THE DARKFIN TACTICAL ARCHERY GLOVE

A shooting glove is a necessary armor or defense for the hand, to preserve it from hurting or galling, so that a man may be able in his fingers to bear the sharpness of the string to the uttermost of his strength.

 (The Art of Archerie, Gervase Markham, 1634)

It was fortuitous that, as I was leaving home for to go shooting in the forest with my brother, I found upon my doormat the Darkfin ambidextrous three-finger shooting glove which Dark Archer Tactical Archery kindly sent to me in exchange for an honest review. 

Before I proffer my opinion on this very unique shooting glove, I feel the need to state that I have never liked finger tabs. Somehow, they feel like an obstacle. I shoot with leather gloves with extra padding on the shooting fingers. However, they too leave me feeling somehow detached from my bow string. I like to be able to feel the string as much as possible in order to have greater control and to feel connected with my bow. However, shooting for any extended period of time without sufficient protection does create discomfort due to the friction from pulling and releasing the string over and over again. Enter the Darkfin Tactical Archery glove. 

I must admit, when I first saw and felt the glove, my knee-jerk reaction was disappointment. It did not look attractive, and it felt very strange. I have never worn anything made of latex rubber (stop sniggering!), and, being a traditional archer, it is not the kind of glove I find aesthetically appealing.

My size is large (again, stop sniggering!) and so that is the size glove I was given. Yet it felt quite tight, particularly around the wrist. However, before you all jump to the conclusion that you might want to get a size larger than what you normally wear, the discomfort was short-lived, as though this glove, by some strange witchery, soon adjusted itself to fit the wearer. It was a matter of minutes, if not less, until I forgot I was wearing a glove at all.

As for performance, this is by far the best shooting aid I have ever used. Though I barely notice I am wearing it, I feel absolutely no friction on my fingers whatsoever, providing maximum protection and maximum control at the same time. 

But there is yet more that is great about this glove. It is ambidextrous, so it can be used by left and right-handed archers. I put this quality to the test and offered it to my brother to try, for he is a left handed archer. His opinion of the glove was exactly the same as mine. Furthermore, the glove is easy to store in one's pocket or bag, and it can be scrunched up without losing its shape. A very handy quality for any glove (pun intended).

While I still find it aesthetically unappealing, in terms of performance, practicality and value for money I do not believe there is a better shooting glove out there. This is an excellent piece of archery equipment I would recommend to all archers but those who shoot using the thumb draw or those who care more about aesthetics than practicality and performance.

SHOOTING WITH A THUMB RING AND THE KAYA GLOVE

Finally, I got to put my thumb ring to the test, as well as my Kaya shooting glove. Here is my comparison of these two acquisitions for those interested in using the thumb draw, or Eastern-style release.

Before the comparison begins, a little information about what I was shooting with. My bow was a Mongolian horse bow which pulls 45 ibs at 28 inches. My arrows were 125 grain 31 inch Japanese bamboo arrows suited to bows between 45 and 70 ibs.

The Kaya shooting glove KTB from Merlin Archery

I began shooting with the Kaya shooting glove from Merlin Archery. It is a comfortable leather glove, and the leather tab which is added to the thumb sleeve makes it easy to pull even a 45 ib bow to full draw repeatedly. It was easy to keep the arrow in place and there was no strain or friction on the thumb after more than an hour of shooting.

My consistency was terrible, but I think that is far more to do with the idiot behind the bow than it has to do with the glove.

Thumb ring from Longbowmaker (Amazon)

I then put the glove away and donned my thumb ring, procured from Longbowmaker via Amazon. 

It was harder to keep the arrow in place due to the smoothness of the ring providing little grip, but my consistency was radically improved! Clearly, the point of the ring is the smooth material removes friction, meaning less torquing of the string, and therefore a cleaner release. However, it made my thumb quite sore. This is what my thumb looked like one hour after shooting only nine arrows.

Furthermore, it became increasingly difficult to keep the arrow secure in place and pull to full draw repeatedly without shaking, and I lost my new-found consistency as quickly as I had discovered it. That being said, I suspect the thumb ring is slightly too tight for my thumb. I can not properly review thumb rings in general until I have one custom-made to test. 

All that being said, the thumb ring from Amazon is considerably cheaper than the Kaya shooting glove from Merlin Archery. However, the Kaya shooting glove provides a great deal of comfortable shooting in return, while shooting with the thumb ring is just untenable for more than a few rounds.

If you want to shoot using the thumb release, I recommend the Kaya shooting glove, but if it is possible to get hold of an archer's ring that is just right for your thumb and will enable you to pull the bow you want to shoot time and again without discomfort, I suspect you will be getting a great deal of accuracy by comparison.

