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Archery played a large part in human daily life for thousands of years from prehistoric times until about 1750, when the gun began to replace it for hunting and warfare very rapidly. Societies all over Europe, north Africa, like Egypt, Persia (Iran), India, China and Japan celebrate their most skillful archers. I am sure that other countries do as well.

Wales had Twm Sion Catty; England had Robin Hood and Switzerland had William Tell. Greek and Trojan archers are told of by name in Homer’s ‘Iliad’. Archers all over the world were thought of as popular heroes like footballers are these days.

It seems that bows were first invented in various parts of the world practically at the same time in the late Paleolithic Age or the early Mesolithic Age. It is remarkable that different kinds of bows were developed by the different societies around the world and each sort of bow was invented to suit the style of warfare that that society conducted and to the environment in which they hunted.

There are too many types of bow to explain them all here, but some of the most common archery bows are: the longbow, flatbow, shortbow, recurve bow, compound bow and crossbow.

The longbow and the flatbow are similar in size, both can be six feet or more in length, but the cross section of the longbow is ‘D’ shaped, whereas that of a flatbow is rectangular. A flatbow is usually wider than a longbow. Both can shoot heavy 36 inch arrows long distances with great force – enough to penetrate the armour of the Middle Ages from 250-300 yards.

The shortbow is shorter, as you might conclude from its name. It is a short range bow, utilized for hunting small animals in areas where a large bow would be too cumbersome such as in woods or forests.

The compound bow is also a shorter bow, but it is extremely powerful because the limbs are not very supple. In order to flex the limbs, use is made of a system of pulleys or cams.

This gives the compound bow sufficient power (more than 50 pound draw weight) to enable it to be used to hunt larger game such as deer or bear. The compound bow is a new style, which was only invented in 1966.

Recurve bows have tips that ‘point the wrong way’ when the bow is unstrung. This gives the recurve more power inch for inch than the long or flatbow, enabling it to be used as an effective weapon for warfare or hunting from horseback.

Crossbows are specialized bows, which can be pre-loaded similar to a gun and shot later. In general, it takes less skill and physical strength to soot a crossbow.

The arrows are very important too. Arrows can be interchangeable between the bows to a limited extent, but the length should suit the draw of the bow. Crossbow bolts are normally very short.

There are two kinds or shooting: instinctive and sight shooting. Sight shooting means using sights of some kind to aim, either by looking down the arrow or using optical fibre sights. Instinctive shooting is more demanding because it is intuitive. It cannot be learned, you have either got it or you ain’t.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery is about hitting a target with an arrow shot from a bow. The bow can either be an straight bow or a crossbow, although most people think of upright bows when they hear the word ‘archery’. Within the sport or hobby of target archery, there are two kinds: target archery and field archery. The champion is the archer with the highest combined score of his arrows that struck the target.

Target archery necessitates shooting arrows, usually six, from a variety of distances usually 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres. The archers stand in a line before their targets starting at 90 metres and shoot an arrow on the order of whoever is in charge.

Then they all move forward to the 70 metre mark and shoot again on the order and so on. After the six arrows have been shot, the archers proceed to their targets and add up their scores.

Field archery necessitates walking around a course where targets are set at a variety of distances. The targets can be the traditional round ones or they may be replicas of wild animals like rabbits, elk or bears.

Traditional targets are made from straw. Handfuls of straw are bound with string and made into a kind of rope. This rope is then wound around and around itself until a target of the correct size has been crafted. The rope is held in situ either by pinning it or tying it. A canvas or paper target is then pinned to the face of it.

Target archery can be practiced outdoors or indoors and the target sizes are different to match the various distances. An outdoor archery target can be either 122 centimetres or 80 centimetres in diameter. The middle of this target is 24.4 centimetres in diameter and there are four concentric circles around this. The indoor target is 80 centimetres in diameter. The centre of this size target is 16 centimetres and also has four concentric rings around it.

