Why recurve and longbow classes at trad shoots???

[KodiakBob]

The best reason I can give is a recurve bow can have an arrow rest and/or plunger but no stab or sight. A longbow must be shot off of the shelf. Primitive must use wood arrows and have no fglass/carbon in the bow. The top shooters in this area shoot pretty close between LB and Recurve. But as more shoot DAS. Titans, or modern trad, "FITA without weight, stabs, or sights. this may change.

[BONE]

Drewsbow--I caught that comment-just waiting for the bomb to go off.lol--BTW I shoot a longbow.---------------------Bone-

[Tbilisi]

Here is another angle about classes at shoots. Why do we have a senior division for people over 50 yrs of age?  I know many older shooter that can shoot arrows thru rings with either a long bow or recurve.  I'm over fifty.

[buckeye_hunter]

Well folks, I guess I got my answer.....

There really is no "true" solution! No real reason to seperate classes, just an arbitrary decision by those who set up shoots?

It appears as if it all comes back to the age old question; What does each person consider traditional?

-Charlie

[Jeff Strubberg]

Recurves shoot ON AVERAGE a slightly higher score because a recurve tends to have more center mass and be forgiving of small mistakes.

A good longbow shooter can erase that difference.

[longbowman]

For years we didn't seperate anything because of equipment.  We all shot from the same stakes and the only division was between sights/no-sights.  There were as many shoots won with recurves and longbows as with compounds in the no sight division.  There were several shoots where a recurve shooter blew everybody away in the sight division too.  I guess this "traditional" division and "traditional stakes" sorta bugs me because we all shoot at the same deer when hunting.  Just my 2 cents!

[Blackhawk]

You may disagree that recurve shooters score higher against their longbow competition, but I am speaking of competitions I have attended here in the Pacific Northwest.  It is rare indeed when a longbow shooter scores higher than the top recurve shooter.

It seems most of the events are "fun shoots" with little, if any, rivalry among participants.  Granted, many shooters even refrain from turning in a score card. There is no prize money and just so many places you can put a trophy in the den.

In addition, events out West tend to have targets situated at distances in excess of those in the East.  Shots of 25-30 yards are common, and targets set at 40 and 50 yards are not rare.  

My friends and I both shoot recurve AND longbow, but each of us score higher with the recurve.  

These are just my observations and experiences and is no way proving scientifically that one bow is superior to another.  Shoot what you like and have fun, right?

[killinstuff]

Shoot the long bow and wood arrows and be proud of the scores you shoot. Remember why the compound was invented? So you didn't need to be as skilled an archer to shoot well. Same thing with cabon and metal arrows. They make you better, not more skilled. An easy way out.

[DesertDude]

My take on it. When I first started shooting 3D Tourney's, there was one class for traditional. Then then the guys shooting self bows started crying about it being unfair, then the longbows guys, then the guys shooting woods, and so on. I blame US.... The wheel classes didn't complain about it. It was US.. With the "He shoots this" and "He shoots that". I remember back when it was just the "Traditional" class.  The Best shooters won and no one complained.... Awhile back here in So. California, a Doctor set up a Traditional Invatational Shoot. He invited Clubs to make up teams. We hade about 100 shooters for this 2 day event. After the team events he had a "Last Man Standing" with all 100 shooters.  Selfbow, longbow, hybreed, recurve, and traget recurve guys and gals all shot aganist each other.
Well it came down to the 2 Best shooters in the area, one with a metal riser Hoyt and a guy with a D shape longbow....... Recuve guy shot a 10, and the longbow shot a .............12......The Best shooter won...not the style of bow.... Let's just shoot some arrows and have some fun. We can control the classes at our own Clubs. As for the NFAA and IBO that's a different story.....Happy Holiday's........Mark

[buckeye_hunter]

Again, please excuse my ignorance.  

In all the pictures I've seen of olympic shooting, the archers are using recurves.  Anyone know why that is or would they allow longbows too?

-Charlie

[SteveB]

So you didn't need to be as skilled an archer to shoot well. Same thing with cabon and metal arrows. They make you better, not more skilled. An easy way out.

:rolleyes:  

With all due respect - horse hockey.

