A basic guide to the parts of a bow

A bow is pretty recognizable on sight. I mean, most people would probably know they’re looking at a bow as soon as they see it.But can you name the different parts of a bow? Do you know what the limb bolt is? How about the arrow shelf?We’ve got two basic diagrams here, where we’ve labeled some of the most common components of both compound and recurve bows.There are bows of both types that are configured slightly different than our illustrations, but the parts we’ve identified are pretty universal.Check out our illustrations, so you can know what you’re looking at when you’re handling a bow.SINGLE-CAM COMPOUND BOW RECURVE BOW