Sparrow Hall Farm,  Edlesborough, Bedfordshire,  LU6 2ES

Recurve

The Bow that most archers begin their archery career with. This normally involves a riser which can be made of wood, aluminium or carbon fibre plus limbs made of wood, foam or carbon.

A recurve archer will normally start with aluminium arrows and progress up to carbon/aluminium mix ones later.

A range of accessories can be added to the bow including sight, stabilisers, bowsling, pressure button and clickers.

Compound

The most modern of bow types. Very popular in the USA, South Africa and Eastern Europe where animal hunting is still allowed. (It is illegal to shoot at any animal or bird with a bow in the UK).

The compound has a cam system which allow the archer to pull a heavy weight which reduces to just a few pounds at full draw.

There are accessories specific to the compound which include release aids, peep sights and magnified sights.

Longbow

The traditional style of bow which is growing in popularity again. The bow is a single “D” shape and is normally around 72” long. It can be made of a single piece of wood, or two to five laminations of different woods.

The longbow archer will shoot wood arrows.

There are few accessories to add to the bow, but many longbow archers like to use traditional style accessories for themselves such as leather armguards and leather or linen quivers.

Warbow

This is essentially a heavy poundage longbow - at least 70# draw weight.

American Flatbow

This is a one-piece bow which is the same shape as a longbow, but has a flatter profile and an arrow shelf.  It is normally made of laminates.

Horsebow

A one-piece short recurve.  Designed to be shot from horseback they originally come from Eastern Europe or even further East.

In the UK there are various different types of bow.

If you shoot GNAS target archery you are restricted to shooting recurve, barebow (recurve without a sight), compound or longbow.

If you shoot field archery you can use a wider variety of bows.

There are regulations on how much poundage you can shoot depending on your discipline.  For example a warbow could not be shot at standard targets and is normally shot at specific warbow shoots or re-enactment events.