What sort of advantages does a vest offer an archer?

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Mick Smith
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Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:09 pm
Location: Surf Coast Victoria

What sort of advantages does a vest offer an archer?

#1 Post by Mick Smith » Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:53 pm

Over the years I come to appreciate the certain attributes that are offered by wearing a vest when shooting my bow. For a start, vests don't have sleeves and bulky sleeves are the bane of archers, as they catch your bowstring, robbing your bow of much of its power. A good vest will keep you almost as warm as a complete jacket in cold weather.

Of course, there are vests and there are vests. You won't have too much trouble finding lots of good warm vests. You can even find oilskin vests that will offer you reasonable protection on those wet days afield. In this country it's not usually the cold weather that's the problem, it's excessive heat. A good vest can offer some advantages in hot conditions too. If you have a good look around you will find a good array of mesh vests that are available. These sort of vests would be ideal to wear when bowhunting in warm climates. Most of these vest have heaps of pockets and this allows the bowhunter to be able to carry all the little knicknacks that we all like to carry these days. Things like a camera, a GPS, small binoculars, game calls, a pocket knife, a spare string, mobile phone and what ever else you can think of. You can carry all this sort of gear very comfortably in a vest as the weight is evenly distributed on your shoulders.

I'm a big fan of vests. They offer the wearer almost unlimited freedom of movement. They don't contribute to bulky sleeves and the associated likelyhood have snagging your string. They can keep you warm or relatively cool. They nearly always offer heaps of small pockets where you can store all the stuff you like to take on a hunt. I've got heaps of polar fleece vests, including camo ones and just today I enlarged my collection with the addition of an excellent oilskin vest, which I'm sure will be a great advantage to me on those cooler days when the likelyhood of rain is high. I'm currently on the lookout for the perfect bowhunters lightweight mesh vest, as I think one of these vests would be the answer to carrying all our needs in a very convenient and cool manner on those stinking hot days.

Mick
There is no use focusing on aiming if you don't execute the shot well enough to hit what your are aiming at.

longbowinfected
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Re: What sort of advantages does a vest offer an archer?

#2 Post by longbowinfected » Sat Dec 06, 2008 4:34 pm

I have owned and worn a top of the range "Dry as a bone" for four years. I live and shoot in the Blue Mountains. I usually wear tee shirts and shorts even in the snow. I do not own any jumpers and very few longsleeved shirts [only those that go with a suit or two].
If I wear my oilskin hat and oilskin vest I am ready for heat and/or extreme cold , rain or wind......and you do not even feel the weight. Saves space in a pack. I cannot understand why they do not make them with external kidney pouches or with vented areas with mesh underneath....then they weould be perfect.
I wear my oilskin hat as my everyday hat. The pocket in the crown is very useful.
Normally I buy the generic or cheaper unit except for hats, oilskins and knives. The oilskins are great at defeating sharp bits of bush too.

A number of the longbow AA shooters that I compete against also wear basically the same clobber.

Kevin
never complain....you did not have to wake up....every day is an extra bonus and costs nothing.

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Mick Smith
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Location: Surf Coast Victoria

Re: What sort of advantages does a vest offer an archer?

#3 Post by Mick Smith » Sat Dec 06, 2008 4:42 pm

Thanks Kevin. :wink: I knew vests were popular with archers, as they're a very common sight at most archery tournaments. Oilskin vests offer the best of both worlds in cooler weather, protection from rain and cold, plus they're great to shoot in.

I also have an oilskin hat and it's my favourite wet weather hat by far. I think I had the only dry head at the 2007 Morwell shoot. :D

Here's a piccy of my new oilskin vest. As you can see, it has plenty of pockets. 8)

Mick
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There is no use focusing on aiming if you don't execute the shot well enough to hit what your are aiming at.

jape

Re: What sort of advantages does a vest offer an archer?

#4 Post by jape » Sat Dec 06, 2008 5:21 pm

I like waistcoats too. I wore them all the time but in Australia what you guys find hot is what knocks me out so I don't wear more than a sarong, shades and a stubby holder in summer. This waistcoat was given to me 40 yrs ago by a friend of mine who is Comanche, I think it is deerskin and I used to wear it all the time. In those days I also had a suede pouch that went on my belt or over my shoulder for all the bits and pieces like smokes and knife and sketch pad so it didn't need more than the two pockets. It is as good as new still as I keep it waxed but seems to have shrunk a little, maybe I got bigger ...

Image

These days I wear my old fly-fishing vest when out and about, it is light enough for summer and has vents. I might camouflage it one day. I think the main advantage in archery is that they stop the string ripping your left nipple off.

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