Until recently, Archery was a sport that I had only touched upon briefly in Scouts, many years ago. A couple of weeks back the NIEA had organised a great family day out with their annual Autumn Festival (http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/events/events_galleries_more_of/autm-crawfordsburn.htm) held in Crawfordsburn Country Park.
One of the attractions was an Archery display and everybody was welcome to have a go at Target Archery. Being free of charge, I worked my way to the front of the queue to practice my archery skills. I immediately fell in love with the sport and was on the internet that same evening sourcing a bow to get me started.
I finally decided upon a Sebastien Flute 68" 32lb Recurve Bow and sat back and waited for the postman to bring it up my driveway.
At the Autumn Festival I got the opportunity to fire 8 arrows, all of which hit the target, albeit only 25 ft away! With such a great track record I foolishly thought all I needed to do was string my bow and I would be recreating seens from Robin Hood... but how wrong I was!!! Every arrow I fired went sharply left, from where I was aiming, and the only way I could hit my chosen target was to aim roughly 5ft to the left at a distance of approx 30ft. Not Good ::)
Distraught, I went home and frantically Googled the problem. Fortunately, the problem seems to be that I haven't tuned my bow or carried out an initial set up. I was worried that the bow I had bought was of poor quality and was going to be fit for nothing but kindling.
Do we have any budding Archers here on NI Wild who would be willing to talk me through an initial set up and advise upon accessories that I need to get? A number of articles I've read seem to suggest that my arrows are striking the Riser (Handle of the Bow) rather than departing cleanly, which is causing them to fly sharply left. It seems I may need to purchase a Plunger/Pressure button as one way of helping to correct my problem.
I would like to set my bow up correctly from the start, rather than guessing.
Here's hoping one of our members will be able to provide the assistance I need. Here's a few pictures of our first outing. I have to say the boy in the pictures, Pete, was very good and was able to shoot in a straight line. Definately put me to shame :'(
The New Recurve Bow
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Good luck with the club Dowser, it will be the best place to do it as you'll get all the advice you need from more experienced archers. I was into archery for quite a few years and owned and shot many types of bow, recurve, compound and of course longbow. I settled finally on longbow as it seemed the most natural ans satisfying form of the bow to me. Anyways, I noticed in the pictures that your draw seems very long and that you go past your mouth. I would always have drawn to the point of my index finger touching the side of my mouth as a coach once taught me it gives a consistent anchor point and line of sight down the arrow. Not that what you're doing is wrong but it's worth trying it a few different ways to see which suits you best. Another thing to consider if the arrows aren't flying straight is if the shafts themselves are straight without any kinks/bends and that they are properly atched for stiffness to the strength of the bow. Again that's something to check in your local club but hopefully it'll give you a few pointers.
BTW, what's the B&W picture on the wall?
Thanks Paul, some good tips there. After my failed attempt at Archery yesterday I did a bit of Googling and arrow stiffness is a definate possibility. The ones I'm using in the pics are cheapies from Decathlon at only £2.99 each. They are quite bendy and do seem to be arching quite a bit when I release the string. I think that could be causing the rear end (like my use of technical terms) of the arrow to hit the riser/arrow rest. There are defined black track marks left on the riser which don't look right. I think you could be right about the draw length too. I'm probably getting a bit carried away by pulling back so far. To be honest I found so many different reasons, all perfectly valid, for my arrows firing the wrong direction that I realised I was going to have to seek professional help. I really had thought I would be able to buy a bow, string it up and hit bulls eyes after a couple of hours of practice. I couldn't have been more wrong. Robin Hood just makes it look so easy ::)
The picture in the background is by Jeff Dow, a photographer based in Nevada USA. The picture is of Walker Lake near his home town. I wish I could say I took it myself, but unfortunately photography is yet another hobby that I only dabble in :-[
(http://imgur.com/GKtfH.jpg)