Check our collection of traditional bows: Longbows, Bowhunter Recurves and Kids Bows. Available in a wide range of draw weights and in right and left hand.
Buying your first bow:
If you’re about to buy your first bow you should consider a few things.
1. Identify your dominant eye
Find out which one is your dominant eye. This will determine if you will be a right or left hand shooter and if you need a right or left hand bow. A right hand shooter holds the bow in the left hand and pulls the string with the right. The arrow will therefore be lined up under the right eye so they can look along the arrow towards the target. The arrow passes the bow handle on the left for right hand bows. For a left hand archer everything above is mirrored. This video explains how to work out which of your eyes is dominant: Video
Most people when they are right handed are also right eye dominant and vice versa. However a few people are what is called cross-dominant. It is extremely advisable to practice archery according to your eye dominance. So if you’re right handed, but left eye dominant, then you should shoot a left hand bow. I have seen first hand what the difference is when I trained with a good female archer who was cross-dominant but didn’t know about it. Her scores in tournaments were always good, but when we started training with a left hand bow and after she got used to it her scores were off the chart. She shot a simple primitive wooden bow, but her scores made other women in the Recurve class jealous.
2. Start with a low draw weight bow
Your muscles and more importantly tendons need to be trained to cope with the stress of pulling and holding back the string. If your bow is too strong very bad posture will become a habit: things like not having a definitive anchor point in your face, head tilted too far backwards or forwards, back leaning backwards, bad release etc. It also increases the risk of injuring your shoulder. Your muscles will build up faster than your tendons, so keep practicing good form with this bow for a month longer than you think you need to before you go up in draw weight.
3. Invest in a good shooting glove or tab
I still use my second glove, it’s now 14 years old. It’s worth the investment! It should fit like a second skin. I like to buy mine one number too small.
4. Get help with your arrows
Every stick makes a bow, but an arrow is hard work. The arrow needs to fit the bow and you. And it’s a complex system. Even the most basic arrow shaft information, the spine, comes in various ways depending if it’s a wooden, carbon or aluminium shaft. Carbon arrows need also to be splined and they are difficult to lengthen at home. The weight of the arrow tip has as much influence on arrow flight as the type and lengths of feathers. And the length of the arrow has big influence on the dynamic spine. Ask someone to check your nocking point too. If your heads spins by now, just follow my advice and get help. Oh, and don’t buy an arrow set of Alibaba until you really know what you’re doing AND you can check you got what you ordered at home.
History of bow and arrow
The first use of bow and arrows dates back 70,000 years based on findings of arrowheads. The oldest existing bow was found in the Hoolmegard region of Denmark and dates back ca. 9,000 years.
The most famous bows would be the English Longbow, used predominantly in the 100 years war between England and France and is of course well known through the legends of Robin Hood.
Modern longbows and modern traditional recurves stand in the long line of this ancient archery history: Modern materials and manufacturing methods have been combined with the use of natural materials in the 1920s. Yet they are shot the same way and provide the same feel and a hunter from 20,000 years ago would immediately recognize them as their preferred hunting equipment.
