10 March 2013, 13:09
The type of land you shoot on is the major factor in deciding bow length. In heavy scrub land you need something 58 inches and smaller to avoid any accidental knocks and contact with branches etc when shooting. Most of the recurve field bows are around this length and can be used in any type of shooting environment. Compounds can be a lot smaller than this allowing them to be used in any type of bush. If you are talking about traditional bow designs we generally mean English Longbow, American Flatbow and various Asiatic recurve bows. In open woodland, broken heath or moor etc an English Longbow is a wonderful bow to use and pleasant to shoot, but in tight bush it is a pig and not really designed to be used this way. An American Flatbow design is generally a little bit smaller than the English Longbow averaging around 66-70 inches, but you can get them smaller with laminated limbs. These can be used anywhere to be honest and most come with an arrow shelf, they are very versatile bows and the most useable of the traditional designs i my opinion. The Asiatic bows, sometimes called horse bows can be used anywhere and they have a wide range of sizes. Chinese Bows can be 60 inches and longer, whilst the Turkish Bows and Scythian bows were around 44-50 inches strung. The Asiatic bows are excellent for heavy woodland and hedge bottoms type country as you can "cant" the bow and shoot at an angle through clearings etc, you can't really do this with a compound as tilting the bow makes it go spazzy.