Each ring is about eight centimetres wide on the smaller target. The targets are coloured gold in the centre, then red, blue, black and white. At the middle of the gold is what many archers call the ‘pinhole’.

It is a small cross of about two millimetres in width. The target should then be placed on an easel or stand with a tilt of about 15 degrees. The pinhole should be 130 centimetres off the ground (plus or minus five centimetres).

If there is more than one archer, the pinholes should all be at the same height off the ground and the targets should be clearly numbered. The shooting line should be plainly marked and an archer’s shooting spot should be marked too. Five yards behind the archer, there should be another line, behind which non-competitors may stand.

The danger zone between the archers and the targets should be cordonned off to stop spectators wandering into the line of fire. Knowing that the spectators are kept well back helps the archers to focus on their archery.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently involved with longbows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archery is as old as the hills. The oldest bows to have been discovered date back to about 2000 BC and bows are almost certainly older than that. Archery is so old that no-one knows where or when the bow and arrow was invented. It has always been used in hunting and warfare. Buddhist monks in the Far East have utilized archery in their martial arts regimes for centuries as well.

Archery is still being used by some tribes around the world for hunting purposes and many millions of ordinary people practice archery for leisure. Buddhist monks still utilize it in their meditation techniques. There are basically three types of archery recognized: primitive, traditional and modern archery.

Traditional archery includes such bows as the longbow and the recurve bow. Bows of both types have been found dating back to 2000 BC. It appears that the longbow was more common in northern Europe and the recurve bow was more widespread in southern Europe and east from there all the way to Japan.

The contemporary compound bow can achieve a heavy draw weight by using comparatively little physical strength compared to traditional bows by the use of a set of pulleys or cams, but still a lot of people prefer to use traditional bows. People seem to want to get back to the origin of archery.

Longbows are very simple implements, traditionally made from one piece of yew or ash. Recurve bows could also be made from one length of wood, but more often, the tips would be made from wood and horn or bone. Remember that the tips of a recurve bow point to the front when the bow is unstrung.

Because of the recurved tips, a recurve bow is more powerful than a longbow weight for weight or inch for inch, but recurve bows are typically quite short, so the standard longbow is much more formidable than the average recurve bow.

However, both models of bow take quite an amount of bodily strength to draw them to full power and hold that draw to take aim.

This cycle of drawing and holding without shaking or trembling requires a lot of strength and concentration, which usually has to be learned. It can take years of training to master traditional archery. The British longbow men of the 14 th and 15 th centuries trained all their lives.

In fact, Henry VIII made it law that all English and Welsh men had to train with a longbow at the butts every Sunday aiming at targets at least 220 yards away. These days, 90 metres (100 yards) is about the furthest archers shoot. It would often take ten years to become this skillful, but some archers could cast an arrow 400 yards and more.

In order to shoot an arrow that far, traditional longbows used in warfare had a draw weight of between 160 and 180 lbs, which would propel a three ounce, armour-piercing arrow about 300 yards. Not many men could pull a bow like that these days These days, a standard draw weight for a longbow would be 100 lbs and for a recurve something like 60 lbs.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various topics, but is currently concerned with archery bows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Archeology all over the world shows that hunting tools, that is, weapons, were some of the first items that we crafted in the ancient history of mankind. Flint arrow heads and spear tips are some of the most prevailing articles found around the world.

In those ancient times, people hunted for food and fought each other. We do not know, but it likely that men and non-pregnant young women hunted animals and collected fruit, nuts and berries, while the older family members looked after the children.

It is uncertain when bows were developed, but certainly more than two thousand years before Christ or four thousand years ago. Earlier than this, hunters probably crept up on or ambushed their quarry and then ran after it, throwing rocks and sharp sticks or primitive spears maybe with fire-hardened or stone points.

It is unlikely that they often killed their prey outright, they most likely wore it out until it bled to death. This method of hunting deer is still practiced by some hunters in South Africa and to other places.

