… and so on. there are many avenues you can take, if you are passionate about archery.
That’s all to say, if you’re just starting out, you may want to try traditional archery. here are some books to help you along the way.
You are reading: Best books on archery
if you’re new to traditional archery… first of all check out the forum at tradgang.com, it’s awesome and you’ll love it. there is a super active community of traditional archery obsessed, and they are wise. then take a look…
the beginners guide to traditional archery, by brian j. Sorrells’ book is a bit thin, but it covers everything you need to know to get started: traditional equipment and types of bows, how to tune a bare-shaft bow, and instinctive bowhunting techniques (which is a very difficult thing to teach). There isn’t much about traditional archery, and I think this book is a find.
Just a heads up: it helps a bit if you have some basic archery knowledge; the author jumps to phrases like “brace height” fairly early in the book, and ideas like that are generally unheard of. to novices, so if you’re not familiar with some basic archery terms, you may experience a slight learning curve. If that’s you, you can simply keep an archery glossary handy as you read through it (and wikipedia has a pretty good one).
Anyway, to sum it up, this is a great introductory guide to traditional archery. recommended.
See Also: Olen Steinhauer – Book Series In Order
if you want to know everything about traditional archery. After reading the Beginner’s Guide, we suggest you read Jim Hamm’s Traditional Bowyer Bible.
In this book, you’ll learn…just about everything you’d want to know about traditional archery. Do you want to learn how to build a bow? is there. Do you want to know the history of traditional archery around the world? is there. Do you want to learn the correct way to shoot a traditional bow? it’s there.
The best thing about this book is the obvious passion that went into writing it. this is not a weekend enthusiast writing about a hobby he picked up because he was bored at work. this was written by someone who really cares deeply about traditional archery, and spent a lot of time writing about it, you can’t fake that.
We think it’s an excellent option. not for the “just interested” traditional archer but honestly I’ve never met a “just interested” traditional archer! Of the people I’ve met, traditional archers are all very passionate!
compound bow books and crossbow books
It’s kind of interesting, but most archery books end up talking more about recurve bows than compound bows. I don’t know why, but if I had to guess, it’s because compound bows are a bit more complicated and recurves are easier to talk about, and most archery books are aimed at beginners, and many beginners start with a recurve bow but, those are just guesses.
Anyway, I thought I’d include a book on compound bows and crossbows (and a bit on hunting). The Archery Shooter’s Biblical Guide to Bowhunting discusses compound bows in great detail and talks about how the bow works, how arrow rests work (and arrow rests for compounds are, in fact, much more complicated than arrow rests). for recurves) and how to select arrows for compound bows.
See Also: L Ron Hubbard Books – Galaxy Press
There is also talk of crossbows and how to hunt with them. something you might want to check out if you’re interested in compounds, crossbows, and/or hunting.
for bow hunters…
when it comes to bowhunting, i like the total bowhunting manual by scott bestul and dave hurteau, who both worked for field and stream magazine. This is an incredibly informative book, and you can see the full mystery of bowhunting revealed in the table of contents, from archery-related tasks like choosing a bow or crossbow, to tuning it, using a scope, and setting up your bow. the support of the arrow, to tasks related to hunting, such as reading males, using decoys and finding the right place to establish and wait. There’s a lot to know about archery, it’s basically archery plus hunting, and when you think about it, they’re two completely different skill sets, so a book like this can be very helpful.
Perhaps my favorite aspect of this title, however, is the photos: stunning shots of nature, animals, and equipment. field and stream writers are renowned for their expertise, and if you want to get started in bowhunting, this is a great place to start.
lastly, an archery book about… life? spirituality? focus?
This last one deserves a mention, because it’s a fascinating read: Zen and the art of archery. it’s less about learning archery; there’s not really much instruction in the book, so we don’t recommend it if you’re looking to increase your knowledge of the sport, but for those of you interested in archery as a metaphor or tool for understanding the world / a broader spirituality, it’s a great read.
eugen herrigel, the author, is a teacher in tokyo, who starts archery as a way of understanding zen buddhism. he ends up under the tutelage of one of the great archer monks and spends six years studying traditional Japanese archery called kyudo. The art of Kyudo is centuries old (it actually originated among the samurai social class in Japan’s feudal era), and the practice is very different from Western-style archery. It features different arcs, different processes, and a different mindset, and it’s much more imbued with meaning: it’s less about goals and scoring, and much more about mastering a craft, and the determination, strength, and insight required to do so.
again, this is not your “beginner” archery book, and if you’re looking for help on how to tune a bow, you definitely won’t find it here, but if you love archery and want to increase your knowledge of the sport and how culture and spirituality can shape practice, well that’s it!
go and get your learning
There are dozens of archery titles out there and these are the ones we think can help you the most. If you’re about to “get your apprenticeship”, we wish you all the best! Archery is a deep immersion sport: it’s easy to learn the basics, but it takes a long time to master the art, and discovery will come through experience and study. good luck!
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