Several cinematic pieces such as The Hunger Games have sparked curiosity surrounding archery, raising several questions about how the sport is played as well as the safety concerns. If you are looking forward to trying out archery, you might be wondering if it is dangerous to do so.
To put it concisely, simply, Archery is considered a safe sport. It’s believed to be three times safer than golf and tends to fall between golf and bowling in terms of injury rates. Thus, unless major safety protocols are overlooked, it is very likely that archery will be a safe experience.
So, what are those safety issues?
Injuries from Arrow Nocks
The rear of the arrow has caused injuries as it is the sharpest end of most arrows. You can launch an arrow from a target bale towards someone, particularly yourself. You can also yank the nock end of an arrow into someone when pulling it resulting in a major puncture wound.
In unfortunate cases, if the target is lower down, a shaft can be pulled directly into a femoral artery.
These issues can be prevented by having just two persons at a bale at a time, one on each side. As arrows are pulled from the sides, make sure everyone else is standing far back. Rest assured, every archery introductory lesson discusses this.
Here are some rules you should follow to prevent mishaps:
Equipment Examination
More graphic injuries occur as a result of firing damaged equipment. This can include broken shafts, broken nocks, partially detached stiff feathers/vanes, firing a shaft with a missing tip, shooting with a severed string, and so on.
Check all components of the bow and arrow for signs of deterioration such as cracks, chipping, fraying, warping, and any other wear and tear that might jeopardize the equipment’s integrity. To avoid such injuries, please examine your equipment on a regular basis.
Firing Safely
All archers should load, aim, shoot, and recover arrows at the same time to guarantee safety. This ensures that no one shoots by accident while someone is recovering arrows on the range. To manage shooting and retrieving, most archery ranges employ the same approach.
Typical archery regulations employ a whistle system to indicate the required action. For example, one whistle indicates that you can shoot, two indicates that you can approach the firing line, and three indicates that you can go recover the arrows you have shot.
Retrieving Arrows
It must be made sure that all archers wait until they are signaled to recover arrows. When an archer misfires an arrow and it does not travel far, they might want to collect it fast so they may fire again. However, it is risky and unsafe to do so.
Before announcing that it is safe to shoot again, it must be ensured that all archers have returned to the line from the range and that the range is clear.
The Bottom Line
Archery is quite safe if all the aforementioned concerns are catered to and in most cases, your archery program will take care of things and instruct you as you go.