As people lived and learned, so more sophisticated hunting articles were invented and improved on. The first such item would have been the spear and the second either the throwing arrow or the bow and arrow. It is likely that the throwing arrow came first. This weapon is still used by some traditional Aborigine hunters in Australia.

Recurve bows and longbows dating back to 2,000 BC have been uncovered all over Europe and Asia. It seems that the longbow was more common in the north and the recurve bow in the south. Recurve bows can be shorter than longbows and still preserve their power, which suits shooting from horse back or chariot.

As farming became the norm, so did society and more and more often, hunting wild animals was left to experts. The animals that they killed would be swapped for other amenities or, later, sold for money.

For most people, hunting became recreational, a sport or a game and the animals they killed in their free time they called ‘game’ and we still do today in English.

Most peoples of the world did not only develop weapons to hunt with, they also trained animals to help them. Dogs, whose forebears were wolves, were almost certainly the first whose help was sought. Some dogs were used to recover the gave after it had been shot and fallen into the bushes or the water, other dogs really did the killing.

Later still, the aristocracy would hunt with no intention of consuming the animal at all: foxes in Britain and lions in Afghanistan. This is still being done today. Similarly with falcons and eagles.

Other animals were trained to help chase prey. Horses equalized the speed difference between man and buffalo or deer. Elephants were used to equalize the prowess of tigers and offer a safer platform from which to hunt.

In this day and age, few people need to hunt to survive, but it is still a popular pursuit, even though for many it is a once a year occasion. The most legendary hunting trips were or still are the safaris, despite the fact that now more people shoot with video cameras than with rifles.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several topics, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Bow hunting or bowhunting is one of those sports that you either love or you hate – a little like fox hunting in the United Kingdom. Town people abhor it and anybody involved with it and country people see it essential to cull wild animals that could otherwise become a nuisance.

In spite of its macho image, which was encouraged by the film the Deer Hunter, there are growing quantities of women who go bowhunting. The big distinction between hunting with a rifle and hunting with a bow is distance. A hunting rifle with telescopic sights can provide enough punch at 600 yards to take down a deer with a single shot virtually anywhere it is hit in the chest.

On the other hand, a hunter using a bow with a fifty pound draw weight will have to be within about forty yards to be able to deliver the same sort of lethal punch, if the shot is accurate to the heart.

This means that if you severely injure an animal from 600 yards, it will probably be dead by the time you get there, clambering over fallen trees and rocks, but if you severely wound a deer from forty yards you see its anguish.

This has a salutacious effect on most bow hunters. The vast majority of bow hunters do not want to see this and they do not want the creature to suffer either, so they wait for the right shot. If it is not there, they do not shoot.

A hunting bow has to have a draw weight of at least fifty pounds to hunt large game and that used to mean quite a hefty recurve or longbow, but the compound bow was developed in 1966.

A compound bow makes use of pulleys to assist with the draw, which allows less beefy people to achieve a draw weight of fifty pounds, which has opened up bowhunting to women and adolescents.

Large wild animals are dangerous and some will attack without warning if they feel threatened. This leads to a danger zone around wild animals. Every sort of animal has a danger zone, for a lion, that could be pretty large and for a deer less so. This danger zone is an locale outside of which you are fairly safe.

If you are hunting with a rifle, you can remain outside that danger zone easily, but with a bow and arrow, well, you often have to go inside it. This enlarged risk provides a superior rush for bow hunters – a bigger thrill. Especially if they are hunting bears or mountain lions.

In contrast to the Deer Hunter, most bow hunters go on prearranged trips these days. The hunting trip is organized with the aid of a specialized firm which will present accompanied trips into regions known to have large numbers of the animals you want to hunt.

