(Part 2) Best archery books according to redditors
We found 58 Reddit comments discussing the best archery books. We ranked the 26 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Books?
You're going to have to decide if you want to approach it from a modern or traditional standpoint. I shoot recurve competitively, so the links I'll provide will be focused on modern recurve bows.
Archerytalk, a popular forum
FITA's youtube channel. They upload VODs from every major event they can
Technical resources:
The Easton tuning guide
Texas archery keeps a list of useful links and documents. It's a mashup of things, but sometimes the tuning and instructionals are useful. [In particular, the recurve reference guide.]
(http://www.texasarchery.org/Documents/ArchersReference/archref_05.pdf)
Form and technique:
The basics. This is what we teach absolute beginners at my club.
Total Archery. A very advanced and very significant book. Countries have created entire coaching programs based around the teachings of the book's author.
Precision Archery
Zen in the Art of Archery
Do not listen to ApertureLabs. Besides the fact that he so easily insults the most popular type of archery in the modern world, he's also plain wrong. You don't need textbook form, but it is important that beginners understand the basic reasoning behind using proper muscle groups, stance, grip, balance, and joint orientation. Developing your own technique without guidance will always lead to bad habits because a lot of the above does not come naturally to someone who picks up a bow for the first time. Shrugged shoulders, puffed chests, and floating anchors are all common ailments of beginners who come to my club with no coaching, all of which are difficult habits to shake and impede your ability to improve.
Oooh oooh ooh, [Byron Ferguson's Become the Arrow] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Become-Arrow-On-Target-Series/dp/091330509X/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0TCA8CRDMQBYP95760YE) is great!
Aswell as the Beginner's Guide to Traditional Archery :)
That said, I did just buy a book on making arrows from dowels The author has a lot of stuff on youtube.
I started into archery by getting a book first. I do recommend this course of action, because then afterwards I knew a good deal about what I wanted, what I should get, etc. This was the book I got. I think it was a very good book to start into archery with. I was armed with a pretty good base of knowledge and had decided that I wanted to shoot recurve. So then I went searching for a bow.
My first bow was a PSE Buckeye Recurve at 20# draw weight. It was a really good bow, especially to start with, and I think I chose the draw weight well. At first I had trouble shooting it, but as I learned how to use my muscles correctly it quickly became easier.
I wanted to try longbow then, and I started getting bows from WoodBows. It's a family run business, very nice man and good service (he replaces broken bows free of charge). The bows are cheap, especially relative to other bows on the market. Their quality is fine for the price. They don't last too long, but he'll replace any bows that break within a year of purchase.
I'm a longbow archer now, but I still shoot recurve every once in a while. Contrary to what I thought before, there's not too much difference between these two types of bows. I just stick to traditional archery. The next bow I get will be some kind of longbow, probably higher price and quality than what I usually get.
hope I helped
Books:
-Hunting the Hard Way, by Howard Hill (arguably the best archer of the past 100 years)
-Become the Arrow, by Byron Ferguson (arguably the best trick shooter alive today. This is a really good followup to Hunting the Hard Way because it helps break down some of Howard's form more)
-Understanding Winning Archery, by Al Henderson (Not exactly longbow shooting, but if you're going to shoot instinctive you need to be able to focus and you absolutely need to be an optimist)
The Witchery of Archery, by Maurice Thompson. (This is the book that inspired Howard Hill. This one's great, but Hunting the Hard Way also covers the same form/techniques)
Videos:
Instinctive Shooting, by Paul Brunner (This one's chock full of bad 80s graphics and VHS quality, but he helps break down instinctive shooting and the importance of form)
And then there's these videos by John Schultz. It's a bit dry and very, very old but full of great information on longbow shooting:
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4kIpsoi6oY
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98fuYYD5LOM
3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJKOZ6KfRRs
4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jJh15ErDII
And for good measure, some shoulder workouts that will help you out
Now, to answer your question about the different stances, there's always going to be a difference between target and hunting/combat forms. In rifle shooting, just compare target shooting stances with combat shooting stances.
Target styles are geared more for controlled conditions. You have time to aim and shoot, you're not moving, your target probably isn't moving. Target styles are going to be inherently more consistent and more accurate on paper and at static ranges because they focus on repetition within those controlled conditions.
Combat/hunting forms, however, are more geared towards versatility and fast target acquisition. While you still need consistency in the relation of your shoulders and arms to the bow and arrow, you won't be as reliant on having familiar conditions to be able to shoot well enough (distance to target, low or high angle shots, whether or not you have stable or even footing, kneeling shots, prone shots, shooting while moving, shooting on horseback). When you practice enough you'll be able to do things that target shooters wouldn't be able to dream of doing, like shooting while running at a full sprint, or while popping out from behind cover and taking a quick shot, or if you're riding at full speed on a horse. This all, of course, comes at the expense of accuracy, and that's something you need to be okay with before you get in too deep here. Hunting and combat styles are all about getting a “good enough” shot (i.e. a shot to the vitals, which, if you look at the size of the lungs/heart/liver to a deer or person, are much larger than the X ring on a target).
All of that said, every single shooting style I've come across, target, instinctive, or hunting, all comes back to having good and consistent form. No matter how much you cant the bow and no matter how weird the shot is, the relation of your arms, shoulder blades, elbows, spine, head, and arrow need to be consistent, and though the nuances of each style are a little different, you'd be best served by learning the fundamentals through a class