Basic Equipment Guide
- Bow Types
- Arrows
- Arrow rests
- Pressure Buttons
- Sights
- Stabilisers
Arrow Types
For target and field archery there are many makes of arrow but there are basically four types based on the materials of manufacture. These are wood, aluminium, aluminium/carbon, and carbon.
| Wood | Wooden arrows are principally used by archers shooting longbows and flat bows. The wood grain in the arrow shaft has to be reasonably straight and free from knots. Wooden arrows are not overly expensive but can break reasonably easily. |
| Aluminium | Aluminium are by far the most popular and the primary choice of the novice target or field archer. Available in several shaft sizes (spines),colours and lengths, aluminium arrows are relatively low cost and are reasonably tolerant to damage. Aluminium arrows also have the advantage of being easily found with a metal detector, a must at most clubs who shoot on sports fields.The only disadvantage of aluminium is that when low spines are required (stiff arrows for higher poundage bows) they can be high diameter and heavy, this tends to limit the range for an acceptable sight mark. |
| Aluminium/Carbon | Aluminium/Carbon arrows are a development of the aluminium system. These arrows offer significant strength and stiffness benefits whilst maintaining small arrow diameters and weight. This is achieved by wrapping a smaller lighter aluminium core with carbon fibre. These arrows are expensive and can often only be bought as matched weight sets of 12. The major advantage of these arrows is the ability to reach 100 yard and 90 meter targets with relatively low poundage bows. Again these arrows have the advantage of being easily found with a metal detector, |
| Carbon | The logical conclusion to the development of light-weight stiff arrows for maximising range at reasonable sight marks. Carbon only arrows offer all the benefits of the aluminium carbon arrows but are even lighter, allowing long distances to be easily reached with sensible sight marks on low poundage bows. The disadvantage of carbons is that they cannot be used outdoors at many clubs as they cannot easily be found with metal detectors, limiting there use to indoors. |
Arrow Spine and matching
The spine of an arrow if a measure of how whippy or flexible it is. It is related to the length, diameter and thickness of the tube that makes-up the arrow. It is defined as the deflection in thousands of an inch of the arrow measured at the mid point when a 2lb weight is hung at the mid point when the arrow is supported at two points nominally 1 inch in from the end of the arrow shaft.
It is important to match the spine of the arrow with the draw weight of bow under the conditions that you shoot. If the arrow has to high (too weak) or low (too stiff) a spine for your draw length and weight, then the arrow will not perform very well and will curve off to the left or right. If the spine is much to high then the arrow can be damaged. For most purposes basic matching of arrow to bow can be achieved through arrow shaft selection charts. But for more information see our tuning section.