Diamond Rings and More

Posts Tagged ‘war’

Do you have a leisure pursuit that you like to carry out out of doors or are you permanently stuck to the chair in front of your computer? If you never get out, then that is a shame and you ought to take that common piece of advice and get out more often .

And do what? – you may inquire. Yes, well that is your concern, is it not? But there are hundreds if not thousands of things that you can do in the open air and they are all healthier than sitting down in front of your computer no matter what you are doing with your PC.

I will confess that I spend too much time at my desk, although, in my defense, I will say that that is how I make my living. However, I do like to get out-of-doors sometimes too. I live in a country where foreigners, such as myself, are not permitted to own or carry anything that might be construed as a weapon. This includes penknives as well.

When I go out into the glorious countryside it is only to stroll with my wife and look for animals – mostly snakes and birds.. However, I have had a lifetime fascination for archery.

Something inside me desires to be able to hit a target from a long distance. I do not want to kill anything, but I am alright with people who do so long as it is for a decent reason.

It would be fantastic to make a bow and the arrows to accompany it. I am Welsh and have always wanted a Welsh longbow, although it requires a great deal of strength to pull a longbow. The minimum draw weight in medieval times used to be 160 lbs for a war bow, for hunting it was 100 lbs, but these days it is more like 60 lbs.

However, this is still pretty heavy for modern man, who does not usually pick up anything weightier than a pint of beer.

There are some fantastic archery dealers, but if you do not live near one, you should go on line and either place an order from there or have a catalogue sent to you. Two good places to start are ‘Footed Shaft’ and ‘Three Rivers’ archery suppliers.

Both of these companies will send you your desired items through the post and they have any kind of archery supplies that you may need. For example, they have finished goods such as bows and arrows, but they also supply nocks, feathers, arrow shafts and points so that you can make your own arrows.

Do you want to make your own bow as well? No problem. You can either purchase a kit with all the bits and instructions or you can buy a book or DVD and buy the parts yourself.

These and other on line archery equipment dealers provide good value for money and have very comprehensive stocks of archery products. Their catalogues and web sites are easy to navigate and use as well.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various topics, but is presently involved with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery played a large part in human daily life for thousands of years from ancient times until about 1750, when the gun began to supplant it for hunting and warfare quite quickly. Peoples all over Europe, north Africa, like Egypt, Persia (Iran), India, China and Japan celebrate their most skillful archers. I am sure that other countries do as well.

Wales had Twm Sion Catty; England created Robin Hood and Switzerland memorializes William Tell. Greek and Trojan archers are told of by name in Homer’s ‘Iliad’. Archers all over the world were considered popular heroes like footballers are these days.

It seems that bows were first invented in various parts of the world practically at the same time in the late Paleolithic Age or the early Mesolithic Age. It is remarkable that different kinds of bows were developed by the different societies around the world and each sort of bow was invented to suit the style of warfare that that society conducted and to the environment in which they hunted.

There are too many varieties of bow to give details of them all here, but some of the most common archery bows are: the longbow, flatbow, shortbow, recurve bow, compound bow and crossbow.

The longbow and the flatbow are similar in size, both can be six feet or more in length, but the cross section of the longbow is ‘D’ shaped, whereas that of a flatbow is rectangular. A flatbow is usually wider than a longbow. Both can shoot heavy 36 inch arrows long distances with great force – enough to pierce the armour of the Middle Ages from 250-300 yards.

The shortbow is shorter, as you might gather from its name. It is a short distance bow, utilized for hunting small animals in regions where a large bow would be too unwieldy such as in woods or forests.

The compound bow is also a shorter bow, but it is extremely powerful because the limbs are not very flexible. In order to flex the limbs, use is made of a system of pulleys or cams.

This gives the compound bow enough power (more than 50 pound draw weight) to enable it to be used to hunt bigger game such as deer or bear. The compound bow is a new style, which was only invented in 1966.

Recurve bows have tips that ‘point the wrong way’ when the bow is unstrung. This gives the recurve more strength inch for inch than the long or flatbow, enabling it to be used as an effective weapon for warfare or hunting from horseback.

Crossbows are specialized bows, which can be pre-loaded similar to a gun and shot later. In general, it requires less skill and physical strength to use a crossbow.

The arrows are very important too. Arrows can be interchangeable between the bows to a limited extent, but the length should suit the draw of the bow. Crossbow bolts are normally very short.

There are two types or shooting: instinctive and sight shooting. Sight shooting means using sights of some kind to aim, either by looking down the arrow or using optical fibre sights. Instinctive shooting is more difficult because it is intuitive. It cannot be learned, you have either got it or you ain’t.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on various topics, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

If you are American and you like archery, you will almost certainly have heard of Three Rivers Archery products. In Europe and the remainder of the world, you probably have not heard of them. Three Rivers Archery products are some of the finest in the world. In their own words, they specialize in longbows and recurve bows.

Three Rivers Archery also offers arrows and other archery equipment such as the resources to construct or refurbish your own arrows. These resources include carbon fibre, wooden and aluminium arrow shafts, arrow heads, feathers and nocks. They also supply quivers, arrow rests, bow strings and everything else to do with archery.

The cost of these superb quality products is reasonable and professional archers, hunters, hobbyists and sports people all use Three Rivers Archery goods. There are models of archery equipment to suit every purpose and every pocket.

The paraphernalia sold by Three Rivers Archery is of Olympic standard. That is to say that their recurve bows match up to the requirements set by the Olympic committee. Their traditional selfbows are authentic replicas of original longbows.

