New Saluki Crimean Bow
Dear Friends,
I apologize for not being active on Atarn of late...I am working on my Bachelor's of Education and am becoming an English Teacher. Thus, my endeavors in archery have been greatly abbreviated. I have decided, though, to try to keep my hobby my hobby! And to not neglect it. I have missed being on here and learning and also shooting my new bow that I have been barely using of late. Would you all like to see it? It was made by Lukas Novotny, and is a Crimean Tatar Hybrid bow of modern materials, 54" length, 42# at 30".
I apologize for not being active on Atarn of late...I am working on my Bachelor's of Education and am becoming an English Teacher. Thus, my endeavors in archery have been greatly abbreviated. I have decided, though, to try to keep my hobby my hobby! And to not neglect it. I have missed being on here and learning and also shooting my new bow that I have been barely using of late. Would you all like to see it? It was made by Lukas Novotny, and is a Crimean Tatar Hybrid bow of modern materials, 54" length, 42# at 30".
Another set of pics:
The point of all these photos was to show my beautiful bow...yet I feel as though my arrows are lacking. They are aluminum. I want to be able to have arrows that actually are beautiful as well and that are not anachronistic in nature :(. I know that Crimeans used wooden arrows, yet I would love to make bamboo arrows myself. I have seen that on ebay Mark Hill sells arrow shafts matched by weight (which is good for bamboo arrows since spine doesn't matter) and I was wondering if anyone has any tips. This website has so much information but I would love to try to find what is most pertinent to me and my bow. Should I change my set up at all? Wood or bamboo?
Besides the kind of wood or bamboo that I should use, I plan on buying those black and white goose feathers from ebay in bulk (since they are gorgeous) and fletch them onto the shafts myself.
I also would love to buy horn nocks also off of ebay since they are much more durable than plastic.
Please help :)
Besides the kind of wood or bamboo that I should use, I plan on buying those black and white goose feathers from ebay in bulk (since they are gorgeous) and fletch them onto the shafts myself.
I also would love to buy horn nocks also off of ebay since they are much more durable than plastic.
Please help :)
Lucas,
Aside from being nice pictures of your bow, they are good diagnostic pictures for improving your technique, particularly the head on one which shows shoulder and elbow positions very clearly.
I have tried Tiger's bamboo arrowshafts and the ones I measured were very accurately spined. You can use either hand made wooden nocks or just glue some dowel in the end to enable you fit a plastic nock (just use white or black ones so they look like bone or horn!).
Yumi bows sell bamboo arrow shafts for Japanese archery use. These are very high quality and should not be wasted on practice arrows.
Aside from being nice pictures of your bow, they are good diagnostic pictures for improving your technique, particularly the head on one which shows shoulder and elbow positions very clearly.
I have tried Tiger's bamboo arrowshafts and the ones I measured were very accurately spined. You can use either hand made wooden nocks or just glue some dowel in the end to enable you fit a plastic nock (just use white or black ones so they look like bone or horn!).
Yumi bows sell bamboo arrow shafts for Japanese archery use. These are very high quality and should not be wasted on practice arrows.
Bede, today I went by to an archer friend of mine's house. He had me shoot through paper and he said these arrows I have are not finely tuned. It kind of made me angry because he said the thumbring style isn't good because the arrows did not make clean marks in the paper; while my Mediterranean draw on my bow did. (And these remarks were all said even though I hit the bullseye 4 times out of six from twenty yards away with both styles of draw).
Is it REALLY necessary for them to fly so perfectly through paper? We went through several kinds of arrows of his some fiberglass, POC, and also some carbons, and none flied perfectly through the paper. Should I consider doing carbon since I do horsearchery? And if so, which kind of carbon do you think will fly best with my bow with its unique specs?
I feel like it was kinda dumb that he nitpicked the arrows' flight even though my aim was perfect...He is a compound shooter obviously...
Is it REALLY necessary for them to fly so perfectly through paper? We went through several kinds of arrows of his some fiberglass, POC, and also some carbons, and none flied perfectly through the paper. Should I consider doing carbon since I do horsearchery? And if so, which kind of carbon do you think will fly best with my bow with its unique specs?
I feel like it was kinda dumb that he nitpicked the arrows' flight even though my aim was perfect...He is a compound shooter obviously...
And what part of my technique do you think I can improve by the way?
Quite recently Peter Dekker posted images of the Chinese Archery Training Program in Odum, Georgia in the facebook group on traditional asian archery. There's a fast sequence where you can see Justin Ma shoot. The arrow goes very straight as it leaves the bow.
Griping and release will affect the flight of the arrow dramatically. That may sound like a trivial and obvious statement, but it is right.
One thing that particularly troubles me now is how the bow is gripped. In absence of a teacher, these things progress slowly and are explained clumsily with words.
I tried a few things lately and found that if you push the thumb on your bowhand into the target and with your pinky wrapped around the grip with the intend to twist the bow away from the shaft, then the shot seems to come off very clean. You grip it just right, not too hard and the bow will rotate in your hand.
When you pull the bow, the feeling in your bowhand is unusual. Although the wrist is relaxed, it feels springy.
Griping and release will affect the flight of the arrow dramatically. That may sound like a trivial and obvious statement, but it is right.
One thing that particularly troubles me now is how the bow is gripped. In absence of a teacher, these things progress slowly and are explained clumsily with words.
