use a glue of good quality. Also take care not to put in a left-wing fletching for a right-wing fletched arrow. Use a blunt knife to remove the worn out feather without ruining the shaft of the arrow. Place the new feather properly on the jig and check the alignment with other feathers before gluing in place. Use a clamp to keep the feather in place till the glue dries.

Should you replace arrow points?

If an arrow body is in good shape but the point has been damaged you surely need to replace the arrowhead. Also, if an arrow point is in good condition there is no point in throwing it away. You can remove the arrowhead and use it with another arrow. An arrowhead cannot if replaced if the shaft has been damaged.

Importance of arrow rest

Like every other part of your bow, the arrow rest must be checked regularly so that the arrow pressure point must be exactly on the pivot. The arrow must be exactly perpendicular to the string when placed on the arrow rest.

How to place a sight on the bow

Placing a sight on the bow requires some technical knowledge though it looks like an easy task. The sight has to be mounted exactly straight to ensure that the path of the arrow is correct when you shoot. According to your convenience you need to decide whether you want to place the sight on the back or front of the bow. If you place it in the front you can move the sight block lower and get your arrows to cover an extra distance of seven meters. However, if you are looking for greater accuracy at a short distance then you must place the sight at the back of the bow. The sight pin should always be higher than the arrow when the sight block is at its lowest on the bow.

Skilled archers make it seem simple; however, shooting an arrow from a bow requires technique. It may appear easy, but it’s not. Many people, especially archers, fail to recognize the numerous components that affect how an arrow flies, including how far it goes as well as its path. This section supplies basic information about archery flight or the distance an arrow will soar. Content contained in this document also founded our interactive arrow shooting game. Enjoy as you learn simple physics and improve your shot.

First, we began with the bow. A simple, powerful machine, some may call it a two-arm spring. The bend or curve of the bow stores the archer’s energy. When the archer discharges the arrow, energy transfers to the arrow as a form of kinetic energy or force resulting from a motion.

Undeniably, the bow serves as one of the most significant factors that determine how far an arrow flies. To ensure that we keep difficulty and frustration to a minimum, we used the simplest bow and arrow in our simulation game.
This article also addresses factors such as the 1) angle from which the arrow is fired; 2) starting velocity or the speed that the arrow flies; 3) arrow’s weight; 4) arrow’s length; 5) length of the feathers on the arrow; and 6) height of the arrow’s feathers.
How can velocity be determined? Velocity is measured by the force and efficiency of the bow and the arrow’s mass. Just to keep it simple, we have already calculated the velocity in our simulation. Keep in mind that higher initial velocity increases the likelihood of an arrow traveling faster and farther.

The initial angle is another key factor. Generally, many people think that a higher initial angle increases the arrow’s speed. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, it’s a fact that an arrow pointed in the air will fly farther, but when pointed too far, the arrow will travel a much shorter distance.

Once an arrow points high, it travels up and comes down; it loses momentum or energy as it drifts back towards the ground. Due to that loss in energy the arrow cannot go forward. Plainly stated, an arrow aimed too high comes down quickly at an extremely short distance. For additional clarity, think of a mountain with a pointy peak. If an arrow was shot at the same angle that the mountain sloped, the arrow would stop at the peak, landing on the other side of the mountain. Imagine, on the other hand, an extremely long U-shaped hill. An arrow fired at an angle similar to the mountain’s slope would travel a much greater distance, because the ends of the “U” are more spread out.

Next, another factor for consideration is the weight of the arrow. Dealing with weight in physics can get sort of complicated. Many archers usually want an arrow with a light shaft or beam and a heavy tip. Regrettably, as with all simulations, some realistic features cannot be replicated. Our game does not currently incorporate the weight factor. Weight has been generally represented in the game. We have defined a specific point between heavy and light arrows which represents the arrow’s ideal weight. Remember, if an arrow is too light it may not maintain the course when it flies, and you will have a hard time making an accurate shot. In contrast, an arrow that is very heavy is likely to cause the arrow to drag and fall sooner than a lighter arrow. Again, the weight affects the accuracy of the shot. You have to find the perfect balance. An ideal arrow’s weight should be midway between light and heavy. The archer’s preference determines the desired weight of the arrow.

