The bow
The bow is besides the knife one of the oldest tools, ever used by the mankind.
A 40cm-long fragment that belonged to a pine bow was found in Mannheim-Vogelstang. Its age is estimated to more than 17.000 years. The oldest positive proof of the bow use represent app. 12.000-years-old arrows from Stellmoor near Hamburg.
Bows played an important role in many cultures. The English and the Welsh were well-known and dreaded for their bows in the Middle Ages. High need of bowmen / archers lead to a compulsory archery practice by law. Much exercise and strength was needed to master a draw weight up to 130 pounds. Skeletal finds from that time show to which strain the bowmen / archers were exposed. Changes in bone structure of the shoulder joint and of the arm were indentified.
Current archery distinguishes between the following bow types or (if you like) archery disciplines:
Medieval / traditional bow (long bow)
- is made of one piece. It is shot instinctively with the long bow, relying on one’s own on hand to eye coordination without the aid of a sighting device (bowsight) or point-of-aim.
Recurve / reflex bow
- consist mainly of a 3 main pieces: the riser (handle), the two limbs, and the string. The limb ends lead forward, so that the sting adjoins to the limbs in the resting state. The bow has usually longer and softer draw. It is shot both instinctively and with the aid of a bowsight.
Compound bow / archery sport
A compound bow is a modern bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs. The limbs of a compound bow are usually much stiffer than those of a recurve bow or longbow. When the string is drawn back, the string causes the pulleys to turn. This causes the pulleys to pull the cables, which in turn causes the limbs to bend and thus store energy. The use of this levering system gives the compound bow a characteristic draw-force curve which rises to a peak weight and then "lets off" to a lower holding weight. Source
Kyûdo (cesta luku)
- “a way of the bow”, traditional Japanese form of archery, closely associated with Zen Buddhism. In kyudo the primary aim is not to hit the target, as in Western archery. Next to iaido (the way of Japanese sword drawing), kyudo as an art of self-defense has no real practical uses. Kyudo could be considered to be the Japanese analogue to the Chinese art of T’ai Chi Ch’uan. In contrast to the western bows, the Japanese ones (Kyû / Yumi) have not a symmetrical shape. Current bows correspond for the most part with their historical ancestors, and are shot only in an instinctive way.
We are often inquired, whether are the arrow heads permitted for hunting (product code 33053). Arrow heads / points as such are subject to no legal regulation, as the bow hunt (regardless the bow type or arrow head) is generally forbidden. These arrowheads are thus used for „3D shooting” at artificial animals ONLY.
As the missile is not driven through a (gun) barrel at the bow shooting, the bow doesn’t count among firearms. Neither the sale of bows, nor the age of the buyer, nor the operation with the bow is subject to a legal regulation. |
