Compound and Recurve Archery: Two of Many Events at 4-H Invitational

June 7, 2013

LINCOLN Neb. — Robin Hood used it to steal from the rich and give to the needy, but its uses are not limited to just thievery. 4-H'ers have found that the bow lends itself perfectly to friendly competitions.

The 2013 National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational will take place June 23-28 at the Heartland Public Shooting Park and Heartland Events Center in Grand Island. Two types of archery will be featured, compound archery and recurve archery. Each type of archery will have three separate events, a FITA round, a field round and 3-D field round.

A FITA round refers to an outdoor round where archers shoot from four different distances. In the 4-H invitational, the distances will be 60, 50, 40 and 30 meters.

In the field round, archers shoot at 14 different circular targets from various distances. The targets are numbered from the center out.

3-D field round refers to an event in which participants shoot at 3-D objects, such as foam dinosaurs, moose and turkeys, said Scott Stuhr, the chief range officer for compound archery.

Stuhr said that archery is still a popular sport. 

"Archery seems to be growing by leaps and bounds right now," Stuhr said." A lot

of folks feel more comfortable shooting bows and arrows. Shotguns have a little bit of a kick to it and a loud noise."

Stuhr said compound archery is more popular than recurve archery because recurve archery is considered to be more difficult. Nebraska is only sending two participants to compete in recurve archery this year.

Last year, 82 participants from around 30 states competed in compound archery, Stuhr said.

"A compound bow is a little more forgiving," Stuhr said. "Recurve takes a little more practice."

Unlike a compound bow, which uses levers and pulleys with a mechanical release to draw and fire, recurve archers use their fingers to manually draw and fire the shot.

"A finger shooter is not as exact as a release shooter is," said Randy Latimer, the chief range officer for recurve archery, "It does not work exactly the same every time."

Latimer said that he likes recurve archery for the old tradition of finger shooting, as well as the challenge of shooting a bow.

"I think it is much easier to pick up a rifle and shoot it than it is a bow," Latimer said.