Bow International is the world's only specialist target archery print magazine, and within each issue you'll find news and reviews, new gear, technique, advice and tips; plus exclusive interviews from the world's greatest archers.
It’s that time of the year – time for our annual Barebow Special. As always, the issue was put together with all archers in mind. I hope that barebow archers find a few interesting nuggets for themselves, and archers from other divisions and disciplines learn or discover something new. After all, we are all archers, doing the same thing, yet all doing it a little differently. In this Special we start off with the big Vegas Special report, which is swiftly followed by a wonderful letter by Roy Rose, and an exclusive interview with Oliver Øchkenholt, the barebow archer who was the talk of the town this year. Right after that we have the Unusual Suspects with the latest barebow-specific gear releases. We also have features on barebow tabs, weights…
The 2025 Vegas Shoot marked a significant milestone in the world of archery, not only for the high-level performances witnessed but also for its relocation to a new venue that definitely had pros and cons, (as you’d expect with anything new), in regard to the overall experience for participants and spectators alike. A NEW ERA AT HORSESHOE AND PARIS After twelve years hosted at the South Point Hotel and Casino, the 2025 Vegas Shoot, held from March 5-9, transferred to the Horseshoe, Paris and Planet Holiday complex on the Las Vegas Strip. This strategic move aimed to accommodate the event’s growing popularity and provide a more centralised location for those attending. The new venue offers over 315,000 square feet of event space and thousands of hotel rooms, ensuring ample accommodation…
THIS YEAR’S VEGAS 900 COUNT BY MANUFACTURER: PRIME 1 DARTON 1 BOWTECH 1 PSE 1 MATTHEWS 9 HOYT 15 The city of Las Vegas is renowned for embracing diversity and success, and what better example could there be than the Vegas Shoot, when this year 3,857 archers competed across 57 different categories for their chance of a prize. Every year the Vegas Shoot gives us a wealth of statistics; how many 900’s were shot? Who had the highest X count? How much prize money was awarded? But aside from the usual facts and figures of the tournament the biggest question on most people’s lips is what bows are the winners using? A professional’s success with the latest bow release can impact the popularity of a brand, so which manufacturers have triumphed…
Dedication: In loving memory of the great barebow archery pioneers of the past and with best wishes to the barebow archers of the present and future. Editorial note: The exact date of the original letter cannot be confirmed, but it was first published in Bow, Dec 3, 2014. This version was transcribed from Roy Rose’s manuscript letter and edited on March 24, 2025, by Kristina Dolgilevica. A number of the world’s finest archers continue to achieve superlative results with very little recognition, and without enjoying the profile of our Olympic aspirants, and our leading professional compounders. These are the unheralded barebow recurvers, who only really come to notice when the World Field championships roll around each couple of years. [Once] dominated by the Scandinavians and the Italians, there is now a…
Oliver Øchkenholt comes from a small Danish town of Bjæverskov in Køge. The 32-year-old’s archery journey began around the age of 25, when, inspired by his late uncle, he picked up a compound bow. He then moved onto the traditional hunting-style bows, which eventually led him to barebow. Though he has only been shooting barebow for 3 years, Oliver has already made waves in the archery community, winning the individual gold at World Archery 3D Championships in Slovenia (2024), individual gold at the World Indoor Series in Nimes (2024), and capturing the Lancaster 2025 Barebow Men’s champion title. Now a community support worker for the adolescents, this father of two is a former police officer with 9 years of service, a former personal trainer and a retired professional football player.…
This edition of the Unusual Suspects will look at a few highlights, some recently released items, and some that we at Bow really like and recommend. It’s always exciting to come across new gear, given advances in technology and the ways manufacturers always manage to find answers to the knottiest problems. There’s no particular theme to the selection of barebow gear in this feature, apart from technological innovation and improvement. We hope you enjoy reading it, and find something to inspire you and make you start thinking about shopping for the summer season. DAMPENED BAREBOW WEIGHT KAMINSKI ARCHERY Barebow weights help improve bow balance and the feel of the bow. Lately we have seen several integrated weight solutions from various archery brands like Hoyt, Kinetic and Mybo, to name but…
