It doesnt matter how many pounds you can pull back, because there are bows for every persons, from kids to Odysseus. If you are into "classic" archery as example english long bow, then there is a minimum strength needed, but you will train that anyway, simply by doing so. I wouldnt recommed starting with a "classic" bow, because they are very expensive and need much caring. So if you never did the sport before, I would first try with a cheaper one or a loaned one in a club, if you really like the sport and only when you are sure about it, look for a more specific bow. Normally today its more about modern compound bows, and these are ordered fitting to your physics. Anyway, it is not important how much you can pull back or not, but the important thing is how much you can pull back with full control of your movements. As example if you see weightlifters, that work on their limits, you normally see the muscles shiver. Its nice if you want to do weightlifting on the limit of your strenghts, but its complete useless if you want to get aim. ^^
So the important limit is that you still can do the movements with full control, without muscle shivering or anything. I never shot with a gun, but I think it will be the same there. So I think a gun needs to be comfortable in your hands as well, so you can concentrate on aiming, If you are a small tiny woman without any muscles, a long ancient guns whose weight you cant control propperly and whose shot power you cant handle, will simply be the wrong choice. You need to have control of it, if not, you will hardly aim, and if you cant aim there is no use doing archery. ^^ Simply throwing sticks around, you can do much cheaper. ^^
You should also inform about the laws in your country, so in some countries archery is similar to weapon use, so as example you are only allowed to do it in special places, in others its not that harsh but you have still rules that you have to oversee the complete area around you to make sure, noone can suddenly attempt and be hurted... Because of the fewer reach its not as bad as I think it is with guns, so if you are standing in the middle of a large field, that you can easily overview, you are normally also at the limit of your weapon reach, so you will hardly be able to hurt accidently a person in 350 meters distance if you miss the target. The misadvantage of open field, is that there is no barrier against the wind, so I would recommend you to start at specific archer areas that are fenced.
If you have never done so before I recommen to do your first step with a trained person, to avoid accidents and hurting yourself. So the wrong handling of an classic english long bow, designed for a real strong person, can in the worst situation end with open arm veins if you dont have protectors or skills. If you are more into classic archery then LARP clubs or midieval markets will be able to tell you about contacts to acchieve the right equipment. For modern archery sport shops are sufficient.
You should know that most archers that stay at the sport, are more of the silent patient kind. The whole sport is about calming down and concentrating. So if you are hoping to group up with cool guys like the guy from "The walking Dead", having cool archer parties and knows hell what, you will mostly get disappointed. Hunting is also not really fitting, because the arrows dont have that "brutal" impact as modern gun haves, so there is no shock to the deer, its more likely that you will simply hurt one, and then it will run away, dying painfully over days because of getting slowly an infection. (Thats why trackseeking was so important in earlier days, often you were forced to follow the wounded deer for hours or days.) I only know, that it is not appreciated by many experienced archers, because there are too many disadvantages for the deer, its more of a Nogo. So I never hunted and never used a gun, but if you want to hunt, a gun will be much more fitting I think. But there are plenty of hunters and gun users, who can tell you facts about that if you are interested about it.
02 May 2013, 8:41 pm
