The Recurve Bow:
Bow handles (risers) are made of aluminum alloys and are machined for a combination of strength and lightness. Some bow handles are made of a magnesium and aluminum mixture which is heated to liquid form and poured into a mold. Once cooled, it is cleaned, final machined and painted. Some lower cost, childrens bows have wood risers, as do some rather expensive, hand made bows.Bow limbs are generally constructed of man-made materials, such as fiberglass, carbon and syntatic foam. The limbs store the energy of the draw and release it to the arrow. The string and the limbs are commonly removed from the riser when the bow is not in use, allowing for easy storage of the "knocked-down" bow.Bows have stabilizers to reduce torque (twisting) in the arrows upon release. They also have sights to aid in aiming and rests to help align the shot.Most bow strings are made of either "Fast Flight", a hydrocarbon product that also has medical and other uses, or "Kevlar", the material used to make bullet-proof vests. The important point to be made about the string is that it must not stretch under normal environmental conditions, as that would change the bows pull weight and make consistency impossible. A layer of string material called the serving is placed where the arrow is nocked to snugly match the notch on the arrow, and a small ring is permanently placed on the serving to mark where the arrow rests when nocked. A small button, called the kisser button, is often used to assure that the back end of the arrow is always pulled back to the proper, repeatable anchor point. When properly drawn, the kisser button rests right between the lips.An arrow is pulled back to the anchor point using the middle three fingers of the draw hand. These fingers are often covered with a glove or a leather "tab" which protects the fingers. A tab may have a metal shelf built in so that the two fingers on either side of the arrow do not squeeze it.

On recurve bows a clicker is a small, spring-loaded lever that is held out away from its resting point by the arrow. When the arrow is drawn back to exactly the same point each time, the clicker slips past the tip of the arrow, producing an audible "click", which tells the archer he has the arrow at the same, repeatable release point. This causes very close to the same amount of tension to be used on every shot, so the arrow flight is the same.A sight allows the archer, when the arrow is properly drawn, to line the bow up with the center of the target by eye. The sight generally has adjustments in up-down and left-right dimensions with caliper-style read outs so that ageing equipment, weather, temperature and distance to the target may be accommodated. Olympic archery allows for sights which do not have lenses or electronics associated with them.Arm guards and chest protectors protect the skin from string burn, as well as provide a low-resistance surface that the string may skim over easily upon release. A pair of binoculars or a sighting scope allows the archer to see the arrows in the target, and thereby make corrections to the sight as required. A quiver to hold arrows and other periphernalia completes the archer's accessories. The NAA, in accordance with FITA rules, has established a dress code that is used at all NAA tournaments; this accounts for the "whites" look of the competitors.

Compound bow
The Compound bow, unlike the recurve bow, is never knocked-down between uses. The great tension preset into the lambs can only safely be countered when the bow is couched in piece of equipment called a bow press. The cams are synchronized when this is done, and are held in place by the tension. Compound bow cases must be able to accommodate the entire bow.Because the Compound bow's forte is accuracy, equipment which increases the accuracy is deemed fair for compound use while it is not for Olympic archery. The site may include electronics and/or lenses to increase accuracy, and a release, rather than fingers, may be used. A release is a mechanical "finger" that grips the string and releases it when the trigger is pressed by the draw hand.

Arrows in the recurve (Olympic) bow events can travel in excess of 150 miles per hour, while compound arrows can fly in excess of 225 miles per hour. The shafts are made of either aluminum or aluminum with carbon fibers. Aluminum arrows are more uniform in weight and shape, while carbon arrows fly faster and provide less cross-wind resistance, and are therefore more useful in long distance outdoor archery.The business end of the arrow is weighted and tipped with a target point, designed to penetrate but a short distance in the target butt. Hunting arrows, of course, use a different, extremely sharp cutting point called a field point. All NAA sanctioned events use only target points, except for certain Flight archery events.Arrows come in varying widths. Carbon arrows, designed to minimize cross-wind interference at long shooting distances, have small widths, minimizing the wind's grip during flight. Larger widths are used for short distances and indoors. Since the arrow need only just touch a line in order to score the higher point, wide arrows theoretically provide slightly better scoring advantage. FITA has ruled in the past that arrows may not exceed 11mm (.433 in) in width, and that has been lowered to 9.3mm (.366 in) after April 1, 2000.The other end from the tip features a nocking point, a plastic cap glued or otherwise attached to the end of the arrow. Its two fingers grip the string until it is flung loose, and it provides a protection for the arrow shaft by deflecting hits from later incoming arrows. This generally destoys the nock, but leaves the arrow reusable. Sometimes, of course, the aim is too perfect to deflect; the resulting "Robin-Hood" is both spectacular and expensive, as both arrows are usually destroyed.On the shaft itself fletchings are glued to stabilize the arrow's flight. Sometimes they are glued in such a way as to cause the shaft to spin around its long dimension, further stabilizing its flight at a cost to its flat trajectory. The fletchings are generally three in number, one of which (the index feather) has a different color than the other two. The nock is installed gripping the string perpendicular to the index fletch, so that it's friends both brush the riser equally in passing, minimally disturbing the arrow's flight.Fletchings may be plastic "feathers" or solid vanes, in a variety of shapes, lengths and, of course, colors. Markings, called crests, may be drawn on the arrows at the owner's discretion. All the arrows used in a tournament end must have identical shaft color, fletcing and crests. In addition, FITA requires that all arrows be marked with the owner's initials so that they can be unequivically identified while embedded in the target.