These expert guides know how to bait areas to lure your prey; they can advise on safety aspects and they carry a big gun in case a hunter is too stupid to take their advice. Regrettably, the gun is to use on the animal, not the idiot.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on various topics, but is presently involved with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

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Archery is now a very widespread sport and hobby all over the planet, but once, long ago, it was even more widespread. Every army had archers and men hunted with bows for food. Every country or every region invented its own particular style of bow and therefore, even nowadays, there are many different styles of archery bows. Modern technology has meant that new varieties of archery bows are still being invented.

Some bows were developed by people who rode horses a great deal. These bows were shorter, other bows were intended for long range shooting and these bows were longer. I will list some of the main types of archery bows below with a short description of each

The traditional Welsh or English longbow was made from a single piece of yew (or other wood) at least the length of the bowman, but up to about six feet six inches (two metres). It was ‘D’ shaped in profile with the flat, bark side, facing away from the string. The rounded inner side followed the natural growth rings of the limb. The timber itself was left to dry for two years.

The draw weight of a longbow was roughly 160-180 pounds, which is difficult to accomplish by contemporary man. In the days of the longbow, in the Middle Ages, men and boys were required by law to do target practice with longbows at the village butts every Sunday. The target range for a man was to be no less than 220 yards by command of king Henry VIII.

The longbow was used to devastating effect as long range (400 yards) artillery by the British army at Crecy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415, raining lethal three ounce, three foot long arrows down on the enemy. As the armies drew closer the longbow could be used accurately to aim at individual targets. Not long after these great victories, which can be ascribed to the archers and their longbows, bows were replaced as military weapons by guns.

Flat bows, just as the longbow, can be over six feet long, are not recurved and can be crafted out of a single length of wood. However, they are rectangular in profile, not ‘D’ shaped.

Short bows are similar to longbows or flat bows in every detail bar size and because they are shorter, they do not have the potential or the distance of the other bows. Sort bows are easy to carry and easier to use in cramped conditions like woods or a forest, so they were used by and large for hunting small animals.

Recurve bows are more effective that any other bow inch for inch of length. The tips of a recurve point forward when the bow is unstrung and look odd to the uninitiated. The recurve was very common from the Mediterranean to the Far East from about 2000 BC until 1700 AD. These days, the recurve is the only type of bow allowed to be used in the Olympic Games.

Compound bows use very stiff materials in their assembly so have pulleys or cams to help bend or draw the bow. This mechanical assistance to drawing the bow to the best length means less physical force on behalf of the archer, which means that the archer con focus on the target more.

Crossbows have the limbs mounted crossways on a piece of timber and the draw string is held by mechanical means until it is let loose with a trigger. The arrow, or bolt, is a great deal shorter. They are practically half-way houses to guns.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

People have been practicing archery for a minimum of four thousand years, but almost certainly for a lot longer than that. Parts of composite recurve bows have been found dating back to the second millennium BC, but the parts that were found were the non-wooden, composite parts, typically of horn.

The wooden parts ordinarily rotted away thousands of years before, but a wooden longbow from the same period was found in Somerset. Most probably, people had been using all wooden, single piece bows long before they started constructing complex composite recurve bows.

The skill of archery has always fascinated mankind and, in spite of the fact that guns have made archery obsolete, it still fascinates people today, although nowadays archery is almost reserved used for sporting purposes. It is a thriving sport and hobby and is the national sport of the Kingdom of Bhutan.

If you are interested in practising archery, you will first have to make your mind up which kind of bow you prefer. Among other varieties, there are the longbow, recurve bow, reflex and decurve bows, deflex bow, pyramid bow and crossbow.

To a certain degree, the arrows are not intercompatible either. For example, a longbow can cast a three foot, heavy-gauge arrow, whereas a crossbow shoots a six inch bolt. The bows also had distinctive uses although there was a certain amount of common ground.

For example, longbows were the heavy, rapid-firing armaments of their day, being able to fling a heavy, armour-piercing arrow hundreds of yards; whereas a short recurve bow was ideal for assault from horseback. Crossbows took less ability to use but were slower than a bow.

