Traditional Archery Times

or T.A.T for short just a man with a bow armed with a sense of humor

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Silverbow arrows

Check this new tumblr out for some really lovely arrows

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Gold tip traditionals review... Well for my first dip into carbon traditionals from wood, I've gotta say.... I'm a convert. I originally had my heart set on Easton trads( having always shot eastons out of my compound ,l)but they had limited spine options at my dl/#. Nobody had stock of bear paw timber sticks So I settled on the gold tip traditional good choice on spine range and they're the cheapest outta the three. First intital impressions out of the box where good the wood look finish is excellent close to what I dye my pine shafts. Once crested they look really sharp. They shoot great and hold up to close groups, although I guess the finish will wear with heavy use. Only drawback is they come fitted with push in nocks and no bushing (I've ordered pin nocks and bushings) for durability well worth the extra.

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Shooting outside my comfort zone. since the swap from compound to traditional my only bug bear was... I'm really only any good from 10-25yds and was used to shooting 70 yds with a compound, but as all archers I do enjoy hitting stuff lol and it was easier to stay comfortable than missing bosses at 40yds, than really looking at my form and why it broke down at longer distance and putting in the work.. until I watched Jim Grizzly Kent 's video shooting outside your comfort zone and it struck a chord that I was not pushing myself to shoot better... so it was back to basics and you tube ( thanks to Jim grizzly Kent , Jeff kavanagh , wolfie I think half of us instinctive archers owe you boys a beer lol) . So I came up with a plan.. I took out the variable of wood arrows and shot aluminium. I got a takedown with 30# limbs so I could concentrate on just my shooting mechanics ( didn't take me long to see my issue was my release and dropping my bow arm, so for the last 2 months this was my focus. My shooting at under 30 yds became good. But that question needd to answered so I strapped on my 40#limbs on Saturday and trotted out to the woods. At first the weight swap through me couldn't hit the center of the hare target I put up from 15 yds now missing left and right and was getting frustrated so i pulled off the target and used three arrows to put up a branch on the boss and 5 yds and shot one arrow 5 ya increments and slowly but surely it go better and better until I was out at 40 yds then after finishing my drink I added the bottle to the target and had some fun, including my favourite shot in archery so far (yes better than Robin hoods lol) top left in the pic 40 yds still smiling now ;) ) I shot the longest distances for me yet I even pushed myself to 55yds and it cost me one of my brand new GT s which is now stuck somewhere in a thicket lol but who cares .....

[traditionalarcherytimes]

shooting at my clubs woods (mutley crew archers) on sunday

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Bohning Fletching tape review. I've always used glue for Fletching arrows , but when I recently spruced up a set of aluminium arrows with feathers I decided to take the plunge and have a go, here's what I found vs using a glue Time. using the tape vs glue the time saved is immense, a dozen arrows fletched with tape takes one hour vs 15 mins with a Fletching glue. Finish. A lot of people tell me that they can't help but get glue everywhere, well tape gives you a clean consistent finish on every feather and is easy to apply.( still apply a dot of glue on the front and back of the feather ) Performance. I took the arrows out in the woods and hit some tight groups and... I didn't loose a feather, so it performs well so far (not used in rain yet). Value. This is the only place so far where glue wins hands down, tape is double the price of the glue I've always used (Saunders arrow glue) and can fetch 3 poss 4 dozen arrows, where glue would easily triple that. So my final verdict is.... I'm a convert so far the time saved is a winner a set of twelve arrows used to take me the of a day one jig, twenty minutes a fetch vs all done in an hour. Thanks for reading.

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Sold! I sold my first set of commissioned arrows today, and have orders for more.. It's a great feeling when people like something you've made, but for people to want pay money for them is quite humbling.

