Archery in the UK

Southern

Well-Known Member
As I understand it, bow and arrow is not allowed for deer ( or even small game hunting in the UK).

So I wondered if anyone there shoots arrows for fun.
Is there any competition?
Are there longbow shooters? Recurve? Compound?
Does anyone travel to Europe or Canada or the US to bowhunt?
 
I shoot recurve on targets and when I am confident enough and have practiced with a compound bow I will be going out to France for boar. That said we can now run a book on how long this thread runs before its closed. Still I do enjoy it.
 
Closed? Really? On shooting targets?
I have posted photos and articles on bowhunting in other threads on wild boar, and grizzly bear.

I just bought another archery book, my first in years, History of the Longbow.

A question I forgot to ask is what kind of bows you can get there, and do you have to import from the US or Europe?
I went to a traditional archery meet in Indiana years ago and there were a significant number of archers from France, Germany and Switzerland.

When you get good with a recurve, you won't need or want a compound. It is a totally different stringed instrument, as different as a violin and electic guitar.
 
Bow and arrow is not permitted for live game in the UK but archery as a sport is an ancient pastime in the UK. They use longbow, recurve and compound bows and targets are traditional bull eyes but there are also field archery competitions as a simulated hunt. In ancient times archery practice was compulsory to keep the archers in good physical shape as the technique of shooting a heavy draw longbow requires muscle training and not insignificant strength.

The archers from the part of the UK where I come from (Welsh/English border) were the weapon of mass destruction of their time. In the 15th century at the Battle of Agincourt the archers of Henry V were the deciding factor having much greater range and speed of firing than the opposition French crossbows.

The widely used two fingered "V sign" insult derives from the practice of cutting the fingers of archers to render them useless and the two fingered salute is to show that the fingers are intact.
 
Get a copy of "The Great Warbow" if you don't already have it. Excellent history of the longbow and details and analysis of our away wins - Poitiers, Crecy, Agincourt, etc.
 
As I understand it, bow and arrow is not allowed for deer ( or even small game hunting in the UK).

So I wondered if anyone there shoots arrows for fun.
Is there any competition?
Are there longbow shooters? Recurve? Compound?
Does anyone travel to Europe or Canada or the US to bowhunt?
This is a little but if history of somewhere I grew up.
Www.llantrisant.net
under the history heading is a bit about welsh archers at the battle of crecy.
dave
 
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There are many clubs in the UK for target with a bow, we have all the makes you have in the usa.
there are quite a few people who travel to the U.S. etc to hunt with them. Not sure on cross bows.
 
This is a little but if history of somewhere I grew up.
Www.llantrisant.net
under the history heading is a bit about welsh archers at the battle of crecy.
dave
I would love to visit there, Plonker. I had Scot ancestors who fought there.

I have been shooting a longbow since I was 13. I make my own arrows, arm guards, finger tabs, and building a new quiver now.
Making bows and arrows was a lost art, until folks like Saxon and Pope examined bows found stashed near Crecy, hidden in a wall, and bows brought up from a shipwreck in the Thames. They were introduced to bowhunting by the last survivor of an Indian tribe they rescued, Ishi.
 
There are many clubs in the UK for target with a bow, we have all the makes you have in the usa.
there are quite a few people who travel to the U.S. etc to hunt with them. Not sure on cross bows.

Is there an industry of bow makers in the UK, as you have with custom knife makers?
A lot of the longbows, recurves, and takedown bows are made by small builders here, many of them pioneers in the industry, now in their second and third generation. I am lucky enough to live near one of them and his son, both national champions in field archery.
 
I would love to visit there, Plonker. I had Scot ancestors who fought there.

If he was Scots I guess he was fighting for the French? As mentioned the English and Welsh routinely "traveled to Europe" for a spot of field archery. As for local craftsmen this lot are just up the road from me: The Longbow Emporium - News and Gallery.

I think the wreck recovered bows you mention came from the Mary Rose, sunk in the Solent in 1545: The Mary Rose
 
I think the wreck recovered bows you mention came from the Mary Rose, sunk in the Solent in 1545: The Mary Rose

Make you right there. The recovery, stabilisation and conservation of the many longbows and arrows from the wreck of the Mary Rose, (and attempts to get some of them back into shooting condition), is dealt with in detail by author, actor and toxophilite Robert Hardy in his book, the aforementioned "The Great Warbow" - a cracking read and available for a few quid from the usual suspects.

As an aside, anyone care to comment on what is the hot ticket at the moment in compound bows for hunting and field archery?
 
The bit of family history I have is that some of my Scot ancestors, having lost some land, got it back or bought it back by hiring out as sort of mercenaries. They were not archers. My Scot ancestors are most noted for fighting against the English for quite a while, finally at Londonberry and in the Carolinas at Kings Mountain. I have a Bodkin point handed down from my German ancestors, which wounded one of them in the thigh. My grandmother, of Scot and German ancestry, passed it on.

Yes, Pope and Young studied the old English bows found and and with the help of Ishi, went from making flat bows to rounded longbows. Then Howard Hill started making them commercially. Today, Byron Ferguson continues that tradition of longbow prowess.

Byron Ferguson brings me back off the history to modern hunting. If you have not seen him shoot, go to YouTube and search for other videos. A few months ago, down in Other Hunting, I posted some pics and links to some hunters I know and their bears and moose taken with longbow.
 
Have seen the bows off the Mary rose they look like new, amazingly preserved. They have test bow there you can try.
 
I shot indoor recurve for a while but being stuck indoors eventually drove me a bit mad. So I evolved and bought a Hoyt compound and did field target archery.
Won a few comps, lost lots of XX75 arrows (ouch) and became not too bad at guessing distances.
 
Have seen the bows off the Mary rose they look like new, amazingly preserved. They have test bow there you can try.

My understanding is that although they managed to restore the Mary Rose bows so that they look 'like new', (it was a very involved a tedious process to bring them back from skanky black sticks), the cellular structure of the wood has been so degraded by centuries of immersion in seawater and mud, that they have approximately half the strength that they at one time possessed. Put simply: the ones selected for experimental use snapped at nowhere near their original calculated draw weights.
 
Loads of clubs & Events for Archery enthusiasts in the UK. All makes and models of bow`s including accessories available to in the UK.
Unfortunately no Hunting permitted of any kind.
A good discipline to master which aid`s concentration, steadiness and breathing along with whole host of other things.
Anyone planning a European hunting trip don't hesitate to contact me ;)

 
I shoot a Bow tech compound. Have done now for about two years, A group of us are hoping to go to Africa next year hunting if we can get our arses in gear. Wonder hart hunting also offer bow hunting for boar in Hungary. I much prefer to target shoot with a bow than a rifle now. There is a lot more skill in shooting a bow than a rifle thats for sure.
Regards Sean
 
Interesting reading especially regarding longbows. It remained me of a great series of books I read a few years back. Written by Bernard Cornwell, it won't be to everyone's tastes but he is one of my favourite authors. (I read the Sharpe series as a boy)

Here it is: Grail Quest | Series | Bernard Cornwell

if you have an interest in Longbows it's definitely worth a read.

J
 
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