Posts Tagged ‘politics’

Tips For Bow Fishing

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Archery fishing is also known as bow fishing and it is as ancient as the bow and arrow themselves. We in the West are inclined to think that only poorer tribesmen in Third World countries go bow fishing, but that is not quite true.

These days the hunting of mammals is stringently controlled and so some people who like to hunt with a bow will switch to bow fishing if the animals that they like to pursue, say deer, are out of season. Some other people, who would not hunt a deer or bear are quite happy to kill fish in this fashion.

Bow fishing is a skillful sport, but the equipment need not necessarily be hi-tech. The fact is that you can use whatever bow you have or you can just make one. It does not have to be strong, because the quarry is seldom more than ten feet away. You categorically do not need a 100 lbf longbow to kill a trout.

Having said that, any bow used for fishing will need to be adapted slightly – you will need to attach a reel to it, but it does not have to be anything fancy. There are three principal types of reel for use in bow fishing: hand-wrap, spincast and retriever and the line is usually braided nylon of approximately eighty pounds although you might require six hundred pound breaking strain line for alligators or sharks.

It is worth checking out the regulations with regard to bow fishing in your country or state, because sometimes bow fishermen have to be licensed and sometimes getting that license involves having been on a safety course.

Some regions will even have by-laws regarding the kind of equipment you can use in bow fishing and of course, some fish have seasonal restrictions.

Bow fishing is a hybrid of fishing and hunting, so you could have to acquire some new skills like tying knots for instance. You will have to be able to tie the line to the reel and the arrow and those knots will have to be able to put up with the tremendous acceleration that an arrow leaving a bow goes through without failing.

The bow may not be different much from a standard bow, but the arrows certainly do. Arrows for bow fishing are usually a lot heavier that air-flight arrows. They also have barbed tips to stop the fish escaping or just slipping off when you reel it in. The arrows do not have fletching either because flights are apt to deflect the true course of the arrow in water – the reverse of in the air.

There are three main techniques used in bow fishing: 1] you can put down ground bait and lie in wait. – an over hanging tree or high boulder is good for this; 2] you can float down stream in a boat while sitting or standing in the bow; 3] you can walk into the river like a salmon fisherman.

Compensating for the refraction of the water is the most difficult ability to learn and that means knowing the water well as well.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several subjects, but is presently concerned with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Targets In Field And Target Archery

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Archery can be classed as a sport or a hobby and it has its own category at the Olympic Games. Archers either hunt wild game animals or aim at targets or both. If you aim at targets in a competition, it is the aggregate score of all your arrows that is used to work out your position in that competition. The nearer the centre of the target that the arrow strikes, the higher the tally.

Target archery can also be sub-divided into two classes: field archery and target archery. In target archery, the archer stands in a fixed spot. If there are a number of archers, they can stand in a row and all aim together on command from the person in charge of enforcing the rules and safety. Any kind of bow can normally be used in target archery, although only compound bows may be employed in the Olympic Games.

In field archery, the targets are of diverse sizes and are placed at different distances. The archer moves around the course, so there is no one fixed shooting spot. The targets may be the well-known round targets with concentric circles or they may be life-size models of wild animals like bears, deer and rabbits.

The bows used in field archery are more often than not traditional type bows: longbows, flat bows and recurves, although archers are allowed to use any bow that they like. When hunting live animals, compound bows are normally used because they are smaller, so more manoeuvrable, yet they are still extremely powerful.

Archery targets are conventionally made from straw bundled and tied together to make ropes. These ropes of straw are then wrapped around themselves like a Catherine Wheel and stitched together. The cloth or paper target is pinned to the front of it.

The other name for these targets is ‘butts’ and many old towns and villages in Britain still have a recreational area known as ‘The Butts’. Nowadays they play football or cricket on it, but Henry VIII decreed that all males must practice his archery skills every Sunday at the butts using a longbow, so that there would be a lavish supply of archers for his army.