The arrows are constructed of modern materials as well as timber. The modern composite arrows are usually better because modern carbon fibre and aluminium alloys are more durable for making arrow shafts than wood. That is difficult to confess for a traditionalist, but modern carbon fibre and aluminium alloy arrows do not splinter like a wooden arrow can if shot from a heavy-duty longbow.

The steel arrow tips that Three Rivers Archery has are far better than the old brass arrow tips as well. The old brass arrow tips would often buckle or dent, whereas these new steel points are almost indestructible. They sell whistling steel tips as well, although I am not certain why anyone would want a whistling arrow point. What is the point?

If you are not sure where you can get hold of Three Rivers Archery goods, go online. They have an excellent web site which is massive although still easy to navigate. If you are interested in archery, then I am in no doubt that you could easily spend an hour or more just browsing the web site.

Their web site is very carefully set out with distinct sections for every facet of archery including ready-made items such as bows, arrows, paraphernalia and clothing; there are additional web pages on targets, quivers, accessories, books, DVD’s and adolescent archery. There are further web pages on medieval archery, hunting and bow making. There are even special offers only available to their web site visitors.

If that is not enough, then there is a forum, an email service and an off-line catalogue. Three Rivers Archery will of course send your purchase to your home. You can order by post, by telephone or over the Internet.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several subjects, but is presently concerned with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Bow hunting or bowhunting is one of those sports that you either love or you hate – a little like fox hunting in the United Kingdom. Town people abhor it and anybody involved with it and country people see it essential to cull wild animals that could otherwise become a nuisance.

Despite its macho image, which was encouraged by the film the Deer Hunter, there are increasing quantities of women who go bowhunting. The big distinction between hunting with a rifle and hunting with a bow is distance. A hunting rifle with telescopic sights can provide enough punch at 600 yards to take down a deer with a single shot virtually wherever it is hit in the chest.

On the other hand, a hunter using a bow with a fifty pound draw weight will have to be within about forty yards to be able to deliver the same sort of lethal punch, if the shot is accurate to the heart.

This means that if you seriously wound an animal from 600 yards, it will probably be dead by the time you get there, clambering over fallen trees and rocks, but if you severely wound a deer from forty yards you see its pain.

This has a salutacious effect on most bow hunters. The vast majority of bow hunters do not want to see this and they do not want the creature to suffer either, so they wait for the right shot. If it is not there, they do not shoot.

A hunting bow has to have a draw weight of at least fifty pounds to hunt large game and that used to mean quite a hefty recurve or longbow, but the compound bow was developed in 1966.

A compound bow makes use of pulleys to help with the draw, which permits less beefy people to accomplish a draw weight of fifty pounds, which has opened up bowhunting to women and adolescents.

Large wild animals are dangerous and some will attack without warning if they feel in danger. This creates a danger zone around wild animals. Every sort of animal has a danger zone, for a lion, that could be pretty large and for a stag less so. This danger zone is an locale outside of which you are fairly safe.

If you are hunting with a gun, you can stay outside that danger zone easily, but with a bow and arrow, well, you often have to go inside it. This enlarged risk provides a superior rush for bow hunters – a bigger thrill. Especially if they are hunting bears or mountain lions.

In contrast to the Deer Hunter, most bow hunters go on prearranged trips these days. The hunting trip is organized through a specialized firm which will present accompanied trips into areas known to have large numbers of the animals you want to pursue.

These professional guides know how to bait areas to lure your prey; they can give advice on safety aspects and they carry a big gun in case a hunter is too stupid to follow their advice. Regrettably, the gun is for use on the animal, not the idiot.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on various subjects, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery is about hitting a target with an arrow shot from a bow. The bow can either be an straight bow or a crossbow, although most people think of upright bows when they hear the word ‘archery’. Within the sport or hobby of target archery, there are two types: target archery and field archery. The winner is the archer with the highest aggregate score of his arrows that struck the target.

Target archery involves shooting arrows, normally six, from different distances typically 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres. The archers stand in a line before their targets starting at 90 metres and shoot an arrow on the order of whoever is in charge.

Then they all advance to the 70 metre mark and shoot again on the order and so on. After the six arrows have been shot, the archers advance to their targets and tally up up their scores.

Field archery necessitates walking around a course where targets are set at a variety of distances. The targets can be the traditional round ones or they may be replicas of wild animals like rabbits, elk or bears.

Traditional targets are made from straw. Handfuls of straw are tied with string and made into a kind of rope. This rope is then wound around and around itself until a target of the right size has been made. The rope is held in place either by pinning it or tying it. A canvas or paper target is then pinned to the front of it.

Target archery can be practiced outdoors or indoors and the target sizes are different to match the various distances. An outdoor archery target can be either 122 centimetres or 80 centimetres in diameter. The middle of this target is 24.4 centimetres in diameter and there are four concentric circles around this. The indoor target is 80 centimetres in diameter. The centre of this size target is 16 centimetres and also has four concentric rings around it.

Each ring is about eight centimetres wide on the smaller target. The targets are coloured gold in the centre, then red, blue, black and white. At the middle of the gold is what many archers call the ‘pinhole’.

It is a small cross of about two millimetres in width. The target should then be placed on an easel or stand with a tilt of about 15 degrees. The pinhole should be 130 centimetres off the ground (plus or minus five centimetres).

If there is more than one archer, the pinholes should all be at the same height off the ground and the targets should be clearly numbered. The shooting line should be plainly marked and an archer’s shooting spot should be marked too. Five yards behind the archer, there should be another line, behind which non-competitors may stand.

The danger zone between the archers and the targets should be cordonned off to prevent spectators wandering into the line of fire. Knowing that the spectators are kept well back helps the archers to focus on their archery.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various topics, but is presently concerned with longbows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.