#flat bow

Seems a silly question seing as no matter what bows we shoot, wether compound or recurve, long bow or flat bow, with sights or bare bow we all do it for the enjoyment we get from this great sport. So you would think not.

But I was in a local archery store, a while ago and shooting on the range testing wooden arrow spines, to match my bear Montana and I was shooting alongside two archers shooting at 20yds, one was shooting Olympic recurve with stabilizers and sight the other shooting compound with a scope. The compound archer shooting at 3 spots the first set of three nailed, second set of 3 nailed,third set of three second arrow missed outside the ten zone acompanied with a look I knew only too well being an ex compound shooter. Too many of those would have me leaving un happy with my shooting.

The longbow is what its name describes, and is usually the height of the archer using it (it can vary)! The string goes directly to the nock on the end of the limb, without touching the limb itself.

The shape of the limb is narrow, usually with a circular or D-shaped cross section:

But as you can see that can vary a bit as well (see that triangular one?).

Many archers report a smoother feeling draw when using a longbow, this is due to there being less tension in the limbs when strung. But recurves can have smooth draws as well, it depends on the bow and archer themselves.

Flat Bows

Flat bows are in their own category, but I'm putting them here because they are similar to longbows in that the string goes to directly to the nock (without touching the limb) and the limbs can be just as long. But instead of having the cross-sections posted above, the limbs are flat and have a rectangular cross-section as a result; the handle is round (cross-section), and narrower and deeper than the limbs.