In competition archery, every archer shoots at his or her own target, but every archer is expected to have uniquely coloured flights, so that if there is a problem an archer and the arrow can be identified. This is useful for retrieving arrows that have missed the target altogether.

There are usually six arrows shot by each competitor in a series and if they are to be shot from different distances, it is normal to shoot from the furthest distance first. Men usually shoot from 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres, while ladies usually shoot from 70, 60, 50 and 30 metres.

Archery as a sport appears to be growing in popularity, especially as there is a tendency in some countries, like the UK, to make it more arduous to obtain a gun license. They say that fashion goes around and comes back again, well British men are back at the butts practicing their archery skills again in greater numbers than there have been since possibly the sixteenth century.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently concerned with archery bows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Three Rivers Archery

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

If you are American and you like archery, you will almost certainly have heard of Three Rivers Archery products. In Europe and the remainder of the world, you probably have not heard of them. Three Rivers Archery products are some of the finest in the world. In their own words, they specialize in longbows and recurve bows.

Three Rivers Archery also supplies arrows and other archery paraphernalia such as the materials to construct or refurbish your own arrows. These materials include carbon fibre, wooden and aluminium arrow shafts, arrow heads, feathers and nocks. They also provide quivers, arrow rests, bow strings and everything else to do with archery.

The cost of these superb quality products is reasonable and professional archers, hunters, hobbyists and sports people all use Three Rivers Archery goods. There are models of archery equipment to suit every purpose and every pocket.

The equipment sold by Three Rivers Archery is of Olympic standard. That is to say that their recurve bows meet the requirements set by the Olympic committee. Their traditional selfbows are authentic replicas of original longbows.

The arrows are made of modern resources as well as timber. The modern composite arrows are often better because modern carbon fibre and aluminium alloys are better for producing arrow shafts than wood. That is hard to confess for a traditionalist, but modern carbon fibre and aluminium alloy arrows do not splinter like a wooden arrow might if shot from a heavy-duty longbow.

The steel arrow tips that Three Rivers Archery sells are far better than the old brass arrow tips as well. The old brass arrow points would often buckle or dent, whereas these new steel points are practically unbreakable. They sell whistling steel points too, although I am not sure why anyone would ask for a whistling arrow point. What is the point?

If you are not certain where you can get hold of Three Rivers Archery products, go online. They have an outstanding web site which is massive although still easy to navigate. If you are interested in archery, then I am sure that you could easily spend an hour or more just browsing the web site.

Their web site is very well laid out with distinct sections for every aspect of archery including ready-made items such as bows, arrows, paraphernalia and apparel; there are additional web pages on targets, quivers, accessories, books, DVD’s and adolescent archery. There are further web pages on medieval archery, hunting and bow making. There are even special offers only available to their web site visitors.

If that is not impressive, then there is a forum, an email service and an off-line catalogue. Three Rivers Archery will of course deliver your order to your door. You can order by post, by telephone or over the Internet.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various subjects, but is currently involved with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery Bows: Some Basic Iformation

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Archery played a large part in human daily life for thousands of years from prehistoric times until about 1750, when the gun began to replace it for hunting and warfare very rapidly. Societies all over Europe, north Africa, like Egypt, Persia (Iran), India, China and Japan celebrate their most skillful archers. I am sure that other countries do as well.

Wales had Twm Sion Catty; England had Robin Hood and Switzerland had William Tell. Greek and Trojan archers are told of by name in Homer’s ‘Iliad’. Archers all over the world were thought of as popular heroes like footballers are these days.

It seems that bows were first invented in various parts of the world practically at the same time in the late Paleolithic Age or the early Mesolithic Age. It is remarkable that different kinds of bows were developed by the different societies around the world and each sort of bow was invented to suit the style of warfare that that society conducted and to the environment in which they hunted.

There are too many types of bow to explain them all here, but some of the most common archery bows are: the longbow, flatbow, shortbow, recurve bow, compound bow and crossbow.

