Why do you choose a flatbow

Borderbows · Why do you choose a flatbow

What makes you choose a flatbow, why not a longbow or a recurve?
What do you look for in a flatbow?

JimN

If you really want a brutally honest answer, I chose a flatbow because:

It was cheaper than a longbow
They are more forgiving than a longbow
They are easier to look after than a longbow
I prefer the 'traditional' style of flatbows and longbows
Did I mention it was cheap?

I really want a longbow

An equally pertinent question might be; why wouldn't you choose a flatbow over a longbow or recurve? My personal pet-hate would be explaining to non-archery people the difference between flatbows and longbows.

Borderbows

if you shoot another style, then fair enough... ie, flatbows are your second choice of archery.
Here is how i personally see it.
You spend all you life working to fund your life.
You spend the remaining amout of time fueling the need for the money, for example, driving is a method of getting to and from work, and the shops. Shops are ther so you can by food ect.
This all is built up to fund and fuel the few hours that you spend doing what you really want. All the rest are "service" hours. So why cheap out on the 2 hours that are truly yours?

I agree that you spend more hours in your car than you do shooting, so you could have more pleasure time driving a nice car, but thay are stil service hours to most people.

I suppose its all about priorities... I drove a 300 pound car, and rode a £3000 push bike. Some would say im crazy, but in my time, i had the best i could afford... In my time i wanted no doubts, I might have done better IF....
That last question for me is a work related question and for the price of a reasonable TV i could have the best Bow and not have any doubts...
Just my tuppence worth, and there is no right view on this one, only a personal view...

sid

I shoot flatbow. I had a longer than average draw length that a longbow would not accommodate unless I spent a lot of money, a recurve just did not feel right and the flatbow felt the best of the three and was cheap as well which is a bonus.

kirk

I shoot a Hoyt Gamemaster recurve and a Kota Nomad TD flatbow, the Hoyt is quick and dead on, but my Kota Flatbow is the bow I love to shoot, it's light in the hand shoots were I look and it's a stunner, just wish it was 5# heavier on the draw weight.
I don't use woods but prefer to shoot ally's, so when I take it to a shoot I am with the barebow crowd, I also shoot split finger with plenty of cant.
The flatbow feels right and is a pleasure to shoot.

zetabow

I started off with Recurve and shot that for around 13 years, had a short stint with Compound (6 months) which I found kinda boring, I didn't want to go back to Recurve so tried AFB, I found these bows really suited me and got a lot more pleasure from AFB's.

For some reason I shoot AFB far better than any of the Recurves I shot, so maybe me and AFB's were meant for each other.

Blackheart

Blackcat

I shot recurve and longbow and love both, however some very nice man has loaned me a flat bow (trying to get me away from sights) and I love it to. I actually shoot it better than my longbow. The only downside is I feel the grip is not quite right for me and I don't like where my hand ends up, gives me a lot of shock on loose.

aussiedan

I love my longbow, that raw power when I pull the arrow back to my ear and let fly. Can't beat it.

I love the simplicity of it and how it looks when bent full compass. I just can't warm to flat bows in the same way...

The only thing I want more is a bigger longer bow - 100lb, 78" ntn would be nice, and then a...

hah! one longbow is never enough

English Bowman

I'm thinking about getting and AFB to take out on the colder days of the winter when I don't want to risk the ELB, but I'm not sure about it yet.

AFB

I sort of fell into AFB. After years of shooting Freestyle and being ribbed by my club (Warcock) for using twiddly bits and a TV aerial etc I started playing with an AFB on some visits to the club and fell in love with it. Since then my freestyle setup is gathering dust in the attic whilst I now have two Flatbows and am improving (hopefully) as time goes on

dusty

Having shoot a one piece recurved for a while and not into compound (sorry not for me) and not wanting to spend a lot of money on a longbow that could break that left AFB. I went a bought a Andy Soars Zeta and just love it so light in your hand yet so fast Took a while to fine the right arrow set up but got there. Also it is a large class at most shoots if you are going to win something it is far better to shoot against a large group