Archery is the art, practice or skill of shooting with bow and arrow. Archery has historically been used in hunting and combat and has become a precision sport. A person practicing archery is called an archer or bowman, and one who is fond of or an expert at archery is sometimes called a toxophilite.
Equipment
Types of bows
While there is great variety in the construction details of bows (both historic and modern) all bows consist of a string attached to elastic limbs that store mechanical energy imparted by the user drawing the string. Bows may be broadly split into two categories: those drawn by pulling the string directly and those that use a mechanism to pull the string.
Directly drawn bows may be further divided based upon differences in the method of limb construction, notable examples being self bows, laminated bows and composite bows. Bows can also be classified by the bow shape of the limbs when unstrung; in contrast to simple straight bows, a recurve bow has tips that curve away from the archer when the bow is unstrung. The cross-section of the limb also varies; the classic longbow is a tall bow with narrow limbs that are D-shaped in cross section, and the flatbow has flat wide limbs that are approximately rectangular in cross-section.
A compound bow is a directly-drawn bow designed to reduce the force required at full draw to hold the string taut. Most compound designs use cams or elliptical wheels on the ends of the limbs. The cams on a compound bow are engineered in such a way that the archer can hold twice as much draw weight for an extended period of time. Although the archer starts the draw at full weight, there is a 65%-75% let-off at full draw. For example, a bow set at sixty pounds would allow the archer to draw 60 lb (27 kg) for a short period but hold 65-75% less than that at full draw.
The unique Penobscot bows or double-bows of Wabenaki region (New England and the Canadian Maritimes) are sometimes suggested to be an ancient compound bow. They involved a small bow attached to the back of a larger main bow. This combination results in both substantially increased draw weight for a relatively small main bow, useful for hunting the moose and caribou of the region, and the ability to adjust the draw weight by tensioning the small bow.
Mechanically drawn bows typically have a stock or other mounting, such as the crossbow. They are not limited by the strength of a single archer, and larger varieties have been used as siege engines.
Types of arrows and fletching
A normal arrow consists of a shaft with an arrowhead attached to the front end, with fletchings and a nock at the other. Shafts are usually made of solid wood, fiberglass, aluminum alloy, carbon/alloy composite or carbon fiber. Wooden arrows are prone to warping. Fiberglass arrows are brittle, but are more easily produced to uniform specifications. Aluminum shafts were a very popular high-performance choice in the later half of the 20th century due to their straightness, lighter weight, and subsequently higher speed and flatter trajectories. Carbon fiber arrows became popular in the 1990s and are very light, flying even faster and flatter than aluminum arrows. Today carbon/alloy arrows are the most popular tournament arrows at Olympic Events, especially the Easton X10 and A/C/E.
The arrowhead is the primary functional part of the arrow, and plays the largest role in determining its purpose. Some arrows may simply use a sharpened tip of the solid shaft, but it is far more common for separate arrowheads to be made, usually from metal, stone, or some other hard material. The most commonly used forms are target points, field points, and broadheads, although there are also other types, such as bodkin, judo, and blunt heads.
Fletching is traditionally made from bird feathers, but also solid plastic vanes and thin sheetlike spin vanes are used. They are attached near the nock (rear) end of the arrow with thin double sided tape, glue, or, traditionally, sinew. Three fletches is the most common configuration in all cultures, though more may be used. When three-fletched the fletches are equally spaced around the shaft with one placed such that it is perpendicular to the bow when nocked on the string (though with modern equipment, variations are seen especially when using the modern spin vanes). This fletch is called the "index fletch" or "cock feather" (also known as "the odd vane out" or "the nocking vane") and the others are sometimes called the "hen feathers". Commonly, the cock feather is of a different color, traditionally the hens are solid and the cock is barred. However, if archers are using fletching made of feather or similar material they may use same color vanes, as different dyes can give varying stiffness to vanes, resulting in less precision. Also, like-colored fletching and nocks can assist in learning instinctive shooting (i.e. without sights), a technique often preferred by "traditional" archers (shooters of longbows and recurves). When four-fletched often two opposing fletches are cock-feathers and occasionally the fletches are not evenly spaced.
The fletching may be either parabolic (short feathers in a smooth parabolic curve) or shield (generally shaped like one-half of a narrow shield) cut and is often attached at an angle, known as helical fletching, to introduce a stabilizing spin to the arrow while in flight. Whether helicial or straight fletched, when natural fletching (bird feathers) are used it is critical that all feathers come from the same side of the bird. Oversized fletchings can be used to accentuate drag and thus limit the range of the arrow significantly; these arrows are called flu-flus. Misplacement of fletchings can often change the arrow's flight path dramatically.
Bow string
Dacron and other modern materials offer high strength for their weight and are used on most modern bows. Linen and other traditional materials are still used on traditional bows. Almost any fiber can be made into a bow string. The author of "Arab Archery" suggests the hide of a young, emaciated camel. Njál's saga describes the refusal of a wife, Hallgerður, to cut her hair in order to make an emergency bowstring for her husband, Gunnar Hámundarson, who is then killed.
Protective equipment
Most archers wear a bracer (also known as an arm-guard) to protect the inside of the bow arm and prevent clothing from catching the bow string. The Navajo people have developed highly-ornamented bracers as non-functional items of adornment. Some archers also wear protection on their chests, called chestguards or plastrons. Roger Ascham mentions one archer, presumably with an unusual shooting style, who wore a leather guard for his face.
The drawing fingers, or thumb in the case of archers using the thumb or Mongolian draw, are normally protected by a leather tab, glove, or thumb ring. A simple tab of leather is commonly used, as is a skeleton glove. Medieval Europeans probably used a complete leather glove.
Eurasiatic archers using the Mongolian draw protected their thumbs, usually with leather according to the author of "Arab Archery", but also with special rings of various hard materials. Many surviving Turkish and Chinese examples are works of considerable art; some are so highly ornamented that they could not have been used to loose an arrow. Presumably these were items of personal adornment. In traditional Japanese archery a special glove is used, provided with a ridge which is used to draw the string.
Release aids
Archers using compound bows usually use a release aid to hold the string steadily and release it precisely. This attaches to the bowstring at the nocking point and permits the archer to release the string by pulling a trigger. The "trigger" may be an actual trigger lever which is depressed by a finger or thumb (or held then released) but it may also be some other mechanism. Hydraulic and mechanical time delay triggers have been used, as have "back tension" triggers which are operated by either a change in the position of the release or "true back tension"; that is to say the release triggers when a pre-determined draw weight is reached. A mechanical release aid permits a single point of contact on the string instead of three fingers. This allows less deformity in the string at full draw, as well as providing a more consistent release than can be achieved by human fingers.
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