[Blackhawk]

I believe recurves are at the Olympics because "that's the rules".  

More practical, however, is the fact that there is currently no longbow capable of beating those olympic recurves.  As soon as one is developed that can beat a recurve, you will probably see a rule change to allow it.  I have heard that O.L. Adcock is close.

[Basic Instinct]

The Reason for  the different classes is "BEACUSE THEY CAN"  I'm sure no one really knows the pin point reason. I think that if you question it yourself if it is Traditional, than it might not be. But if you are fine with it. Then let it be. Bow -arrow material etc -what have you. you still need to make the shot!!!If one was so much better than the other, they would only make the one kind!!

[John Nail]

I believe it is because they can. By that I mean, that the more classes, recurve, longbow, selfbow, women's, youth, and cub--the more people get to win something, and the more interested they are in coming back.

[Flatstick]

Longbowman,,,I remember those days very well. Around here you shot "sights" or "barebow" division. Didn't matter what type of bow it was. But before that division came,,,we just had FUN!!

   

[Jacko]

Buckeye Hunter I'm an old FITA shooter and before I woke up this was the story .

String tension means performance , recurves generally have more string tension . A recurve distributes the energy more efficiently into an arrow due to a more vertical limb action snapping the string vertically which equals less handshock . This technology has been high jacked by our compound brothers .
Because recurves have differant string angles than straight limb bows they can be shorter and lighter and shoot light arrows faster .

The price for this is a less stable bow that can punish form errors . Olympic style bows counter with extra length . Stabilisers , V bars , adjustable tiller , adjustable grips , vibration dampened limb pockets and enginered risers etc add an extra degree to stability .

Then they pinch a bit of ancient knowledge and use high FOC arrows for long range accuracy and small diameter arrows for wind bucking

I dont know if FITA allows straight limbed bows into this class but I am sure if a manufacturer put this much technology and enginering into a straight limbed bow it may prove to be more forgiving of form errors and more accurate . With sights and fixed distances a few fps means nothing . regards Jacko

[DEERSLAYER1961]

buckeye_hunter,

The olympic shooters shoot recurves cause they are the best shooting bow by far....  You can take the top Longbow, and Recurve shooters in the world, and the Recurve shooters will come out on top every time.  

Recuvres are cut to center or past, and have cushin plungers, stabilizers, and arrow rests.  This makes the bow much easier to tune, and get perfect arrow flight.  Recurves are smoother due to thier limb design.  I love Longbows, and own and shoot several, but a Longbow will never compete with a Recurve.

[buckeye_hunter]

So couldn't we all shoot longbows with recurve style risers and get the best of both worlds....so to speak?

Again, please don't shoot me, I don't think I've committed heresy to this point.

-Charlie

[Orion]

From an accuracy perspective, recurves have several advantages.  For a given weight, they are usually a little more efficient, ie., they will shoot a little flatter, faster.  Their draw is generally a little smoother, which over a lot of arrows in tournament shooting may be a factor.  Their risers are generally larger/heavier, making them more stable. Generally, their sight windows are cut to or past center, making tuning easier and enabling them to accept a wide range of arrows, for example, physically light but high spined arrows.  All of these are advantages over "traditional" longbows.  Three-piece takedown longbows and other hybrids are clouding those differences.  There are also some inherent advantages of carbon and aluminum shafting over wood.  Carbon and aluminum are generally straighter and lighter, which makes for more accuracy in target archery.  When you take an average cross section of shooters, they will generally shoot a little higher scores with recurves than with longbows, though on any given day, the top longbow shooter may beat the top recurve shooter.  Likewise, those shooting carbons are generally going to shoot higher scores than those shooting woodies. What's is happening and has happened in  traditional 3-D tournaments is that they've just become more competitive, and the myriad categories springing up is a partial reflection of the differences between the equipment.  I like the way they do it at Comptons.  Shoot what you want.  Nobody keeps score.

[DEERSLAYER1961]

It's not just the riser, it's also the limbs.  The recurve limbs are faster, and smoother than a longbow, and I am talking about a true longbow not a R/D longbow cause some of those are as fast as some recurves. So, when, I say longbow, I am refering to a Hill style bow.....  I do not consider the new R/D to be true longbows.