Different types of archery need different styles of bows. Each type or style of archery has a particular type of bow that archers shoot in a specific division. Most archery competitions welcome other bow styles by using separate divisions. To give you a better idea of the different types of bows and the shooting styles they participate in, the following chart should help you in narrowing down the right equipment selection.
| Bow Styles in Different Types of Archery | |||
| What kind of shooting do you want to try? | Type of Archery | Most common bow style | Other bow styles permitted in this type of archery |
| I’d like to shoot in the Olympics someday. | target archery | modern recurve only | none |
| I want to shoot on a field. | target archery | modern recurve and compound |
traditional longbow or recurve |
| I want to shoot a bow like Robin Hood. | traditional archery | traditional longbow or recurve |
none |
| I’d like to shoot on a roving course with different terrain. |
field archery or 3D Archery |
compound | modern recurve and traditional longbow or recurve |
| I want to shoot targets in animal shapes. | field archery or 3D Archery |
compound | modern recurve and traditional longbow or recurve |
| I want to go hunting with my bow. | bowhunting | compound | modern recurve and traditional longbow or recurve |