The longbow and the flatbow are similar in size, both can be six feet or more in length, but the cross section of the longbow is ‘D’ shaped, whereas that of a flatbow is rectangular. A flatbow is usually wider than a longbow. Both can shoot heavy 36 inch arrows long distances with great force – enough to penetrate the armour of the Middle Ages from 250-300 yards.

The shortbow is shorter, as you might conclude from its name. It is a short range bow, utilized for hunting small animals in areas where a large bow would be too cumbersome such as in woods or forests.

The compound bow is also a shorter bow, but it is extremely powerful because the limbs are not very supple. In order to flex the limbs, use is made of a system of pulleys or cams.

This gives the compound bow sufficient power (more than 50 pound draw weight) to enable it to be used to hunt larger game such as deer or bear. The compound bow is a new style, which was only invented in 1966.

Recurve bows have tips that ‘point the wrong way’ when the bow is unstrung. This gives the recurve more power inch for inch than the long or flatbow, enabling it to be used as an effective weapon for warfare or hunting from horseback.

Crossbows are specialized bows, which can be pre-loaded similar to a gun and shot later. In general, it takes less skill and physical strength to soot a crossbow.

The arrows are very important too. Arrows can be interchangeable between the bows to a limited extent, but the length should suit the draw of the bow. Crossbow bolts are normally very short.

There are two kinds or shooting: instinctive and sight shooting. Sight shooting means using sights of some kind to aim, either by looking down the arrow or using optical fibre sights. Instinctive shooting is more demanding because it is intuitive. It cannot be learned, you have either got it or you ain’t.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery Targets For Indoors And Out

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Archery is about hitting a target with an arrow shot from a bow. The bow can either be an straight bow or a crossbow, although most people think of upright bows when they hear the word ‘archery’. Within the sport or hobby of target archery, there are two kinds: target archery and field archery. The champion is the archer with the highest combined score of his arrows that struck the target.

Target archery necessitates shooting arrows, usually six, from a variety of distances usually 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres. The archers stand in a line before their targets starting at 90 metres and shoot an arrow on the order of whoever is in charge.

Then they all move forward to the 70 metre mark and shoot again on the order and so on. After the six arrows have been shot, the archers proceed to their targets and add up their scores.

Field archery necessitates walking around a course where targets are set at a variety of distances. The targets can be the traditional round ones or they may be replicas of wild animals like rabbits, elk or bears.

Traditional targets are made from straw. Handfuls of straw are bound with string and made into a kind of rope. This rope is then wound around and around itself until a target of the correct size has been crafted. The rope is held in situ either by pinning it or tying it. A canvas or paper target is then pinned to the face of it.

Target archery can be practiced outdoors or indoors and the target sizes are different to match the various distances. An outdoor archery target can be either 122 centimetres or 80 centimetres in diameter. The middle of this target is 24.4 centimetres in diameter and there are four concentric circles around this. The indoor target is 80 centimetres in diameter. The centre of this size target is 16 centimetres and also has four concentric rings around it.

Each ring is about eight centimetres wide on the smaller target. The targets are coloured gold in the centre, then red, blue, black and white. At the middle of the gold is what many archers call the ‘pinhole’.

It is a small cross of about two millimetres in width. The target should then be placed on an easel or stand with a tilt of about 15 degrees. The pinhole should be 130 centimetres off the ground (plus or minus five centimetres).

If there is more than one archer, the pinholes should all be at the same height off the ground and the targets should be clearly numbered. The shooting line should be plainly marked and an archer’s shooting spot should be marked too. Five yards behind the archer, there should be another line, behind which non-competitors may stand.

The danger zone between the archers and the targets should be cordonned off to stop spectators wandering into the line of fire. Knowing that the spectators are kept well back helps the archers to focus on their archery.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently involved with longbows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Crystal Corporate Gifts

Friday, October 1st, 2010

It can be very difficult to find beautiful and memorable corporate gifts. Many corporate gifts are just junk, especially the less expensive ones. However, there is a class of gift that is always appreciated and can be thought of as useful too.

