Archery Website

And at present for an item wholly special – The particular Compound Bow

If we could turn back time and give Robin Hood a compound bow, the Sheriff of Nottingham wouldn’t have known what had hit him. However unlikely that may be (they weren’t actually designed until the 1960’s) it would certainly have made interesting reading. Robin Hood, however, so the story goes, didn’t need the increased accuracy of a compound bow, as we are led to believe that he seldom missed whatever he was aiming at.

On first sight, a compound bow really might not look much like anything you’ll have seen before. They certainly don’t look like the traditional long bows or the ones the native Indians used to use against the cowboys, but rather have a series of intricate cams, wheels and pulleys. The sport of compound archery wouldn’t actually be possible without this series of gadgets, nobody would have sufficient strength to pull it back.

The cam on the compound bow means that the archer can pull back a string with much more weight, giving the arrow more speed and allowing it to fly much flatter through the air. This enables the arrow to fly much further, but also makes the sport of compound archery much more accurate than those using traditionally designed bows.

First designed in the 1960s, as with many other things the compound bow has seen lots of development over the last few decades and these more modern designs are generally used in today’s competitions. There are many different types to choose from, bowtech compound bows are very popular, as well as mathews compound bows and, of course, pse compound bows (thought by some to have the widest choice of advanced compound bows available today).

You might be pleasantly surprised at just how lightweight the compound bow is for its remarkable strength, and with the addition of an advanced sights system the modern sportsmen or women engaged in the sport of compound archery can hit the centre of the target time after time. They can achieve this even when, to the naked eye, the target appears like nothing more than a speck in the distance.

There’s no wonder that the sport of compound archery is becoming extremely popular, although you do need a very large practice area – you can’t simply shoot at straw bales in the back garden, it would be far too dangerous. After all, a compound bow can be extremely dangerous if not used with extreme caution.