Tag Archives: recurve

Feb 25 2026

Episode 141 – Equipment review – NFAS target faces

I’ve recorded this episode of the podcast as a video on my thoughts on the National Field Archery Society championship faces (NFAS). It seemed more logical to record a video when talking about target faces than just having it as an audio podcast.

For those that don’t know NFAS produce a selection of target faces specifically designed for the big game round used at clubs across the country and at the National Championships in September.

It is available on Spotify, Amazon, Music and YouTube, the latter being shown below.

In the video I cover the positive and negative points of the targets faces, along with my thoughts specifically on the mess version we use at our club. We have been using these styles of faces for a couple of years and in our experience they work pretty well, especially in wet conditions but there are a couple of negative areas where they could be improved.
There is one downside you need to consider and that being, the faces are printed on a white mech fabric and can suffer from being shot out, with the threads breaking. I show a couple of examples in the video.

There are currently 80 target faces, 20 per group, which means you could set 2 full 40 target courses and not repeat a face. We’ve used quite a few of the Group 1 target faces on our open shoots and they have been very well received. I especially like the Tiger and Golden Eagle faces, though the African lion I struggle will as it melts into the background.

You can order these directly from the NFAS website, where in the downloads section you will find the order form. https://nfas.net/downloads

Let me know what you think of the faces. Does your club use them?

Overall I think the quality of the images is great, with it being nice to see some NFAS specific faces. There has obviously been a lot of work involved in putting these together.

The mess works well for us at the club as it out last the equivalent paper face. Like all target faces they will get shot out over time, especially if you have a number of good archers nailing the centre time and time again.

Personally I would like to the scoring lines to be marked in a darker colour, so they are more easily seen as the light grey doesn’t work well on many of the faces.

In the video I mentioned a top tip I recorded in a YouTube short a while back, when it comes to securing the mess faces to target bosses.

If you have any questions or queries you can drop me an email on or a message via the website contact me page. 

If you have time please check out my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@offthearrowshelf) . Hopefully you will enjoy the content, and if you do, please hit the Like button and consider subscribing to the channel.

Most of all remember to enjoy your shooting and as always thanks for listening, watching and supporting.

Dec 4 2025

Episode 136 – With Special guest of Oliver from Hemlock archery

I have a very special guest in this episode of the podcast. I am delighted to have Oliver Lewis the owner of Hemlock Archery.

For those of you who don’t know of Hemlock Archery, they are a UK based business selling a variety of archery related products but most noticeably Hemlock wooden arrows.

In the episode we talk about topics from, how it all started, to why Hemlock wood as his wood of choice for arrow shafts. With Oliver offering his top tip is for any wooden arrow shooting archery out there.

As always you can listen to the episode on Spotify or Amazon music

I suggest you take some time and check out Hemlock Archery website and see some of the amazing wooden arrows Oliver produces. They really are quite amazing and below you can see a small selection.

As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the episode. I have a couple more guests lined up for future episodes.

Have a great Christmas and New Year.

Nov 5 2025

Episode 133 – Is it time to license bow ownership in UK?

The is no doubt that the last few weeks have been very exhausting, with my Mams funeral in Wales, helping at a weekend long scout camp, half term with associated childcare and more. To finish it all off with an ambulance journey to the local hospital accident and emergency department. Why? Well, it was thanks to knocking myself out at the archery wood, when I fell and hit my head on the car park tarmac (asphalt). So in all it’s been very tiring. Anyway, back to the topic of this post.

Before I dive into the main context of this article, I’d like to mention I have recorded a video and uploaded it on YouTube giving a review and my thoughts on the SRT wild boar target. Feel free to check it out. I’m hoping to do more reviews of this kind so if you find them useful let me know.

Onto the main focus of this episode of the podcast and this is a question which could be at best a hugely contentious issue or at worse a downright explosive one.

Here are links to Amazon music and Spotify versions of the podcast can be played below.

Is it time to license bow ownership in the UK?

 I explore this question, offering my thoughts on the matter and consider what possible alternatives are available. So you might wonder why I am posing this question.

Well at my Mams funeral I got talking to my cousin who is a police officer and the subject of knife crime and licensing of bows come up in the conversation. This got me thinking and hence this episode.

I try to approach the topic from a pragmatic view point of what is practical or realistic. If you listen to the various media reports you could believe that all bow ownership whether longbow, compound or crossbow is in some ways unnecessary and they should be licensed as firearms are in the UK.

I don’t think licensing is an option, as those who wish to use a bow for nefarious reasons aren’t likely to register ownership. I do think there are some practical steps that could be taken such as limiting the sale of bows to archery shops or recognised sport shops, where people can be given advice on what is suitable. I go into more details in the podcast.

In an ideal world there would not have to be any thought of restrictions but we don’t live in a perfect world and there are people who will use bows inappropriately. Sadly this is likely to always happen. There is one other factor to consider and that are the current media stories and style of reporting, which can be quite sensationalist in some cases and in turn can greatly influence government policy and the general publics view.

  Let me know what your thoughts are on the subject. Thanks for reading.