Have you always given a calendar or a letter opener? Or a key ring, just like every other business does? Or a bottle of wine that is forgotten the day after it was opened? Well, there is hope yet. What about glass crystal? Everybody loves lead crystal, do they not?

Lead crystal items really are the bees’ knees of gifts, corporate gifts or not. People always need ashtrays, paper weights, and pen holders and made in lead crystal they look expensive and stylish adding to the image of your company.

Lead crystal goods come in many kinds. They make fruit bowls, vases, glasses, paper weights, pen trays, ashtrays, picture frames and carriage clocks along with a dozen other items. When selecting a lead crystal corporate gift, you might like to bear the following points in mind:

If you are presenting these corporate gifts to your staff, you may like to distinguish between your employees or give everyone the same gift. You can on grounds of sex, length of service, marital status or input to the company’s profits. There again, you may know the longest serving personnel very well and want to get them something that will suit them personally. You can do this in terms of price or style or both.

For instance, office staff might appreciate a lead crystal paperweight, pen-holder or picture frame. Blue collar workers may prefer a lead crystal vase or bowl. Single people might play golf or sail and like an item engraved with a golfing or sailing motif. Married people might love a picture frame or a vase. Long-serving personnel or high-earners might want a carriage clock.

Cost is obviously an important issue, but usually corporate gifts are tax-deducible and glass crystal items vary greatly in price depending on the manufacturer. For example, you can get a nice lead crystal goblet set for $15, but if you want to give Waterford lead crystal, you can expect to pay three times as much.

Are you presenting these corporate gifts to clients or / and prospective clients? In this case, you will have to have them inscribed with your business’s contact information. You will also require the corporate gift to stay in the client’s office, so it should be office orientated, not home orientated. Something like a heavy paperweight fashioned like a rock or a desk tidy fashioned like a boat.

This is the best mode of advertising after word-of-mouth and sign-written vehicles and should be taken seriously by any business that needs clients. Giving a well-thought of gift like lead crystal is a way of enhancing your reputation and that of the beneficiary.

The only other thing to bear in mind is that corporate gifts in lead crystal are precious and need to be handled with care, so if you are having them inscribed, which you must do, then you will need to know how long it will take to get your consignment done and delivered.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Waterford crystal vases. If you have an interest in Irish crystal or wedding rings, please go to our website now at White Gold Claddagh Ring

Traditional Archery

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Archery is as old as the hills. The oldest bows to have been discovered date back to about 2000 BC and bows are almost certainly older than that. Archery is so old that no-one knows where or when the bow and arrow was invented. It has always been used in hunting and warfare. Buddhist monks in the Far East have utilized archery in their martial arts regimes for centuries as well.

Archery is still being used by some tribes around the world for hunting purposes and many millions of ordinary people practice archery for leisure. Buddhist monks still utilize it in their meditation techniques. There are basically three types of archery recognized: primitive, traditional and modern archery.

Traditional archery includes such bows as the longbow and the recurve bow. Bows of both types have been found dating back to 2000 BC. It appears that the longbow was more common in northern Europe and the recurve bow was more widespread in southern Europe and east from there all the way to Japan.

The contemporary compound bow can achieve a heavy draw weight by using comparatively little physical strength compared to traditional bows by the use of a set of pulleys or cams, but still a lot of people prefer to use traditional bows. People seem to want to get back to the origin of archery.

Longbows are very simple implements, traditionally made from one piece of yew or ash. Recurve bows could also be made from one length of wood, but more often, the tips would be made from wood and horn or bone. Remember that the tips of a recurve bow point to the front when the bow is unstrung.

Because of the recurved tips, a recurve bow is more powerful than a longbow weight for weight or inch for inch, but recurve bows are typically quite short, so the standard longbow is much more formidable than the average recurve bow.

However, both models of bow take quite an amount of bodily strength to draw them to full power and hold that draw to take aim.

This cycle of drawing and holding without shaking or trembling requires a lot of strength and concentration, which usually has to be learned. It can take years of training to master traditional archery. The British longbow men of the 14 th and 15 th centuries trained all their lives.