Length of the arrow’s feathers is one more factor that affects how an arrow flies. Larger feathers require extra space and create more resistance when the arrow soars. Thus longer arrows travel shorter distances.

Feather height defines one of the game’s final components, but that is definitely not the case in real life. Similar to the feather’s length, taller feathers make arrows drag and fly shorter distances.

When people think of archery one thing that comes to mind are arrows. You can have a bow, but without the arrow you are not able to do anything with the bow. One piece of archery equipment is the arrow. Knowing what arrow to buy and use will help making your archery experience great.

There are all types of arrows available. Depending on the bow you are using will tell you the kind of arrows you will use. Also depending on what you want to do will tell you the type of arrow you will use. There are arrows for sport, meaning hitting a target, a bull’s eye while others use the arrows to kill their game, or go hunting for animals. Besides the type of bow you use, the type of arrow you use will make a difference in how you do when you are either going for a bull’s eye or hunting.

You can buy arrows a variety of places. When you buy your bow, you should buy arrows that go with it. But you can also buy extra arrows. Arrows can be bought at sporting good stores, Co-op’s, your Super Center stores like Target or Wal Mart, and even online. You do want to make sure that if you order your arrows online that they will be shipped properly and safely. You do not want to receive a broken arrow due to the way it was delivered. Many of the stores you go into also have buying online as an option. This is a great option if you do not live near a store you would like to buy them from. Just make sure you know the policy of the store about what they are responsible if something were to happen during shipping.

It is wise when buying arrows to go with your bow you are buying arrows that will be a perfect match for the bow. If it is possible, you want to buy arrows that are the same brand as the bow. Also, if you have a compound bow you by arrows that go well with that kind of bow. Also, when you have a youth bow you want an arrow that will go with a youth bow.

Arrows are what make the bow complete. In order to really do archery, you need a piece of equipment called an arrow. There are a variety of arrows available for use, finding and buying the right one is important. You can do a lot with the right arrow.

History of Archery

Modern historians believe that the bows used by the first archers were invented in the later periods of Paleolithic or the early days of Mesolithic periods. In Europe, the earliest indications about bows date back to 10,000 B.C. In the Egyptian culture, bows are believed to have existed at about the same time. Most of the early civilizations, including the Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Persians, Hungarians, Parthians, and Assyrians, had been known to have deployed huge number of archers in their armies during wars. Even though the exact date of origin of the bow in India had not been properly determined, the Sanskrit term, ‘Dhanur Veda’ for archery brings out the fact that archery was taught extensively as an essential martial art several millennia ago. The mythical characters of ancient India, Rama, Arjuna, and Karna were all considered as great experts in archery. Similarly, the deities and heroes in Greek history like Apollo and Artemis, Cupid and Diana in Roman mythology, Agilaz in Germany, Arash in Persia, William Tell and Robin Hood in England, Marduk in Babylon, and Hyak in Armenia were all excellent archers. Yi the archer in Chinese mythology and Jumong of Korea were local archery heroes in their country.
Modern International Competitive Archery

Archery as an art and as a hunting equipment declined after the invention of the gun but was still used by many that loved traditional hunting methods. However, the delicate skills and techniques required to become expert archers was appreciated by sports lovers. Archery witnessed a revival and became part of many sports competitions, including the Olympics. Modern competitive archery requires the archers to shoot arrows at fixed targets from set distances. This is termed as target archery.

In the United States and Europe, another type of competitive archery known as field archery is practiced, where the archers shoot at targets in wooden settings with the target distances varying in each competition. The tournament and competition rules vary from one organization to another. However, most of the modern archery competitions adopt the rules of the International Archery Federation. This Federation is called as FITA or Federation Internationale de Tir a l’Arc. Even the archery rules implemented in Olympic Games follow the FITA rules.
Archery Competitions that follow Target Archery

The modern competitions that follow the target archery model are held both indoors and outdoors. The target distances for indoor competitions are usually between 18 meters and 25 meters. The distances in outdoor archery competitions vary between 30 meters and 90 meters. The targets are square or round boards, having 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, usually in different colors for each ring. The scores start at 1 for the outermost ring and end at 10 in the innermost ring. Apart from these 10 rings, there is another small ring in the innermost section, which is known as ‘bull’s eye’. The size of the target boards also vary in each competition. The standard FITA indoor target board is 40 cm for a distance of 18 meters. For outdoor competitions of FITA and Olympic Games, the target board size is 122 cm for distances in the range of 70 meters to 90 meters. Each archer is allowed to shoot 3 or 6 arrows in one session, within a set time limit. At the end of the session, the archers walk to the target to note down their scores and retrieve the arrows for the next session.
Field Archery Competitions

