Ooooo I Can Add To This!! My Cool Hobby That I Love Is Archery And My Bow Is Definitely The Most Expensive

Ooooo I can add to this!! My cool hobby that I love is archery and my bow is definitely the most expensive thing I own oop. The cool thing about it is that it's actually lots of components that I've bought over the years to build up to a full bow.

The bowstyle I shoot is called Olympic recurve (though I am far from shooting in the Olympics myself lmao) and it has LOADS of stuff added onto what most people would think of when they picture a bow.

I don't have any pictures of my bow that don't also feature me, but I can show off the model and how it all fits together!

The main part of a bow is the riser; it's basically the handle and the most important bit (at least to me). It's also where a lot of personalisation can come in - my riser is purple and I love it!!! Here's a picture of the model I have hehe

My own is the middle one but I was very tempted by the blue one too - my friend has the silver one and he wove ribbons and flowers through the holes in the riser which looked honestly stunning.

The limbs are the bendy bit on the bow, and they determine the length and the poundage of the bow. Different people shoot bows of different lengths due to their draw length - my draw length is bang on average at 28" so I shoot an average length bow, which is 68" (so when it's fully strung it's the same height as me!) but I've seen bows as short as 64" and as long as 72".

After the limbs and the string, there's also the sight - which is what we use to aim - and the stabilisers, which are used to balance out the bow. Here's a full set up:

They are super hefty once you put all the stuff onto them!! And there's even a few other little pieces - one of my favourites is the clicker, which sits on the riser over the arrow, and once the tip of the arrow goes past it, it snaps closed against the riser, making a clicking sound. This is set up for each individual archer to match the length of your arrows and where you need to draw to to get to a consistent shot, and is literally just a Pavlovian response. Like, when I hear my clicker go I don't even think, I just release the arrow - I even once released early because I heard my friend's clicker go off next to me lmao. So while drawing a bow is very controlled and calculated, that moment of release is very instinctual.

One thing that confuses a lot of people when they watch recurve archers is the fact that the bow swings really dramatically when we release - that's all due to the stabilisation set up and the fact that, when we're drawing the bow, we're not actually holding it, the tension from pulling the string back pushes the bow against our hand, but we don't actually grip it, which means when we release, it literally flies out of our hand. We have things called finger slings, which hold onto the bow, but I have seem people's finger slings break and their bow does literally just fly out of their hand. It's a really hard skill to learn because everyone's natural instinct is to grab the fast moving thing, so it takes a good bit of training to teach yourself not to, but it ends up with a much more smooth shot. Here's an example:

It's a super fun sport!! If you want to watch any, I would highly recommend the Kings of Archery tournament because my word they really get into it.

The other cool thing with archery is it doesn't all have to be shot all from the same distance in a standard setting (that's what we call target archery) but there's also cool variations like field, where you travel around the woods and shoot at targets that are at different distances and at weird angles. Coolest shot I've ever done is at 55m across a river, and the target was between the trunks of a tree that had separated off from each other, and I had to shoot into this gap. There was another shot on that course where we shot at about 25m horizontally, but the target was like 20m up a sheer quarry wall, so we were shooting at almost a 45 degree angle, truly crazy stuff. I'd also highly recommend watching some field archery videos!!

I think a lot of people assume that archery must be really violent or fast paced, but honestly it is so peaceful, and most people I know who do archery find it very relaxing.

So yeah, that's my cool thing!

Would any of my mutuals or followers be willing to show any cool collections or hobbies they have? Photos, videos, lists, anything you love and want to share. Pets, knives, rocks, knitting projects, art or writing wips, amazing outfits, etc. Or instead you could say some cool facts about you, or something you’ve always wanted to share. PLEASE info dump me. I love essays of what people are passionate about, literally anything. This is a post for you to brag on. Show what you’ve bought or commissioned, or show the most expensive thing you own. I would just like to learn more about the people on here and what makes you human :)

Tagging: @eaveplzzz @spydrrr @deliriousdingo @mo-the-vagabond @i-have-zero-social-skills @wesley-in-space @archievictrola @atrociousmagpie @n30nwrites @vaxxy-the-raven @theylovewinnie @lithdraug @thechronicsloth @themurderofcrowscollective @spacemanxpaninis @fanby-fckry @thedomesticanthropologist @kililvr @streetlight-haver @chickada and anyone else who wishes to join! This is also not obligatory, I don’t want to force people to do something they aren’t comfortable with!

Just finished this little headshot!! Loved drawing such a fun character :3

Loved drawing this boy!!

Spruce Headshot #2

Another Spruce headshot, this time done by the wonderful @archievictrola!

Look at all that floof! I love my baby boy so much!

icon for @izzypaw!! It was so fun to draw, i love these patterns sm! x3

[ it/she ]

Umbreon!

My half of an art trade with @theartistkitsuneuwu !! Loved getting to draw this character and play around with lighting