In fact, Henry VIII made it law that all English and Welsh men had to train with a longbow at the butts every Sunday aiming at targets at least 220 yards away. These days, 90 metres (100 yards) is about the furthest archers shoot. It would often take ten years to become this skillful, but some archers could cast an arrow 400 yards and more.

In order to shoot an arrow that far, traditional longbows used in warfare had a draw weight of between 160 and 180 lbs, which would propel a three ounce, armour-piercing arrow about 300 yards. Not many men could pull a bow like that these days These days, a standard draw weight for a longbow would be 100 lbs and for a recurve something like 60 lbs.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various topics, but is currently concerned with archery bows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

A Short History Of Hunting

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Archeology all over the world shows that hunting tools, that is, weapons, were some of the first items that we crafted in the ancient history of mankind. Flint arrow heads and spear tips are some of the most prevailing articles found around the world.

In those ancient times, people hunted for food and fought each other. We do not know, but it likely that men and non-pregnant young women hunted animals and collected fruit, nuts and berries, while the older family members looked after the children.

It is uncertain when bows were developed, but certainly more than two thousand years before Christ or four thousand years ago. Earlier than this, hunters probably crept up on or ambushed their quarry and then ran after it, throwing rocks and sharp sticks or primitive spears maybe with fire-hardened or stone points.

It is unlikely that they often killed their prey outright, they most likely wore it out until it bled to death. This method of hunting deer is still practiced by some hunters in South Africa and to other places.

As people lived and learned, so more sophisticated hunting articles were invented and improved on. The first such item would have been the spear and the second either the throwing arrow or the bow and arrow. It is likely that the throwing arrow came first. This weapon is still used by some traditional Aborigine hunters in Australia.

Recurve bows and longbows dating back to 2,000 BC have been uncovered all over Europe and Asia. It seems that the longbow was more common in the north and the recurve bow in the south. Recurve bows can be shorter than longbows and still preserve their power, which suits shooting from horse back or chariot.

As farming became the norm, so did society and more and more often, hunting wild animals was left to experts. The animals that they killed would be swapped for other amenities or, later, sold for money.

For most people, hunting became recreational, a sport or a game and the animals they killed in their free time they called ‘game’ and we still do today in English.

Most peoples of the world did not only develop weapons to hunt with, they also trained animals to help them. Dogs, whose forebears were wolves, were almost certainly the first whose help was sought. Some dogs were used to recover the gave after it had been shot and fallen into the bushes or the water, other dogs really did the killing.

Later still, the aristocracy would hunt with no intention of consuming the animal at all: foxes in Britain and lions in Afghanistan. This is still being done today. Similarly with falcons and eagles.

Other animals were trained to help chase prey. Horses equalized the speed difference between man and buffalo or deer. Elephants were used to equalize the prowess of tigers and offer a safer platform from which to hunt.

In this day and age, few people need to hunt to survive, but it is still a popular pursuit, even though for many it is a once a year occasion. The most legendary hunting trips were or still are the safaris, despite the fact that now more people shoot with video cameras than with rifles.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several topics, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Bow Hunting: Some Aspects

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Bow hunting or bowhunting is one of those sports that you either love or you hate – a little like fox hunting in the United Kingdom. Town people abhor it and anybody involved with it and country people see it essential to cull wild animals that could otherwise become a nuisance.

In spite of its macho image, which was encouraged by the film the Deer Hunter, there are growing quantities of women who go bowhunting. The big distinction between hunting with a rifle and hunting with a bow is distance. A hunting rifle with telescopic sights can provide enough punch at 600 yards to take down a deer with a single shot virtually anywhere it is hit in the chest.

On the other hand, a hunter using a bow with a fifty pound draw weight will have to be within about forty yards to be able to deliver the same sort of lethal punch, if the shot is accurate to the heart.

This means that if you severely injure an animal from 600 yards, it will probably be dead by the time you get there, clambering over fallen trees and rocks, but if you severely wound a deer from forty yards you see its anguish.

