Traditional Bows Explained For Beginners

What Is A Traditional Bow?

In the most straightforward terms a traditional bow is a bow that isn’t a compound bow.

(Super helpful, right?)

Basically, a traditional bow doesn’t have cams (little wheels on the end of the limbs) to provide a mechanical advantage and create more power.

This includes things like recurve bows, longbows and self bows.

Some people can get picky and define traditional bows as bows that are made from wood, which excludes modern recurves (the bows used in the Olympics) because they have metal risers and often carbon fiber limbs.

Still other people are picky and say that a traditional bow doesn’t have a sight, which still excludes modern recurves but also many wooden recurves.

Any of those definitions can work, but for the beginner, the easiest definition is a bow that isn’t a compound bow with cams on its limbs

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Is Traditional Archery Harder Than Compound Archery?

Yes, generally speaking shooting a traditional bow is harder than shooting a compound bow.

Part of the reason is that most traditional bows don’t have any sights on them.

Instead you aim either by using the tip of your arrow as a guide, called gap shooting…

Or you go with your gut after shooting thousands of arrows, known as instinctive shooting.

Both styles can be effective, but take a lot more practice.

On top of that, traditional bows are not as strong as compound bows, so they have a much shorter effective range.

One of the positives about traditional archery is that traditional bows are much simpler than compound bows, so they require much less tuning…

And in most cases, you don’t need as many specialty tools to tune them.

Most compound archers have to go to specialty archery shops in order to get their bows tuned.

What Is The Easiest Traditional Bow To Shoot?

The easiest traditional bow to shoot is the recurve bow,

Recurves are the most efficient traditional bows, meaning they get the most power to the arrow for that draw weight.

This means beginners can shoot a more manageable draw weight and still be able to shoot a good distance.

Related: Best Recurve Bows for Beginners

What Size Bow Is Best For Beginners?

Most traditional bows, especially recurve bows, are available in 58”, 60” and 62” lengths.

For an archer with an average draw length, between 28” and 30” a 60” bow is going to work best.

With a draw length longer than 30”, a longer bow will work better.

And the opposite is true too, a draw length shorter than 28” and shorter bow will work better.