Preparing the bow for shooting part 2a BRACING THE BOW ON-FOOT by two persons

Before stringing the bow it's a good habit to take a good look at it, especially if it was left unused for some time. Small damages, like twisted limbs, small cracks or hit marks from bumping on some hard object are often easy to fix if you notice them, but can quickly become much worse if we bend the bow. Natural composites you can not only inspect visually, but also tap the sinew layers with some round metal object. Hollow sound will indicate delaminated places.
The bow should not be heated before stringing. Especially when we remove it from a car trunk under direct sun, we have to wait untill it cools down.

Bracing the bow by two persons.

The more reflexed is our bow, the more carefully it should be treated. There is a number of ways to string it - we can count at least twenty of them, and taking into consideration some minor differences, about a hundred variants - but some of them can be used only with less reflexed bows, some are not very practical and other difficult or even a bit dangerous and suitable only in very specific circumstances: like stringing while running (probably running away from your enemy) or while standing in deep water. To know 3-4 most practical methods is enough in everyday life.

Definitely the safest way to string a bow is a two-persons method.

Preparing the bow for shooting part 1 INTRODUCTION

Running numerous archery classes (currently over 50 editions of our horseback and on-foot workshops) I noticed that many people, even supposed-to-be experienced archers takes no time to properly prepare their bows before shooting. They simply string it and start to shoot, without checking limbs geometry or string twist.

Preparing the bow for shooting.

Wojtek the Bear

I'm quite often called The Bear, partly because of my name, partly because of my stature, and also because I like honey (especially in the form of mead). Therefore I would like to draw your attention to the extraordinary history of another bear, called Wojtek. He was a soldier (a corporal) in 22nd Artillery Supply Company in 2nd Corps of Polish Army during WWII. And he was a bear. A real bear, Ursus arctos syriacus.


You really should read something about him, for example in Wikipedia

BearWay logo is pattern after original symbol of 22nd Company, as a reminder that bears can know something about artillery (which was a word originally used in conjunction with archery, as it comes from the French arc tirer, to pull or draw the bow).

source: wikipedia