Hi, I’m new to the forum, and this is my first post here. I wrote this while awaiting admin approval to join the forum, so it’s a long one.
My wife is all work and no play, so I told her she needs some hobbies. She said she liked archery when she was a kid, so I have been slowly collecting traditional gear for her. She has pretty much everything she needs to go shoot, except time. We’ve mainly been waiting for her bow, a Rudderbows “U-finish” hickory English longbow with horn tips, 30 to 35# @ 28”. It came about two weeks ago, and I just finished getting it ready to shoot.
Anyway, because she has been too busy studying to go to the range with me - my gun range is excellent and includes an archery range - I went by myself today. I justified shooting her bow for the first time since it was finished without her by saying to myself that I have to make sure it works ok and doesn’t catastrophically fail on her. I had intended to shoot a pistol while I was there as well, but once I started shooting that longbow, it was all over. Imagine a child playing happily with a ball, and then you wheel out a shiny new bicycle. Pretty soon, that ball is going to be lying forgotten on the lawn.
That’s how my pistol must have felt.
Before today, I hadn’t shot a bow since I was about 15 years old – and then I was only messing around. My folks bought me a red fiberglass 30# recurve, and I used to shoot it in the back yard with no training.
Today I started out by shooting once at a 4’x4’ target from about 10 yards. Having easily hit that, I started shooting at a 2’x2’ at about 20 yards. I’m sure I should have stayed at a shorter range since I’m a total newbie, but this was more fun. I tried to remember everything I’ve read about good form. After about half an hour, I pretty much hit the target every time when shooting groups of 6 arrows. After an hour, I started shooting really lousy so I stopped for the day.
Here are my observations from my first time out:
1) After the very first shot, I knew I was going to have to buy a bow for myself. Not that there’s anything wrong with my wife’s bow (except perhaps that her draw length is 28” and mine is 29.5”), but because of the grin on my face.
2) An arm guard would be nice to have. I got hit with the string a few times, but nothing serious – I only have a faint pink spot on my arm. I tried to keep my arm slightly bent. I haven’t gotten a guard yet because I am waiting for a guy to make my wife one out of horn. Apparently he’s an anachronistic type and isn’t good with communicating by computer. I’m just going to make one out of leather.
3) I bought a bowglove for my wife, which was too big for her. That bowglove is now mine. I made her one out of leather by using the purchased glove to make a pattern, then shrinking it by 10%. All of this preparation was unfounded. I took the bowglove off shortly after starting to shoot and found that the arrows do nothing to my hand when I shoot off of it.
4) A nock point would be nice, since I have to guess if the arrow is in the right spot on the string.
5) While the emerald green feathers on her arrows are certainly pretty and not all that difficult to spot in the grass when I miss, the next arrows I buy (probably some longer ones for myself) will have more strikingly-colored feathers, say red and white. I suppose if my wife and I keep at it, we won’t have to worry so much about pulling arrows out of the turf.
6) I don’t know enough about archery to tell the difference between a good-shooting bow and a bad-shooting bow, but I can say that Jim Boswell at Rudderbows did a fine job on this low-cost, entry-level bow. It really feels good to shoot. Since it’s the only longbow I’ve ever shot (or even touched, for that matter), I can’t talk about hand shock or lack thereof.
7) Evidently my string-pulling muscles are very weak. I shamefully admit that there was a lot of trembling going on at full draw, even with the paltry 30 pound pull.
8) Longbows are amazingly fun! And I’d better get some lessons quick, before I start ingraining bad habits.
Here’s a link to my “Traditional Archery” album in Picasa, which includes some groups that I shot today. Please check it out and comment:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ashandflame/TraditionalArchery#
Topic: Observations from a brand-new archer (Read 620 times)