Apart from the target archery competitions, the other famous archery competitions are field archery competitions. They involve shooting at targets in open fields with rough terrain. The target distances vary for each competition. In field archery, three types of rounds are practiced, namely field rounds, hunter rounds, and animal rounds.

Field Rounds – usually fix the targets up to a maximum of 80 yards with the target having a bull’s eye, a white ring outside the bull’s eye, and a black outer ring. The points are 5, 4, and 3 for hitting each one of these rings, respectively.

Hunter Rounds – normally have shooting distances up to 70 yards for adults. The target usually has a black background, with a white bull’s eye. Scoring is similar to the field rounds. The target distances for children and youth are kept at about 30 yards and 50 yards, respectively.

Animal Rounds – follow the real hunting pattern and use two-dimensional, life-size animal picture targets and the distances are ‘uneven’ to imitate the real hunting environment. The archer starts from the longest distance, termed as first station, and shoots. If he scores a hit, he need not shoot again. If he misses, he advances to the second station and to the third station, depending on success or failure. In this type of competition also, children and youth are allowed to shoot from reduced distances. The scores for hitting from each station are 20, 16, and 12, if the competition follows the vital scoring rules. In non-vital scoring rule, the scores are 18, 14, and 10.

The main aim of field archery is to help the archers improve their techniques in a realistic outdoor setting. However, since the archer needs to walk across rough terrain to retrieve the arrows after every round, fatigue is an issue like gold in this type of competition.
Other Types of Archery Competitions

The other types of archery competitions listed by FITA are 3D archery, clout archery, crossbow archery, flight archery, and ski archery. Still, these types of competitions are not as famous as the first two types of archery competitions. The traditional competitions in archery not mentioned by FITA include Beursault in Northern France and Belgium and Popinjay or Papingo in Belgium, along with Roving Marks and Wand Shoot in England.

Some recreational groups practice a peculiar type of combat archery, in which two groups of archers, divided as ‘heavies’ and ‘lights’, participate. Lights wear armor, while heavies do not wear any armor. The archers in each group shoot at those in the other group with arrows that are cushion-tipped to avoid bodily injury. The bows used are generally longbows of low power. The maximum draw-weight allowed in combat archery is about 30 pounds or 14 kg. The rule in this archery is that the archers should not shoot at ‘lights’ and only the ‘heavies’ should be targeted. This type of combat archery competition could become quite popular, since this involves actual moving targets and battle scenes could also be recreated.

The bow is considered to be one of the first inventions by humans and it is equated with the invention of the wheel and fire in importance in the life of primeval people. Literatures, mythologies, art, and warfare of ancient cultures invariably included the bow and the arrow as an indispensable part of the lives of people in those times. The early bows were quite simple in construction. A slender stick, termed as the stave, which was capable of bending without getting broken was selected. A cord was attached to both ends of the stick with a fixed amount of tension. When the cord or the string was drawn, the stave would bend. The arrow would be placed in the center of the string, lining it with the stave. When the arrow was released from the string, the impelling force would help the arrow to be shot to various distances and hit targets.

The early bows were mainly used for hunting smaller animals and birds for food, as well as to ward off the danger from larger and ferocious animals such as lions, tigers, and bears from attacking the humans. Evidence of the use of wooden and composite bows had been obtained by historians from many parts of the world, such as Western Europe, North and South America, China, India, the islands of Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, and many areas of Africa. The first bow and arrow technology appears to have existed around 40,000 BC. Variations such as flint-tipped arrows, feathered arrow shafts, and fire-hardened tips are believed to have been developed between 25,000 and 18,000 BC.

Types of Bows

Bows are generally classified as wooden bows and composite bows. The earliest bows were always wooden bows, with the stick cut from saplings and fashioned into the required shape. The strings were usually animal guts. The early bows varied in size, with both short bows and long bows used by various persons, depending on their individual strength and the exact requirements.