BACK QUIVERS (& 3 Reviews)

If you are a traditional archer, then surely at some point you have at least considered a back quiver. Let's face it, they look cool, but are they practical? 

I have used and continue to use both back and side quivers, and I have found little difference between them in terms of practicality. One advantage of the back quiver is it is less cumbersome while walking (something for field archers to consider), but a side quiver is less likely to get your arrows caught in low hanging branches (also something for field archers to consider).I find that drawing arrows from a back quiver makes for a smoother motion when nocking one's arrows, but getting your arrows back into your quiver without taking it off can prove an ordeal.

The pros and cons of the back quiver seem to balance out. So here are three quivers I have used, each with a significantly different price tag. Behold my review of these acquisitions to help you determine whether they are worthy of your money.

THE MAC LEATHER BACK QUIVER

My first back quiver was the MAC leather quiver from Merlin Archery, priced at £17.17. This is a very attractive price tag for such a fine looking artifact. I had no trouble holding as many as 14 arrows in here at a time. However, it is not too comfortable to wear, and getting arrows back into the quiver was often difficult. That being said, under £20 for a good-looking leather back quiver is a bargain.

THE TIMBER CREEK SUEDE BACK QUIVER

A better looking and more comfortable back-quiver, which I also acquired through Merlin Archery, is the Timber Creek Lil Bear Tan, priced at £29.95. A beautiful suede quiver with faux fur and a couple of feathers for decoration, it is undoubtedly an attractive piece of equipment. More importantly, the three point harness makes it considerably more comfortable to wear than the cheaper MAC leather quiver. If you are committed to wearing a back quiver, you may want to consider this. 

THE SODIAL PORTABLE QUIVER

The third quiver I shall review here is aesthetically inferior to the above, but practically superior, and what's more, far cheaper. The Sodial Portable Archery Quiver which I procured through Amazon for a mere £9.84 functions as both a back and side quiver. It is easy to put on and looks nice enough. If, like me, you enjoy shooting with both side and back quivers, this is a great item! It cannot hold as many arrows as the back quivers mentioned here. I can just about squeeze 12 arrows in (6 if the arrows have broadheads). The strap needs to be done up tightly to be able to reach arrows if going for the strapped to the back option, and even then you likely will be drawing arrows from the nock rather than from below the fletchings. Due to the material, drawing an arrow from the quiver can be a little noisy, so for hunting it may not be ideal. But I think you would be hard pressed to find a better bargain. Due to the limited storage, when field shooting (in which many arrows may be required in one session since losing arrows is more likely) I can use this as a side quiver with a back quiver for extra arrows, so it is a very handy piece of equipment which I highly recommend to traditional field archers and target archers alike.

TRADITIONAL ARCHERY AND AESTHETICS

Let's face it, traditional archers care about how things look, and I must say that it is starting to annoy me somewhat that some archers consider aesthetics irrelevant at best, laughable vanity at worst. 

I am not denying that vanity for inexplicable reasons is an irksome vice found in all people, which irritates us when we find it in anyone but ourselves, yet there is surely something good to be said of aesthetics and, for want of a better term, "looking good".

In Kyudo, for example, an archer is judged not only by the outcome of his or her shots, but by how graceful the archer is in his or her movements. This is not deemed vanity, but an indication of one's inner self. The manner in which one conducts himself, his movements, his posture, his gracefulness, has been considered in many societies throughout the ages something more noble than vanity. Rather, it was the measure of how civilized and cultured a man or woman was.

In a similar way, I do not believe that aesthetics in archery, be it the choice of weapon or some other instrument of the art, or the manner in which the archer stands, takes an arrow, nocks an arrow, draws and shoots, is simply a matter of vanity.

So, let us consider yet further the charge of vanity. I remember at my first archery club, when I turned up with a longbow and a leather back quiver, together with a leather bracer and shooting gloves (to my surprise, the experienced shooters of modern bows could not understand why I needed a glove on my bow hand when shooting a long bow) I was gently ridiculed and accused thus: "He thinks he is Robin Hood". 

After the initial embarrassment, I became rather upset that my fellow archers could not comprehend why I preferred wood, horn and leather over fibreglass, plastic and synthetics. If I am going to shoot a traditional bow, I will acquire trappings to match. How many people willingly go out wearing socks of colours that do not match? Or how many decide to go to a club wearing dirty jeans to go with their smart shirt and tie? Similarly, why would I purchase some horrible-looking plastic quiver to go with a traditional weapon of exquisite beauty?

Some may like to think of traditional archery and all the stunning craftsmanship that goes with it as vanity. I think of it as good taste and common (or perhaps not-so-common) sense.