Stickbow Target Archery Forums

Also, most barebow archers at least attempt to get their aiming eye close to the shaft ... this usually leads to a "leaning into" kind of form where your head is cocked toward the string and the aiming eye is over the shaft. This alone will shorten your draw. YMMV.

rob -
Variables, variables -
OK, WTH is YMMY :confused:
Viper out.

Your Mileage May Vary.

I tried to post a few days ago but it never seemed to come up.

I feel that brace height is a function of bow length and recurve shape and is not related to arrow length. I also believe that the proper brace height for a recurve is independent of one's style of shooting. My 68" FITA recurve is generally braced at 9". This is the same brace height I used for the same length bow many years ago for instinctive field shooting.

As to canting vs not. When I started shooting field in 1948 it was looked at as hunting practice. We all shot 50-80# bows and canted them like our gods Fred Bear and Howard Hill. By the mid 50s it was finally decided that we were shooting field for score. Bow weights dropped quickly to the low to middle 40s and most serious archers held their bow vertically from that point on. Sure some people canted their bows but they were not serious competitors.

As with anything there is never an all or nothing. Some people shot OK when canting but the vast majority held their bows vertical.

Bill, funny you should mention Fred Bear. He was one of the founders of Detroit Archers, and it's first president from 1928-1933 and again from 1939-1941. He was also the Michigan Target Champion and Michigan Field Archery Champion a couple of times in the the 30s. Pictures in the clubhouse of him from that time show him shooting with a totally upright stance and, horror of horrors, he's using an under the chin anchor. Later pictures of him from the mid 40s show that he's switched to a canted bow and corner of the mouth anchor. This would be about the same time archery hunting became popular in Michigan, with Fred being one of its most vocal advocates.

My God! "...and then the compound bow came in and killed off recurve field shooting. " Bill, tell me more. Although I am saddened by the whole turn of events of the fall(death?) of recurve field shooting. I am glad that it still exists in today's US field archery.

But I would like to hear more about your memories of field archery past , and the things that led to demise of the recurve. Thank God and the NAA/FITA/Olympics to hold true to the recurve!
Cheers,n
Larry

Larry,n
In the area I live in in Pennsylvania there were innumerable field courses and you had your choice of which shoot you wanted to attend each weekend. It was not unusual for 100-150 people to shoot in each shoot. One by one the courses disappeared as people moved to compound 3D. Most of our 56 target courses are now down to poorly maintained 14 target courses if they exist at all or they have been changed over to 3D courses.

As far as the popularity of the recurve it seems to exist today in traditional archery and Olympic style FITA target archery. FITA field seems to be restricted to the one NAA FITA field championship each year.

Today the NAA has about 2000 recurve shooting adult members. I would guess that Pennsylvania, California and Michigan combined had more than that in the 50s.

For the record I now shoot an Olympic recurve and play around with a modern longbow. MY instinctive field days are over since my glasses get in the way of my high anchor.

That's a real shame Bill.

I find it interesting to read how different things are across the pond.
Here in the UK, target archery is still dominated by recurve, despite the ongoing annual predictions that compound will take over. You don't see many barebow archers shooting target rounds, but there are nearly always a few longbow shooters here and there.

Field archery, especially for members of the National Field Archery Society, is a truly mixed bag of bow types. In NFAS shoots, for example, if you want to shoot longbow (English longbows, I mean) competitively you have to be very good indeed, as it is an extremely popular discipline. There are many compound shooters of course, with and without release aids, pin sights, etc., and barebow is also popular. Something for everyone, is a good way to summarise it.

There are other field societies as well, but it seems that the NFAS caters for a wider selection of disciplines. All the courses are unmarked animal faces or 3D targets, in my limited experience anyway.

Looking at the NFAS event calendar, there is usually a shoot on most weekends within relatively easy striking distance.

Apologies for the slightly long and off-topic post

John, clarify for me please. You say "All the courses are unmarked animal faces or 3D targets..." Does that mean that they are not typical "Field" courses as we know them in the states with 28 field & hunter targets, i.e. round targets, black & white faces? Or do you also have a lot of field & hunter courses + animal rounds?

That's right. On NFAS courses and competitions, all the targets are either pictures of animals with designated kill and wound zones, or 3D foam animals. All distances are unmarked.

There are usually three shooting pegs at each target. The first shot is taken from the first peg (usually the furthest away, but it might be just more awkward than the others). If you shoot a kill you score 20, and it's 16 for a wound. If you miss, you go to the second peg and shot another arrow - 14 for a kill, 10 for a wound. If you miss again, then you go to the third peg - 8 for a kill, 4 for a wound.

So, the best archers go round the course and shot one arrow per target n
EFAA and GNAS Field clubs shoot at round target faces at unmarked and marked distances. Or so I believe. As far as I know, NFAS is the most popular form of field archery in the UK by quite a big margin.

John
Seems to be a game of semantics. When I refer to field shooting I am talking about circular targets at which one shoots 4 arrows. distances are from 20 feet to 80 yrds for all bows. Field shooting also has an animal round with paper targets.

Indeed Bill. It seems that on both sides of the pond field archery basically means walking through woods and fields and shooting at targets. Lots of fun I just thought a little information on how it's practiced over here might prove interesting.