Archery Terms S-Z

Archery Terms
Self Arrow	An arrow made entirely of one piece of wood.
Self Bow	A bow made entirely of one piece of wood.
Serving	The thread which is wound round the bow string at the nocking points which protects the string from normal wear and tear.
Serving Tool	Small instrument used for serving strings.
Shaft	See 'Arrow'.
Shaft Arm	The arm used to draw the bow.
Shaft Feathers	The two feathers that lie next to the bow, as opposed to the Cock Feather (q.v.) that is at right angles to the nock.
Shaft Hand	The hand used to draw the bow.
Shaftment	The section at the rear of the shaft to which the fletchings are attached.
Shake	A crack running with the grain in a bow stave.
Shooting Line	The line the archer stands astride when shooting.
Shooting Glove	A partial glove with three fingers used to protect the fingers when shooting
Sighters	Those arrows which are allowed to be shot at the start of a competition for the benefit of sight adjustment, prior to the commencement of scoring.
Sipur	Extension which is fitted to a bow to enable a short arrow to be used. Normally for Flight shooting.
Skirt	See 'Petticoat'.
Sling	Used to restrain the bow from jumping out of the hand when shooting with a relaxed bow hand.
Spectator Line	A line 15 yards behind the shooting line.
Spine	The bending quality of an arrow that allows it to spring out as it passes the bow on being shot, then return to its original straightness, when in free flight. AMO standard - is the amount of bend in thousandths of an inch when the arrow is placed on two points 28 inches apart with a weight of 880 grams hung in the centre of the arrow.
Stabiliser	Weights which are used to add mass to the bow to slow movement during the time taken for the arrow to clear the bow.
Stacking	A relative steep increase in draw weight per extra unit of draw length towards the end of the draw.
Stacked Bow	A bow in which the thickness of the limbs is a little greater than the width; this type of bow is usually oval in cross-section.
Stave	A stick or staff of timber prior to it being fashioned into a bow or arrow shaft.
Stock	The main part of a crossbow which is held by the arbalist and to which all other parts are connected, such as the bow, trigger and sight.
String	Bow string.
Endless String	Made from one length of 'thread' wound on a former with the two thread ends knotted under one of the end servings which forms the loops at the ends of the string.
Flemish String	Made from as many pieces as there are strands in the string. These are twisted to form a rope and then laid back into themselves, without the use of knots, to form either a loop and plain end or two loops.
Tab	See 'Finger Tab'.
Tackle	A collective word to describe an archers equipment.
Take Down	The type of bow that the limbs can be removed for transportation or even to change the draw weight of the bow by changing the limbs.
Target Captain	The person in charge of the conduct of the archers at the target, particularly when recording scores.
Target Day	A club shoot officially planned and publicised within the club.
Target Face	A cover marked with the scoring zones, placed over the target boss. Usually made of a reinforced paper.
Target Lieutenant	Assistant to the Target Captain.
Target Stand	A stand supporting the Boss.
TFC	Torque Flight Compensator. A flexible coupling used between the bow and stabiliser, the amount of flexibility can be adjusted to suit the archer.
Thumb Lock	See 'Lock'
Thumb Ring	A protective device made from horn, ivory, wood or some other suitable material for archers shooting with a 'thumb lock'.
Tiller	1 The Bowyer's manufacturing process used to balance the forces which are applied by the limbs of the bow when strung or being drawn. 2 A comparison of the measurements taken from the fade-out to the string at each end of the riser. It is normal for the bottom measurement to be the smaller by approximately 3 mm.
Timber Hitch	The knot which is normally used to form the second loop on a string which has been manufactured with one loop, i.e. long-bow string.
Torque	A turning force applied to the bow at full draw.
Toxophilite	A student of archery.
Toxophilus	Title of the first book to teach the art of archery, written by Roger Ascham - published in 1544.
Traditional Aiming	A shooting method of drawing the arrow back to a position where the holding hand is placed under the jaw bone, either using a side or a front reference point
Trajectory	The curved flight of the arrow caused by the effect of gravity whist the arrow is in flight.
Under-Bowed	The situation where an archer has a bow that is too light in draw weight.
Under-Draw	Not to draw sufficient arrow length.
Unit Aiming	Maintaining the relationship of the arms, head and shoulders by adjusting the aiming from the waist.
Vane	The plastic fletch of an arrow.
Waiting Line	A line 5 yards behind the shooting line, where archers wait while others are shooting. On metric rounds this would be 5 meters.
Wand	A piece of wood, 6 feet long and 2 inches wide which is driven into the ground and serves as a shooting mark. Traditional ancient shooting of 'splitting the wand'.
Wax	Bee's wax is normally used to seal a bow string, thus retaining the correct level of moisture within the threads. It also binds the threads together.
Whip-Ended	Description of a bow of which the limbs are too weak in the tip area
Yew	The wood from which English long-bows are traditionally made.
Zen	A form of meditation practiced by masters of Kyudo and other Japanese martial arts.

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Archery Classifications

Archery Terms