Left Handed Recurve Bow Information

Many left-handed archers shoot right-handed bows and vice-versa. Target archery is a static sport calling for very little manual dexterity, so whether you hold the bow in your left hand or your right hand has little bearing on your potential as an archer. The deciding factor is eye dominance.

  1. Accuracy and Control

    • When taking aim, a target archer stands sideways to the target and keeps both eyes open. The archer constantly switches eye focus between the target and the bow sight. The dominant eye should be above the arrow, giving the archer a clear line of sight from the arrow to the bow sight and on to the target. A left-eye dominant archer would tend to feel uncomfortable shooting right-handed; his accuracy would be impaired while trying to take aim with the bow held in the left hand and the non-dominant right eye positioned above the arrow.

    Eye Dominance

    • To find out which eye is dominant, hold both hands at arms' length. Create an aperture between your fingers and the vee of your thumb by overlapping your hands. Focus on a distant object through the aperture and draw your hands toward your eyes. The aperture will settle over your dominant eye. A second way of testing is to point your forefinger at a distant object and to close one eye. If the tip of your finger stays on the object, the open eye is dominant; if the finger appears to jump to one side, the open eye is the weaker of the two.

    Bows

    • Recurve bows have a cutout in the middle portion of the bow above the handle. This is to allow the arrow rest to be mounted on the bow's center-line, with the drawn arrow in line with the bowstring, the bow sight, and the target. Right-handed bows have the cutout on the left side of the bow, and left-handed bows have a cutout on the right side of the bow.

    Shooting style

    • Most sporting goods outlets stock right-handed bows, so left-handed bows are sometimes hard to find. Consequently, most casual right-handed archers use right-handed bows regardless of eye dominance. However, competitive tournament archers will go to any lengths to improve their scores--even if it means spending hundreds of dollars on a new bow, specialized left-handed arrow rests and bow sights--and then spending many months learning how to shoot left-handed.

    Target Archery

    • Target archery events such as the Olympics and the World Championships are controlled by FITA, the International Archery Federation. The official Olympic FITA round consists of 36 arrows shot at four distances for a total of 144 arrows. The 90- and 70-meter targets have a diameter of 122 cm; the 50- and 30-meter targets have a diameter of 80 cm. The target is divided into five colors: white, black, blue, red and gold. Each color is divided into two rings; the innermost gold ring scores 10 and the outermost white ring scores one. In a tie, there is a shoot-off; a single point could make the difference between a gold and a silver medal, so shooting the correct handed bow is very important.