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1 week ago | 
oodmag.com | Jeff Kavanagh
A family came into the bow shop a few years ago when a boy caught the archery bug after seeing Legolas in Lord of the Rings. I related easily with the 11-year-old because the same thing happened to me more than 50 years ago when I saw Errol Flynn flinging arrows in The Adventures of Robin Hood. That’s when I begged my dad to buy me the Bear takedown recurve bow that I still have today.
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2 months ago | 
oodmag.com | Jeff Kavanagh
Here’s a lesson in shot placement for turkey. My good friend Ian watched in disbelief as I sent an arrow over the back of a longbeard he’d worked hard to call in. The bird had been standing about 10 metres away, so what should have been a slam dunk became an embarrassing moment. We had gone through the same paces the morning before, and now I just felt like hiding. That’s how it can go for a first-time turkey hunter.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
oodmag.com | Jeff Kavanagh
Understanding how an arrow reacts after it leaves the string is key to shooting consistently. Many folks are surprised to learn that once shot, an arrow bends around the bow and fishtails from side to side until it eventually straightens out and hits its mark. Success in archery means understanding and controlling this movement. When released, the stored energy in the bow limbs, through the string, exerts a force on the arrow nock.
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Jun 22, 2024 | 
waikatotimes.co.nz | Jeff Kavanagh
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Jun 15, 2024 | 
stuff.co.nz | Jeff Kavanagh
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Feb 24, 2024 | 
stuff.co.nz | Jeff Kavanagh
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Jan 11, 2024 | 
oodmag.com | Jeff Kavanagh
Being a gun dog guy for most of my life, I seldom find things more enjoyable than experiencing the partnership of hunting with a well-trained bird dog in the field. There’s immense satisfaction in handling a lab with whistle commands and hand signals on a blind retrieve as I guide it to a duck. Or to be in the uplands gingerly stepping around a setter intensely locked on point to a woodcock or grouse. These are the moments I live for when the leaves start to change colour.
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Nov 18, 2023 | 
stuff.co.nz | Jeff Kavanagh
Tell a friend you’re off to Hong Kong, and they’re unlikely to envisage morning hikes along woodland-covered ridges, afternoons snorkelling amongst parrotfish, and lazy days splashing in the waves. Yet verdant, mountainous country parks, marine reserves teaming with sea life, and laidback beaches all lie within easy remove of Central’s thrusting skyscrapers and the buzzing markets of Mong Kok.
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Oct 14, 2023 | 
thepost.co.nz | Jeff Kavanagh
Italy's five hidden secretsThe birthplace of Christopher Columbus and pesto, of blue jeans and focaccia, the port city of Genoa lies at the heart of Liguria, a crescent-shaped strip of Mediterranean coastline also known as the Italian Riviera.
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Aug 23, 2023 | 
oodmag.com | Jeff Kavanagh
Getting and maintaining back tension while drawing, aiming, and shooting your bow is the most important fundamental to learn in archery for success and consistency. The term “back tension” in archery simply means engaging the correct muscles in your back to draw your bow and effectively load its limbs with stored energy until released. To achieve this, significant movement and power comes from the rhomboid muscles on your upper back, between your spine and scapula.