There are different types of arrow as well. Historically, arrows were made of wood with a sharp metal tip, but these days arrows can be made of aluminium or carbon fibre. The arrowheads are distinctive for different applications as well. A simple brass tip is adequate for everyday shooting whereas a vicious, slashing broadhead is used for killing.

The majority of people who take archery seriously use carbon fibre arrows these days which is the typical arrow shaft in use at the Olympic games. The flights are usually of bird feathers and are used to stabilize the arrow in flight to minimize wobble. Plastic flights are also to be had as they are less prone to damage.

The Welsh (and English) longbow was probably the most heavy-duty hand bow widely used. These longbows were normally six feet or more in length and made of one section of seasoned yew (or other woods). The draw weight of a Welsh longbow at the time of Henry VIII was between 160 -180 lbf and that would shoot a heavy three ounce arrow up to about 280 yards.

An explanation of the damage that one of these arrows could wreak was given by Gerald of Wales in the 12th century:

“… in the war against the Welsh, one of the men of arms was struck by an arrow shot at him by a Welshman. It went right through his thigh, high up, where it was protected inside and outside the leg by his iron cuirasses, and then through the skirt of his leather tunic; next it penetrated that part of the saddle which is called the alva or seat; and finally it lodged in his horse, driving so deep that it killed the animal”.

It took years of practice to draw and shoot one of these longbows bows accurately.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several subjects, but is presently involved with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

Bowmen have played a major role in warfare and hunting for thousands of years. Primitive bows were made of a single piece of wood, but composite recurve bows were being made from Greece to China as far back as the second millennium BC.

Recurve bows, those with the ends facing the ‘wrong way’ when unstrung, are more powerful inch for inch in length than one piece wooden bows, which made them more suitable to confined conditions such as on horseback, in a chariot or in wooded areas.

Bits of composite recurve bows, usually made from horn, have been discovered in many parts of the world. Early arrows were made from naturally straight twigs or pine needles with napped flint tips affixed. Wooden bows did not preserve so well and exemplars are rare.

It seems that archery was being developed in the early Mesolithic or late Paleolithic Age. Archery was especially well developed in some Islamic countries and in Asia, where Zen Buddhist monks utilized archery as an element of their meditation techniques.

In the first days of archery, there were mixed feelings about bowmen. In those days, people fought hand to hand with swords and spears and some of the traditionalists reckoned that archers were cowards because they fought from a distance out of immediate danger. This point is made very clear in ‘The Iliad’, Homer’s account to the siege of Troy.

There are or were many types of bows made to suit different fighting or hunting conditions. Some varieties of bow are the; long bow, short bow, recurve bow, composite recurve bow, reflex bow, decurve bow, deflex bow and crossbow among others.

The longbow was extremely hard to learn to use and the archer needed considerable upper-body strength. The bow was often six feet long with a weighty three foot long arrow. The draw weight for maximum power was around a hundred pounds and the use of the bow on a battlefield was as long-range artillery.

The heavy arrows and fierce armour-piercing arrow head would rain down on the enemy from a hundred yards or more and penetrate shields and armour as if were not being worn. Shot horizontally, the three-foot arrow could pass through several people.

In fact, the longbow was so essential to the triumph of Great Britain that a law was passed making it compulsory for men over a certain age to practice with their longbows every Sunday on the village green in order to build up the required skills and upper-body strength in case war came.

The arrows are made to suit the different kinds of bows and the different bows and their specific arrows are suited to different kinds of hunting – whether you are hunting men or animals.

There are basically two types of shooting: instinctive shooting, which is very demanding as the archer does not take his eyes off the target, but does not look down the arrow; and sight shooting where the archer makes use of sights to align the arrow with its target. The majority of people find sight shooting simpler.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several subjects, but is currently concerned with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.