Two Piece Takedown Longbow

Two piece takedown longbows are easier to carry than a traditional longbow, but obviously will cost you a bit more for the convenience of having a bow that is easier to transport.

You can also get two piece takedown recurves too, although most takedown recurve bows are three piece instead of two. Photos of various different designs below.

I think they're awesome!

Bracing a Bow using the Push-Pull Method

How to string a longbow or pyramid bow using the Push-Pull method.

Explained by Mike Meusel, a local bowyer in Toronto.

Calculating Arrow Speed Formulas

There are a number of arrow speed formulas out there for people who want to try and calculate mathematically how fast their arrows are going in fps (Feet Per Second).

Sadly they are all inaccurate.

My advice? Calculate your arrow speed using multiple different formulas and then get a range of numbers or average number. Then you will know roughly how fast your arrows are going.

In which case you are also going to need to know the meanings of some words and acronyms...

IBO (International Bowhunters Organization number used as a measurement for calculating arrow speed, based on a 70 lb bow. The arrow will have a grain weight of 540 [9 grains of arrow weight per pound of bow weight]. The draw length will be set at 30 inches. The chronograph used for measuring the speed will be placed at point blank range for testing.)

AMO (Archery Manufacturing Organization number used as a measurement for calculating arrow speed, based on a 60 lb bow. The arrow will have a grain weight of 350 [5 grains of arrow weight per pound of bow weight]. The draw length will be set at 30 inches. The chronograph used for measuring the speed will be placed at point blank range for testing.)

DRAW (The distance you pull back the arrow from the arrow rest.)

GRAINS (A weight measurement for arrows and arrowheads. 7000 grains is 1 pound.)

STRING WEIGHT (Any added weight on the bowstring will slow your arrow down. Dampeners and similar devices will weigh down your bowstring.)

Once you know most of these numbers you can try and calculate FPS (Feet Per Second) using the different formulas. Try using the IBO formula and then the AMO formula and see the different results. Neither will be truly accurate to your actual arrow speed, but the average should be reasonably close.

There is also the ATA (Archery Trade Association) formula, which has gained some popularity despite being more restrictive in its calculations.

NOTE

If you really want to know the specific number then you will need to buy a gadget and then use it several times to try and get an average number based on the readings.

eg. 3 consecutive readings might be 139 fps, 138 fps and 140 fps = averaging 139 fps.

2nd NOTE

For those of you who are into hunting please note that arrow speed doesn't matter so much when it comes to hunting. Yes, light arrows are faster. But HEAVY arrows do more damage because they have more momentum and impact.

Catching Fire, in theatres November 22nd

Are you one of those people who cannot wait to see the second installment of The Hunger Games? Well good news, there is only 27 days remaining until it opens in North American theatres on November 22nd 2013.

"Catching Fire" will be sure to have many young archers in the movie theatre - but to be fair, Katniss Everdeen really does very little archery in the films. In the first film she only shot an arrow 13 times.

Compare that to other films like The Avengers (23 shots by Hawkeye), The Fellowship of the Rings (22 shots by Legolas) and other films that have a lot more archery in them. The Hunger Games is more about the drama - which admittedly is the real reason why people are watching it.

But hey, the drama is very good. And the archery is good too. So maybe there is less archery in the film, but it is still a very good film.

Korean Boy talks about crafting a Traditional Korean Bow

In the video below 14-year-old Dong Woo Jang from Korea talks about crafting a Traditional Korean Bow using a variety of woods during his experiments in bowmaking.