I tried a few things lately and found that if you push the thumb on your bowhand into the target and with your pinky wrapped around the grip with the intend to twist the bow away from the shaft, then the shot seems to come off very clean. You grip it just right, not too hard and the bow will rotate in your hand.
When you pull the bow, the feeling in your bowhand is unusual. Although the wrist is relaxed, it feels springy.
In Adam Swoboda's book, he says to put all the force in the lower three fingers of the bow hand. That in itself has helped my thumb release dramatically. It causes rotation in the bow in a counterclockwise rotation (if the bow is in the left hand) and the arrow leaves the bow quicker and doesn't curve around the bow as the three finger draw does. And this all allows for greater variances in spine.
That archer "friend" of mine looks through his lenses of prejudice since he is a compound bow advocate. But in my opinion, if you want an arrow shooting like a bullet off of a TRADITIONAL set-up..then use your bow as firewood and buy a darn GUN. That's what the Turks did! And that's why I particularly do not go for Turkish bows that much because I like bows that allow for greater variation in draws and technique and that do not focus so much on speed and bullet-like projectiles, which is the main concern of modern compound archers.
That archer "friend" of mine looks through his lenses of prejudice since he is a compound bow advocate. But in my opinion, if you want an arrow shooting like a bullet off of a TRADITIONAL set-up..then use your bow as firewood and buy a darn GUN. That's what the Turks did! And that's why I particularly do not go for Turkish bows that much because I like bows that allow for greater variation in draws and technique and that do not focus so much on speed and bullet-like projectiles, which is the main concern of modern compound archers.
And too bad I do not have facebook :/. I abstain from social media (aside from this site) since I do not want the NSA to have an easy time getting all my personal data.Bj?rn Sofeit wrote:
Quite recently Peter Dekker posted images of the Chinese Archery Training Program in Odum, Georgia in the facebook group on traditional asian archery. There's a fast sequence where you can see Justin Ma shoot. The arrow goes very straight as it leaves the bow.
Griping and release will affect the flight of the arrow dramatically. That may sound like a trivial and obvious statement, but it is right.
One thing that particularly troubles me now is how the bow is gripped. In absence of a teacher, these things progress slowly and are explained clumsily with words.
I tried a few things lately and found that if you push the thumb on your bowhand into the target and with your pinky wrapped around the grip with the intend to twist the bow away from the shaft, then the shot seems to come off very clean. You grip it just right, not too hard and the bow will rotate in your hand.
When you pull the bow, the feeling in your bowhand is unusual. Although the wrist is relaxed, it feels springy.
Since you're already on the internet, rest assured that they already know ~everything~. Your provider knows it, Google knows it. Social media can hand over the nonsense and pictures of cats that I post there.
The paper test is not valid for traditional bows because they do not have centre-shot windows and adjustable pressure buttons. Do the same test with a traditional English longbow and you would have similar problems.
If you wished to shoot a compound with a thumb ring, you could achieve perfect paper tests too.
For horse archery, I would use heavy and cheap arrows. Heavy so that they are accurate and do not go too far if you do miss and cheap so that when you do miss and can't find them you don't worry so much. Also use a light bow. The targets are close and is more important to be comfortable drawing and shooting than putting your arrows deeper in than everyone else's. Large fletching is useful for the same reasons.
Irregular arrow flight with a thumb ring is caused by several factors. The first and most important is the pressure of the index finger against the nock. Another is opening the thumb before the index finger. Another is nocking too high or too low (you will feel the second one). An arrow that is not straight and feathers that are crookedly attached can cause problems too.
If you wished to shoot a compound with a thumb ring, you could achieve perfect paper tests too.
For horse archery, I would use heavy and cheap arrows. Heavy so that they are accurate and do not go too far if you do miss and cheap so that when you do miss and can't find them you don't worry so much. Also use a light bow. The targets are close and is more important to be comfortable drawing and shooting than putting your arrows deeper in than everyone else's. Large fletching is useful for the same reasons.
Irregular arrow flight with a thumb ring is caused by several factors. The first and most important is the pressure of the index finger against the nock. Another is opening the thumb before the index finger. Another is nocking too high or too low (you will feel the second one). An arrow that is not straight and feathers that are crookedly attached can cause problems too.
The problem seemed to be mostly side to side oscillation.
Side to side oscillation or fishtailing can be caused by several things.
1. Too large a nock for the string so that the arrow does not receive the impulse of the string in line with its axis.
2. Too much pressure on the side of the nock from the index finger.
3. Too broad a grip at the arrow pass so the arrow bends too far around the bow.
4. Too low a brace height causing a problem like 3.
5. Too soft an arrow so that it bends too much under the force of the string. This includes having an arrow with a heavy arrowhead and a light shaft because that kind of arrow behaves if the shaft was less stiff.
If you are using a modern bow with a sight window and adjustable arrow button, there are even more things that can happen.
1. Too large a nock for the string so that the arrow does not receive the impulse of the string in line with its axis.
2. Too much pressure on the side of the nock from the index finger.
3. Too broad a grip at the arrow pass so the arrow bends too far around the bow.
4. Too low a brace height causing a problem like 3.
5. Too soft an arrow so that it bends too much under the force of the string. This includes having an arrow with a heavy arrowhead and a light shaft because that kind of arrow behaves if the shaft was less stiff.
If you are using a modern bow with a sight window and adjustable arrow button, there are even more things that can happen.