Traditional Archery Bows Explained

In traditional archery, the bows often are compared to works of art, rather than simple, arrow-delivering tools.Traditional archers carry their bows with pride, and they’ll gladly rattle off the specs – draw weight, construction material, string type, manufacturer, etc.In the compound-bow world, the differences between bows boils down to the manufacturers. But in the end, however, all are compound bows.Not so in traditional archery. There are several different types of bows, and you’ve got to know what you’re holding.In this video, Lancaster Archery Supply and TradTech TechXPert John Wert describes the various types of traditional bows – self-bow, classic longbow, modern longbow, one-piece recurve, take-down recurve and ILF takedown recurve.In doing so, Wert discusses their construction, what it feels like to shoot them and how they fit in the traditional world.Wert delivers his traditional-bow dissertation on the grounds of the 2016 Eastern Traditional Archery Rendezvous in Potter County, Pa. It is the largest gathering of traditional archers in the U.S.As Wert talks, you can see traditional archers of all ages shooting their bows in the background.Each of the bows Wert describes was represented at the rendezvous.