Archery Terms and Lingo for Beginners

Archery terms and lingo was something that got in my way of quickly learning more about archery, since experienced archers take them for granted and use them all the time. Once you know what they are talking about, you will be one of them. Avoid the confusion and having to ask by reading this list before you try out archery at a range or club.

General Archery Terms

Here are some archery terms with pictures when needed,  that apply to all different styles of archery and bows.

Dry fire:

Letting go of the string without having an arrow nocked. This is not good for the bow, and it might hurt your arm.

Loose:

Before the invention of firearms, the archers would loose an arrow when they let go of the string.

Bow-hunting

– Type of archery practice in which a bow is used instead of a firearm to hunt prey animals

Field Archery

– A form of archery involving shooting targets along a wooded course.

Target Archery

– a style of archery in which accuracy in shooting is the objective and practiced by shooting at vertical stationary targets in an open field or indoors.

Read this to understand the different styles of Archery.

Bow length

– It is the measurement from one axle to the other at the end of the limbs. Basically, the height of your bow when held up in a shooting position.

Brace height

– the distance between the string and the farthest part of the bow grip. “Height” is misleading as it is a horizontal length when the bow is held up to shoot.

Draw Weight

– The amount of force used to pull the string back.

Straight Bow

– Straight bows have a straight profile when viewed from the side and unstrung. Longbows are a type of straight bow.

For all types of bows and classification lingo check out this article:

Types of bows: Obscure bow adjectives explained

Bow Sight

– This is an assist tool built-in to many modern recurve bows, crossbows and compound bows. It aids in aiming.

Limbs

– The upper and lower parts of the bow. T he string is attached to the tips of the limbs.

String

– The string of a recurve bow stretches from limb to limb. When the string is pulled back, its energy is transferred to the arrow.

Servings

– refers to bowstring servings, it is the area of the string where there is extra thread wrapped around the bowstring to protect it at strategic and high friction areas, like where the arrow is nocked.

 

Recurve Bow Terminology

These terms are more common for recurve bows.

Arrow Rest

– Where the arrow rests when the bow is loaded.

Riser

-The middle part of the bow that does not bend. The handle is part of the riser.

 

 

Compound Bow Terminology

Since compound bows are so unique these terms are mostly exclusive to compound bows.

Back Wall

– Maximum draw length. The string cannot be pulled any further.

Cam

– the rotating mechanical piece that aids in the cables movement and is part of the pulley and level system.

Draw Length

– the increase in length from the initial (resting) string position to the stretched position of the string when a bow in loaded.

Draw weight

– the amount of force measured in pounds needed to pull a bow string to produce maximum draw length.

Let-off

–  the reduction of the draw weight as a percentage at the ideal draw length made possible  thanks to the cams and pulley system unique to modern compound bows.

Release

– a release aid, a little device that you hold in your pulling hand that holds and pulls on the string instead of your fingers, depending on the model, the release may have a trigger or may be fired by pulling further or with a slight rotation.

 

Crossbow Terminology

Bolts:

The arrow that is shot by the crossbows.They are shorter than arrows for other bows.

Quarrel:

Another name for the crossbow arrow or bolt.

Prod:

The part of the crossbow that looks like a bow.

Tiller:

The frame on which the prod rests on