Our colleague Stefan Roos, an enthusiastic all-round outdoor sportsman, has discovered traditional archery for himself a while ago.

Today is not about hiking, mountaineering, climbing or cycling (I still love all of it tho!) but about a type of sport that had fascinated me in no time. I am talking about archery.

After several approaches and tries I quickly ended up at traditional archery. Here, you fixate the bullseye with both eyes and the rest is done by the mind. In conclusion, if the technique is right, the arrows will hit the bullseye automatically. It is almost like magic and this is what fascinates me about this sport.

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Out of the great number of available bows, I chose traditional bows, meaning bows without sight and stabilizer. At first, I shot a Fred Bear Super Magnum from 1968 but now I am happily using two new Kiowas from Bearpaw, one of them with 35# draw weight and the other with 48# draw weight.

Not only the magic of instinctive hits but also the relaxing effects have put archery into a very prominent spot in my life – and thanks to its many variants, it never gets boring.

Possibilities and variants

You can shoot fake animal targets from a hunting distance on a 3D course.
In clubs, you usually shoot targets from different distances.
You can also practice trick shots on moving or very small targets.
Stump shooting is shooting dead wood with blunt arrowheads.
All of these possible ways or even variants of them can be trained under various external conditions which pose further challenges: You shoot in any wind and weather, rain, cold, snow, mud, in the dark, in the night, in the shades, against the sun …

Start with guidance

Curious? Interested? If so, look for a club or a coach. Archery is very complex and it is almost impossible to learn it by yourself. As a deflected, missed arrow can cause damage, the shooter always has to be aware of what he is doing and that he is responsible for each of his arrows.

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Once you know how to use a bow with confidence but you don’t want to join a club, you can find a shooting range or 3D course via the internet (My “home course” is only 24 minutes by car and I hadn’t heard about it before…).

Those of you who enjoy competitive sports will find that there are also tournaments to participate in. But running through a forest with 150 other bowyers and to queue for ages at each target is not for me. Nevertheless, I have already taken part in two tournaments and the night shooting in Jockgrim definitely was extraordinary.

Enjoy giving it a try!