Archery is the fast growing sports in the world. This sport has been practiced for centuries but nowadays, people enjoy archery as entertainment rather than for hunting or fighting. As much as archery evolves throughout the time, the archery bow also evolves a lot from the traditional bow to high-tech bow that we use to see in competitions. There are four types of archery bows which are widely use these days ranging from traditional bow, recurve bow, compound bow, and crossbow.

Each type of archery boy has its own characteristics which make it hard for beginner to choose one. There are lots of factors to consider before choosing your first archery bow. However, before choosing one, here are the four types of archery bows that you need to know.

Beginner’s Guide in Choosing Archery Bow

Longbow/traditional bow

Longbow is the popular bow for traditional archery. You might have seen this type of bow in movies which takes in medieval times because it has strong historical connotations. The longbow is the simplest archery bow as it is not that complicated as a string attached to a stick of wood. This archery bow gently curves toward the archer and basically made the letter ‘D’. Compared to other modern archery bow, the longbow may not be the most challenging bow to shoot with. Even the modern longbow does not much different from the historical one. It is crafted from a single piece of wood which making them popular among beginner archer as hobby.

Recurve bow

Even though the traditional bow has the classic touch, but most people use recurve bow to start their archery journey. This does not mean that recurve bow is not suitable for skilled archers because modern recurve bow is also used in Olympic event. The recurve bow can be said as the elegant version of traditional bow style.

The advantage of recurve bow is the ability to deliver high energy content with shorter length compared to the longbows. This is because both of the head of the bow curve off from the archer which makes the recurve bow more efficient and portable than other types of archery bows.

Compound bow

This type of archery bow is the most technological and modern style of archery bow. The compound bow is mostly used for hunting. This archery bow utilise the innovative cable system, eccentric cams, and pulleys to help the archer when they need to draw a heavy weight. Different from longbow and recurve bow, the compound bow is mostly constructed from man-made materials. This means that the bows are not easily affected by the changes of humidity and temperature.

Crossbow

Crossbow has different appearance compared to other types of archery bows but in general it has the same basic principle. This type of bow is the most preferred one for people who are interested in the sport of bow hunting without the need to spend lots of time in practice.

Beginner’s Guide in Choosing Archery Bow