The composite bows were a later development, with other materials used along with wood or the entire structure produced from different types of materials. The primitive composite bows used horns and sinews. The horn was fixed at the belly of the bow since it resisted compression and quickly sprung back into its original shape when the pressure was released. The sinew was placed at the back portion of the bow due to its high elasticity. The sinew also regained its original shape in quick time after being stretched. The addition of these two materials to the standard bow made the new composite bow a highly powerful weapon, compared to the original wooden bow.

The bows used by ancient Chinese differed significantly from the bows in the other regions. They used a strip of fresh, flexible bamboo for the back in place of sinew and a year-old, dried bamboo for the belly as a replacement for the horn. They applied vegetable glue and lacquered the entire bamboo to make it last longer. They further used nocks or notches at both ends of the bow to attach the string.

Development of Archery as an Art and Sport

Bows were continued to be used during the subsequent several centuries in battles and in hunting, until muskets were invented in 1520. The first major war in which muskets decided the outcome was when the English fleet vanquished the Spanish armada in 1588. By 1595, most of the archery units had been replaced by musketeer units. The last battle with English archers was in 1644 at Tipper Muir.

However, Henry VIII was the first king who encouraged archery as a sport. Several archery groups existed during his reign and the first official group was named ‘Patent of King Henry VIII Concerning Archerie’. The other major archery group formed in 1652 was ‘The Society of Finsbury Archery’. The archery group, ‘Royal Toxophilite Society’ was formed in 1781 by Sir Ashton Lever and it exists even now.

In the United States, archery became a sport when the United Bowmen group was founded in Philadelphia in 1828. The club is still running. Due to the popularity of the sport in US, the National Archery Association was born in 1879. Even scientists began taking interest in the physics of archery. They experimented with new materials such as fiberglass to design powerful bows. Archery tournaments continued to thrive both in US and in England. The sport spread to other countries also. However, target archery was the most popular type in such archery tournaments and competition. The field archery competitions remain confined mostly to the United States.

In the Olympics, archery was made part of the sports items in 1900 in the Paris Olympics. The archery is target type archery with a level and clear field and the targets placed at varying distances. In the earlier Olympics, the longbow was widely used. Nevertheless, due to the difference in rules and formats followed by the various participating countries, the sports event of archery was discontinued after 1920. It was reinstated again in 1972 in the Olympics game, with separate events for men and women and with set rules. The popularity of archery competitions in Olympic Games and in other international tournaments prove that this fine art had survived despite several setbacks and hindrances. Today, archery is considered one of the most challenging, as well as rewarding sports.

When thinking about archery, there are all kinds of equipment to consider.  Mathews has a variety of archery equipment available to buy.  Knowing what you need is important.

Mathews has different types of bows available to buy.  There are Mini Bows, the original bow and Pro Bow.  Also there are compound and crossbows.  There are youth and adult sizes.  Of course the sizes fit whether they are for children or adults.  Having a bow that is not the right size for you can affect the results of your hunt or the purpose of using the bow.  You do not want a child to have a bow that is too big or small and you do not want an adult to have one that is too small.

There are all types of accessories available for your bows.  There are things like scopes, release aids, vanes to put on the arrows, sights, and arrow rests. Some of the other accessories available include various types of armguards, various wrist slings, waxing string, tuning kits, and even something that will help you pull the arrows out of your targets when you are practicing.

There are all types of targets available for your equipment as well.  Targets are a great way to work on getting your archery down.  Depending on the type of archer you are will depend on the type of target(s) you use.  Most targets are for practicing.  For those that hunt, they may want targets that are like the animals they will be hunting.  Some may use regular targets to practice until they get good at that.

People use Mathews archery equipment for a variety of reasons.  One of the biggest is for hunting.  Hunters want to make sure they get the best equipment out there so they are ready for hunting season.

Where you buy your equipment is important.  You need to know their return policy and/or guarantee policy.  Also, do they allow you to try the equipment in the store, if you are actually in the store?  What happens if you buy your equipment online?  Is there somewhere you can try it out before buying it and then go online if it is a better deal?

Mathews archery equipment is just one of the brands you can buy.  You may soon find that this is the kind you want.  Trying it out will help you know if this is what you want.