Over the years I did get asked, where to shop for archery stuff, what to wear in winter (why am I still warm, and they are freezing?) and so on and on. Therefore I will post my collection of usefull links here. I edit this if a new link will come up. Of course, you could just Google it yourself, so I add a mini-review or my personal opinion, stress on “my” and “personal”.
We also have a few links for participants of the AHS Bogensport only, which I will not include here, I will add another link-page (or area) that will be password-protected. But if they are links everybody is free to visit, they will be here.
Clubs and organizations
There are tons of other clubs of course, those listed are only the closest to me, which I am usually asked about by participants.
- Sports Program of the University Stuttgart (AHS) There are a lot of sports you could experience here. This is not only for students and staff, nearly nobody knows, that anybody could register for the courses (called externals). So go there, find very unique sport disciplines like Lightsaber-Fighting (called Ludosports), Cardistry (Cardtricks) or Jugger. Of course they have the usual stuff, too: Rugby, Squash, Dancing, Mountainbiking, Sailing, Climbing, Judo, and so many more – oh and Archery and Horsebow Archery of course 😉
- BC Magstadt https://www.bcmagstadt.de/
- Bogenjäger Stuttgart https://www.bogenjaeger-stuttgart.info/
- BSC Stuttgart https://www.bogensportclub-stuttgart.de/
- BSG Fasanenhof https://bsg-fasanenhof.jimdofree.com/
- Kyudo at Kyudojo: https://www.kyudojo-stuttgart.de/
- Kyudo at SVG Feuerbach: https://sportvg-feuerbach.de/sportangebote/kyudo
The organizations are very complicated and I might explain later in another post. Here just the links and a few words about it:
- WSV 1850 https://www.wsv1850.de/ : this is the state organization your club needs to be member of, if you want to go to official WorldArchery-competitions, like State or Federal Championships (for the WA formats) – you can find all dates here. They also have a great learning center, where you can get your trainers licence (like me), or just learn at specific courses. If the course is at the Landessportschule Ruit I can highly recommend going there, nice hotel rooms and good food, while you are at a course. TIP: be a member of one of the WSV-Memberclubs, all courses are about 50% cheaper.
- World Archery https://www.worldarchery.sport/ this is the international federation of archery, formerly known as FITA. Olympic archery is a WA format. You find international competitions here, and the rulebook, that the WSV1850 is also following (sometimes with a little delay). You can also find all information about the big and famous archers out there and their current records.
- IFAA https://www.ifaa-archery.org/. Not interested in the “FITA” or olympic style format? Go there. They have a totally other ruleset, and other competitions. Their target group are more non-professional archers and the ruleset is a little closer to “hunting” rather then “optimization” – they host specific field archery competitions.
- DFBV https://www.dfbv.de/ German Field Archery association. Another big format, focused and field archery. Very interesting here is the “Bowhunterliga”. On the site you will also find all competitions for that ruleset.
Competitions:
- https://www.3dturnier.com/de/tournament Want to find an archery competition (3D mostly)? Go here.
- https://mein-bogenturnier.de/ Want to find an archery competition (any ruleset)? Go here
- https://www.dsb.de/bogensport/kalender/bogenkalender Want to find an archery competition (WA Ruleset)? Go here
- https://www.3d-bogenparcours.com/home well, not a competition site, but if you want to fina a 3D parcours, you can find one here with detailed descriptions (is it wheelchair-accessible, can you bring a dog, is it suitable for beginners, is there a toilet,…) – mostly germany and austria, but some in europe and even some in the USA.
Apps
- Very good app I personally use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vapeldoorn.artemislite&pcampaignid=web_share unfortunately only for Android. I track all my arrows there, my bow settings and of course all my point cards and arrow count.
- Another good app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.dreier.mytargets also Android only
Sorry, I do not know an app for apple yet. If you know one, you can recommend, let me know. I am looking for one to recommend.
Shopping for Bow and Arrow
Another information I was asked to provide that might be of interest to all. Here are the shops for Archery I frequently use. I only added Shops I already have some experience with… of course there are thousands of shops online nowadays, so be careful, where you buy.
I prefer shops I can go to, and I highly recommend going to a shop and talk with the owner. If they are archers themselves, they can help you to find what you really need, and not with what you think you need. If they don’t have it in store, they can order what you like. My two closest stores and (thus) my favourites:
- Bogenwelt (www.bogenwelt.de) <- physical shop in Kirchentellinsfurt, close to Tübingen
- Bogensport Walter (https://shop.bogensport-walter.de/) <- physical shop in Magstadt, close to Böblingen
But, stores can not have everything available, and sometimes you need it fast – or you just want to take a look around, what there is in the market. Here are the online shops I mostly shop at, if I do not shop it at my local store.
- https://archery-attack.de/shop/
- https://www.arrowforge.de/
- https://www.bogensportdeutschland.de/
- https://bogensportshop.eu/de/ (it seems to be somewhat of a gamble…. Either you get exactly what you want and all is good, or it’s troublesome to correct sth. (Experience from at least one of my archers))
- I very rarely buy here:www.bogensportwelt.de the homebrand is sometimes good (enough), often not…. I cannot recommend it without any doubt; but you can buy a lot of different equipment here: backbags, weights, stabilizer,….
- https://asianbows.com/ Horsebows and long horsebow arrows! Very recommendable!
Of course there are a lot of other shops out there, and especially if you look for something very specific, than it might be worth it to buy it another shop. Also if you want horseback bows or kyudo bows you might need totally different shops, there is usually a small choice of horseback bows in above shops, but nothing specialized.
There are two wholesaler, where you cannot order directly at, but if you want to see, if the riser you want is available in other colors, or which other options are out there for anything or if it might not be devlierable at all, you can take a look here:https://www.ssa-archery.com/ or https://jvd-archery.com/ and your friendly archeryshop (see above, the first two) can order anything from there for you (prices might be different though, those are only recommended prices).
Please do NOT buy any archery equipment from AMAZON nor DECATHLON (esp. if you do not know what you buy yet), buy at an archery shop!
But don’t forget the first rule (in not only archery): try it before you buy it (or get information by a lot of significant reviews at least) – especially for risers.
Outdoor clothing
Well, not directly archery-related, but somehow it is. Since I get the question a lot too about what to wear, esp. in winter ourside shooting, I have made you a clothing guide and here are the related links. There are dozens other shops, too, that sell suitable clothing, here just my favorites, because it is a good mix of selection, quality and bargain.
- Information about the layers from a shops perspective: https://www.globetrotter.de/magazin/kaufberatung-lagenprinzip/
- This is one of my favorite shops: https://www.globetrotter.de/herren/outdoor-bekleidung/ It has a branch in Stuttgart, and you can try everything.
- https://www.larca.de/ has very, very good offers, the only shop left is in Schorndorf. S-Bahn Stop is there…
- https://www.decathlon.de/ It is a good shop for cheaper, but still good sports clothing in general, but not always the best quality. The training equipment is good for experimentation, but if you get really into the various sports, they might be lacking – please do not buy bows or arrows here, the rest is ok.