[archeryadventures]

An old ice hockey buddy of mine came to see at Merlin yesterday. He wanted to get in to #traditionalarchery so I hooked him up with a Bear Grizzly. So as a special treat i took him around the forest with his new toy today! #beararchery #merlinarchery #MerlinsArcheryAdventures #instinctivearchery #teamBear #fieldarchery

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Great looking out! Shot the grizzly last week and loved it, it's on my list to add to my collection, have to see what santa brings me for Christmas though, I've spent all my bow points for the year!

Here's to a good day in the woods!

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Pimp my practice arrows... Hi guys thought I would share yesterday's project i had a set of Easton aluminium arrows for practice, I generally only shoot or make wooden arrows, but for practice sessions when you are working on form it helps to have arrows that you know are exactly matched and we can't do this with wood. I had these black red and yellow 3" feathers and decided to get a little creative. I think they turned out OK, let me know what you think.

[archeryadventures]

All packed up ready for a days filming - A part from the recording equipment i mustn’t forget that! #archery #MerlinsArcheryAdventures #merlinarchery #compoudbow #longbow #recurve #traditionalarchery #targetarchery

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Sounds great, have a fun day Jim. ..

[archerofthenorth]

3D targets are lots of fun!

[traditionalarcherytimes]

true words......., and a nice bow!

[traditionalarcherytimes]

The Spinrite cresting Jig review

so i was always firmly in the why buy a cresting jig when you can make one camp, my last home made  jig had started to struggle if a shaft had any bumps at all, so i was at the point of having to build a new jig or buy one, i looked at both the Bohning and Spinrite jigs.

looking at both they had benefits, the Bohning has variable speeds, but I opted for the spine rte with movable bumpers.

first impressions out of the box where good it looks to be a quality build.

time to put it through its paces with a set of spruce shafts that my home build couldn't cope with, the amount of wobble on the shafts made it almost impossible to crest. the movable bumpers on the spinerite made it possible to put pressure exactly where its required to minimise the wobble and crest to a high standard, one of the other great features is the movable pattern rest which helps every shaft come out the same.

my final view is I love this jig it really is made well and works to a really high standard, I crest allot of arrows so the expense isn't that great, and you can see the standards of crest capable from the Spinrite 

[traditionalarcherytimes]

with shooing time limited over the last couple of weeks it was time for some much needed bow maintenance,  both my Samick Deer Master and my KG Osprey where treated to new strings, silencers, shelf rests then re tuned.... cant wait to fling some arrows next week

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Saturdays shoot,

with the birth of my baby daughter shooting has taken  a back seat, but I had the chance to get out in the woods last Saturday, and boy did I over do it, I usually shoot for two to three hours, consisting of  form or distance work ( cause I suck above 35 yds lol) the then the rest on the course at a leisurely pace.  but Saturday I shot for four hours arrow after arrow , my body was was tired the day after, but shooting instinctively and trying to focus shooting that many arrows my mind was tired 3/4 way round the course....and showed in my shots as time went

on  practice should be little and often

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Love my new cresting jig.... let the magic commence (I'll do a proper review over the next day or so

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Hi all, been a week or so since I posted..... but ive been quite busy, meet my new baby girl Madison born last Monday. Ill be posting some stuff soon

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Archery devolution

As ive said in previous posts I started out shooting compound bows, but I havent mentioned I stumbled upon traditional archery by accident. I was shooting target archery at the time and I'd picked up an Olympic recurve as a bit of change of shooting style to test myself, and I sucked with it I had real issues with my release. I was in a local archery store and picked up a bucktrail black hawk flatbow to just have a go and see if it helped my release to shoot a bow with no bells and whistles lol I walked out of that store with that bow and 12 pine shafts, some points and feathers, and I was hooked. I haven't shot my compound since and I have since sold the recurve,

[traditionalarcherytimes]

Thanks for following

Hi all,

Ive broken 35 followers in a short time and I would like to thank you all for following me..

I’ve also put the page on Facebook ( which ment I had to join Facebook lol)

I Would be amazingly grateful if you would drop in and have a look.

Maybe even throw a like its way lol

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Traditional-Archery-Times/774947942562533