Stickbow Target Archery Forums

i see no reason not to have one simple set of traditional archery stick bow rules. longbows and recurves compete equally.

what? no way, not fair, they're totally different! heresy you say? hear me out.

the current crop of modern longbow designs have driven their performance close to, if not equal, that of the best recurves. with ilf longbow limbs and acs designs, these longbow types are far and away performance advanced over the simplistic 'hill style' longbow.

oh, but the idea is to have a 'classic longbow only' event. unless the current ifaa rules change, there's no exclusion of 'stealth' hybrid aggressive r/d longbows - they meet the "D" braced limb rules and compete against elb's and hill style longbows with at best some limb reflex. this makes the ifaa longbow 'classic event' a joke.

the grueling muzzy event divides up longbows and recurves, but the final overall championship competes recurve against longbow and both types have taken the top honors.

the basis of a trad archery event is a stick 'n' string bow that's hand held, fiber bowstring held at the limb nocks, 'gray matter' aimed (no sights, no 'soft sights' such as face walking, string walking, marks on the bow, etc.), and finger released (split or 3 under - as long as one finger touches the arrow nock).

this is essentially a 'free form aiming' sport. imo, there are no distinct advantages to either recurve or longbow, or to specific bow design criteria - it all comes down to the archer.

arrow shelf or elevated arrow rest - shooter's choice.

allow for any arrow shaft material - wood, glass, aluminum, carbon - shooter's choice. ditto's for fletching.

and do keep the shooting distances relevant to traditional archery.

your thoughts, please?


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I think close range 3D like Fita/IBO Recurve and Longbow are closely matched but for Longer IFAA Field rounds I normally shoot a good 50 points more with my Recurve compared to Longbow, maybe I should try an experiment by shooting a Field round with the Longbow and Carbons to see if the score gap closes up a bit.

the concept is to have events that any stickbow archer can play. right now, the big bugaboo are the different rules that abound within every org - world, country, state, local.

with simpler rules its gives anyone the incentive to try archery or at least to follow the game and know that you could compete. same as with golf, or bowling, or any other free form non-team aiming sport.

simplify the rules and the interest and participation will grow at all levels.

when you look at the arrow speeds that a modern aggressive r/d longbow such as an acs are capable of producing, these longbows are at least on par with the fastest production recurves. ol adcock has produced prototype ilf longbow limbs that are *faster* than modern ilf recurve limbs.

what ARE the functional differences between a recurve and a longbow? essentially, a recurve bow's pre-stressed highly reflexed limbs impart lots of limb and arrow speed. to add 'shot stability' to the recurve, the limbs are greatly lengthened and the risers are bulked up for added weight. a longbow typically has less pre-stressed limbs, but the aggressive hybrids close that gap to a great degree. now add in the inherent 'shot stability' of a longbow's narrow limbs and both stick bow types are, imho, on an equal footing ... at any distance.

one could argue that it will come down to equipment selection and use that will either give a competitor a performance edge or will determine the event winner. in the light of modern stick bows, that's just no longer true. it's the archer that counts most, as expected.

Well, I have to say it gives me great pleasure to beat the guys with the fancy rigs. I feel it gives me the opportunity to prove that a longbow is not inherently inferior.

Just yesterday I took first place at the Tollgate indoor shoot. There were probably fifty entries and included some great shooters and prior winners of the event. It's a pretty intense competition with high dollar items on the table for top scorers (my prize was a $495 longbow). I won with a newly acquired Whippenstick longbow against guys shooting fancy metal risered recurves and even one with a stabilizer. I've been going to the event for seven years, and have won it 3 times...each time with a longbow.

I don't say it to toot my own horn, just to help prove the point that such events can thrive with only one shooting class: traditional.

On a smaller note I belong to a "Primitive" archery club we were asked to "do a shoot" at a range but the range already said that only bows and arrows made of natural materials could be used in the shoot. We as a Club were/are just trying to get people interested in shooting traditional as well as primitive equipment but now we will be excluding many people because of these rules of "natural" material only. Normally at the shoots we have different divisions so many people can be involved some with natural materials others with "modern"bows and arrows. This will exclude some of our members who shoot fiberglass "horsebows". Why is there such an elitest mentality?