FINDING A CLUB NEAR YOU

Hopefully you are interested in taking up traditional archery. To learn to shoot you will need to join a club. For field archery you will need a club with a field course. There are a number of clubs in the Highland & Moray area where traditional archery can be learned and practised.

Inverness Field Archery Club
IFAC is an excellent club with a fantastic field course, a well equipped clubhouse and three well maintained practice areas. During the summer archery season the club meets at its 28 target course near Cawdor on Tuesday nights and weekends. The club has a solid membership of traditional archers including world class competitive shooters. Archers from the Moray and Highland area interested in joining IFAC should contact a member and arrange a suitable time to visit the course. Go to the IFAC website on the links page.

Milne's High School Archery Club - Fochabers
Good indoor club with occasional forays outside when the weather allows. Follows a GNAS-type structure with a good level of coaching for beginners. Overall the club has a nice informal feel. Archery should be enjoyable and the Fochabers club successfully balances good fun with serious safety. New junior and adult members always welcome. Mainly compound and target recurve archers but a few traditionalists always willing to help interested beginners once they have learned the basics. The club runs on Tuesdays from 5.30-8.30pm. Sessions cost just £1 (£2 if using club equipment) making archery accessible to all.           

Isla Archers - Keith Community Centre
Popular well established club in Keith with good mix of junior and adult members. Once again mainly compound and target recurve users but a few trad guys usually in attendance and both coaches also enjoy traditional bows. Thursdays from 6.30-8.30pm.

FINDING  EQUIPMENT

Traditional archery is a fairly inexpensive pastime. For an outlay of around £200 you can enjoy many rewarding years of  traditional archery.
There are a number of good sources for quality trad equipment however newcomers should seek advice from experienced archers before buying their first bow.  Be careful if using eBay - find out what you need first, ask the seller questions and expect proper answers. Only bid from sellers with a good feedback rating from buyers. There are some great deals to be had but be very careful. Do your homework and ask other archers for opinions.
Use your club's equipment until you are ready then take your time. It is often recommended that you learn the basics of archery form using target  bows with sights before shooting with traditional bows. These bows do allow the beginner to quickly and safely progress. But if you want to buy yourself a  nice tradbow then go ahead. Remember that it doesn't take long to build your archery muscles so don't buy a bow that is too light. On the other hand being overbowed is even worse as you will never learn the control for consistent accuracy. A bow of 35-45lbs will have more than enough power for field archery when teamed up with matching arrows.
There is a huge range of traditional bows out there although anyone intending to shoot competitively has three basic bow choices: Recurve, either one piece or take-down; AFB (American Flat Bow) or Longbow.  Asiatic & Eastern European horsebows are also great fun to shoot although perhaps are not ideal for the beginner.
Traditional doesn't have to mean archaic however. Many of today's bows boast  extremely high performances and manufacturers are continually striving to  push those levels up. This is achieved with the use of modern composite materials, archery specific fibreglass & laminated woods. As well as speed and power these materials and construction techniques also add stability, strength and longevity to bows. And while hand-built craftsmanship comes at a premium price, most mass produced bows perform very well for a lot less money.
At the end of the day choose whatever bow you prefer the look and feel of.