Vertically challenged wife taking up archery

[englishwarbow]

Originally Posted by King Custard

No problem-

cut any old branch from tree in the garden- strip the bark- wrap some tape around the middle- string it with some nylon cord...tell her it's a longbow- she'll love you!

Or take you tv arial of the roof, strap a sky dish to it, add in some knicker elastic and tell her it's a recurve!

[napolienne]

Hang on a mo, no reason she can't shoot recurve! I have a 23 inch drawlength and manage quite nicely . Certainly Bernadini and DAS do short (21 inch) risers that would be fine, she may even be OK with a 23inch riser, which most of the main manufacturers produce. Distance may be a bit of a struggle at first, but as she works her way up through the poundages (just like any other beginner) and gets some decent quick limbs and light arrows she'll be fine. After all, if a short drawlength was a barrier to shooting recurve competitively we'd never have any junior recurve archers, would we?

[paulhuk]

On a completely different tack, how about a Scythian or Mongolian bow.

Recurvebowshop.com Traditional Grozer Kassai recurve bows

[Hidden Hippo]

I know Bernadini now do the Mamba - a 19" riser, but don't know if you could use this as a target riser as it was designed as a field bow originally.

[cornish george]

Originally Posted by Hidden Hippo

I know Bernadini now do the Mamba - a 19" riser, but don't know if you could use this as a target riser as it was designed as a field bow originally.

Quite so, and with my 50# G3s in that would make a very fast 58" bow!

[Robinwho]

Hey Guys,
Return to your beds and rest easily, today I made an executive decision and purchased a Browning Micro-Midas which has everything necessary to allow she who must be obeyed to stand on the line and get as frustrated as most of the rest of us. On those evenings after club night, we can go home together and I can do my Max Boyce impressions - when she moans about being sooo close to the X ring, I can sit there and say I know, I know.
Particular thanks to Popey for confirming my growing certainty that the only route was through the dark side!!

Toon Benaden aka RobinWho

[Ginge88]

Make her shoot compound limited that will her keep the scores down a little :P

[Cimbian]

Suggest she embarks on a coaching route... that way she'll rarely get to shoot, let alone finish a round.

[Cimbian]

More seriously, though, she doesn't need to shoot compound unless she has either a desire to or a problem like arthritis or oesteoporosis, as my wife does.

We have a senior lady recurve in the club that shoots to bowman at 80 yards and I would say she is in the same height region. she is also seen shooting 100 yards just for the fun of it.

Initially she will be on shorter distances so aim you budget towards this (except for the riser) as she develops strength and ability and then see what can be done with light arrow shafts.

[hypertigger]

definitely have to second the sentiment that she doesn't have to go over to compound.

last weekend, i met a bloke and his partner, at linecutter archery's shop, who was telling james that his partner needed to be set up shooting compound cos she's small and has big boobs, and can't shoot 70m right now.

his partner being a little shorter than me. so i said, hang on, why does that stop her from shooting 70m? and he said, oh well, short drawlength, and ali arrows etc. i said, i'm not that much taller - and he asked what distances i shoot - so i said 70m, he looked surprised, and i showed him what i use - 38lb carbon/foam limbs and navs, but also explained that i shot 34lbs for years before getting the g3s, and munchkin shot 32lbs for ages with X7s and still shot 70m okay. then it dawned on me that he'd made up his mind that she couldn't shoot 70m, and we had no idea what her kit was, or how she shot. so i took her away to the barn and got her to do some shooting, and to tell me about her kit. turns out, she has 26lb glass fibre limbs, 1514s with approx 24-25" drawlength, no wonder she wasn't reaching 70m!! her basic style was okay, and she didn't really shoot very regularly, so it was just a matter of increasing the poundage up to 30 or 32lbs something that she could cope with (she tried my bow briefly), and bob would be her uncle.

i managed to convince the bloke that she didn't need to go to compound just to faster and heavier limbs, and some much lighter arrows! i think i also got the lady to be more assertive - not let anyone tell her that she couldn't shoot 70m cos she's ickle and has big boobs. she didn't really want to go to compound anyway!!