This has a salutacious effect on most bow hunters. The vast majority of bow hunters do not want to see this and they do not want the creature to suffer either, so they wait for the right shot. If it is not there, they do not shoot.

A hunting bow has to have a draw weight of at least fifty pounds to hunt large game and that used to mean quite a hefty recurve or longbow, but the compound bow was developed in 1966.

A compound bow makes use of pulleys to assist with the draw, which allows less beefy people to achieve a draw weight of fifty pounds, which has opened up bowhunting to women and adolescents.

Large wild animals are dangerous and some will attack without warning if they feel threatened. This leads to a danger zone around wild animals. Every sort of animal has a danger zone, for a lion, that could be pretty large and for a deer less so. This danger zone is an locale outside of which you are fairly safe.

If you are hunting with a rifle, you can remain outside that danger zone easily, but with a bow and arrow, well, you often have to go inside it. This enlarged risk provides a superior rush for bow hunters – a bigger thrill. Especially if they are hunting bears or mountain lions.

In contrast to the Deer Hunter, most bow hunters go on prearranged trips these days. The hunting trip is organized with the aid of a specialized firm which will present accompanied trips into regions known to have large numbers of the animals you want to hunt.

These expert guides know how to bait areas to lure your prey; they can advise on safety aspects and they carry a big gun in case a hunter is too stupid to take their advice. Regrettably, the gun is to use on the animal, not the idiot.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on various topics, but is presently involved with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

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The Different Kinds Of Archery Bows

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Archery is now a very widespread sport and hobby all over the planet, but once, long ago, it was even more widespread. Every army had archers and men hunted with bows for food. Every country or every region invented its own particular style of bow and therefore, even nowadays, there are many different styles of archery bows. Modern technology has meant that new varieties of archery bows are still being invented.

Some bows were developed by people who rode horses a great deal. These bows were shorter, other bows were intended for long range shooting and these bows were longer. I will list some of the main types of archery bows below with a short description of each

The traditional Welsh or English longbow was made from a single piece of yew (or other wood) at least the length of the bowman, but up to about six feet six inches (two metres). It was ‘D’ shaped in profile with the flat, bark side, facing away from the string. The rounded inner side followed the natural growth rings of the limb. The timber itself was left to dry for two years.

The draw weight of a longbow was roughly 160-180 pounds, which is difficult to accomplish by contemporary man. In the days of the longbow, in the Middle Ages, men and boys were required by law to do target practice with longbows at the village butts every Sunday. The target range for a man was to be no less than 220 yards by command of king Henry VIII.

The longbow was used to devastating effect as long range (400 yards) artillery by the British army at Crecy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415, raining lethal three ounce, three foot long arrows down on the enemy. As the armies drew closer the longbow could be used accurately to aim at individual targets. Not long after these great victories, which can be ascribed to the archers and their longbows, bows were replaced as military weapons by guns.

Flat bows, just as the longbow, can be over six feet long, are not recurved and can be crafted out of a single length of wood. However, they are rectangular in profile, not ‘D’ shaped.

Short bows are similar to longbows or flat bows in every detail bar size and because they are shorter, they do not have the potential or the distance of the other bows. Sort bows are easy to carry and easier to use in cramped conditions like woods or a forest, so they were used by and large for hunting small animals.

Recurve bows are more effective that any other bow inch for inch of length. The tips of a recurve point forward when the bow is unstrung and look odd to the uninitiated. The recurve was very common from the Mediterranean to the Far East from about 2000 BC until 1700 AD. These days, the recurve is the only type of bow allowed to be used in the Olympic Games.

Compound bows use very stiff materials in their assembly so have pulleys or cams to help bend or draw the bow. This mechanical assistance to drawing the bow to the best length means less physical force on behalf of the archer, which means that the archer con focus on the target more.

Crossbows have the limbs mounted crossways on a piece of timber and the draw string is held by mechanical means until it is let loose with a trigger. The arrow, or bolt, is a great deal shorter. They are practically half-way houses to guns.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.