The recurved limbs make the bow shorter and lighter and therefore easier to maneuver. More importantly, the recurve limbs are more effective in transferring the energy to the arrow. Therefore, recurve bows shoot faster than standard non-recurved counterparts. If you really want to impress your fellow archers, you might want to know a bit more. Therefore, I will discuss how this works in more detail. But first we have to discuss some terminology and the history of archery.
Before we can dive into the details on why a recurve bow is such an awesome design, we have to discuss some terminology. Many archers often confuse these three words, since they are often used interchangeably. This means that the points of the limbs point forward, when the bow is not drawn. Bows that do not fall under this category are longbows and flatbows. When not tensioned these bows are completely straight.
The take down part in this word means that you can disassemble the bow. The limbs are removable from the riser, which makes your bow easier to store.
Although many archers use the word take down recurve and Olympic recurve interchangeably it only refers to the disassembly of the bow. Archers often paraphrase this word into recurve for multiple reasons. Within the archery community the term is often paraphrased because Olympic recurve archery, is quite a long word. When talking with people from outside of the archery community most archers also use recurve archery. When you say Olympic recurve archery, many people think that you take part in the Olympic games, which would be quite awkward.
The term Olympic recurve archery does only refer to the shooting style and rules from the Olympic games. Which means that archers that participate in Olympic recurve archery abide these rules and regulations.
These set of rules restrict the use of let of, shoot trough risers and magnified sights. They do allow stabilizers, non magnified sights, adjustable arrow rests and plungers. If you want to know more about these differences, I recommend reading my dedicated article:. The most primitive for of a bow is a longbow. Although the longbow is often associated with the Saxons and Britons, it was actually invented by the Egyptians. This type of bow consisted of a large round flexible pole and as string.
Often it was just a young tree debarked and sanded until it was one constant pole. Therefore, these bows could be extremely heavy and where therefore often used by archers that trained their whole life to fire this bow. The disadvantage of longbows is that they tend to be quite inefficient regarding power transfer. To make a strong bow out of wood, it has to be pretty long — nearly as tall as a person.
When people began to ride horses in Central Asia , about BC , these long bows got in their way. So about this time, somebody in Central Asia invented the stronger, more flexible composite bow. The composite bow is made of layers of wood, animal horns, and sinew, glued together in layers usually a layer of sinew, then wood in the middle, then horn on the other side , and you can bend it a lot farther without breaking it, so you can shoot arrows with a shorter bow that will fit better on your horse.
Gradually the invention spread: by BC , Egyptian soldiers were also riding horses and using composite bows, and by about BC Chinese soldiers were using composite bows. Iranian archers with recurve bows Susa, BC. Later on, maybe around BC , these same horse riding archers in Central Asia invented the recurve bow.
These bows were in the shape of a wide W, which can shoot further for the same length of bow. The use of recurve bows quickly spread from Central Asia to China. Soon after the recurve bow came to China, about BC , Chinese blacksmiths invented the crossbow. Crossbows, which had an iron catch added, allowed you to draw the bow, getting it all ready to shoot, and then stop it there, so you could shoot just by releasing the catch.
Roman hunters had learned about crossbows by around 50 AD , and soldiers in the Abbasid empire were using crossbows before AD. By this time, a mechanical crank let you draw the bow much harder than your muscles could alone, which allowed you to shoot much farther than with a regular bow.
In the Middle Ages , many archers in Europe used crossbows. Even in the Middle Ages, though, archers in England , France , and Germany often used all-wood longbows instead of recurve composite bows or crossbows.
George Catlin, Comanche riding horses But around B C, people in North America started to use hunting bows and arrows.
Probably they got their bow technology from the Tuniit , and it spread from there across the Americas. Around AD , the Inuit probably brought the recurve bow to the Americas, because many Native people, especially on the West Coast , also used recurve bows.
Some bow-makers did still use sinew on their hunting bows. Then as soon as North American people got horses by seizing them from Spanish colonizers in the late s , the Native Americans started to invent shorter composite bows. But by the late s, guns had improved enough that bows and arrows pretty much went out of use. Did you find out what you wanted to know about the history of archery? Let us know in the comments!
The indigious ppl of oz were still stone age until the white man came in the 16 17th century. Great article, very informative. What is extremely difficult is making both the bow and the arrow. It takes great skill and knowledge of materials and use of tools and experience to make an arrow or a bow. Thank you! Yes, it only takes a little while to hit a target, but developing the muscles and skill of a medieval English longbow archer took at least a decade of practice, as we know from people writing about it at the time.
This was a big concern, because training the archers the country needed for its army was very expensive. Thanks for the suggestion! And, against that idea, Native Americans do not seem to have brought bows and arrows with them when they crossed to the Americas about 13, BC. Yes, they did. Originally Posted by Exitus Acta Probat. Sure they did.
In the armies of ancient Greece,Macedonia,and Rome the bow was not an important weapon. It was used by skirmishers and auxiliaries,but the main army depended on armored heavy infantry. In the Middle Ages,the period under discussion,the primary missile weapon on the Continent was the crossbow,later to become the arbalast;more powerful than the English longbow as far as penetrating armor went,easier to train a man to use,but more expensive to make,shorter range,and much slower rate of fire.
The composite recurved bow was never in widespread use anywhere in Europe,either in ancient or medieval times. Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Additional giveaways are planned. Detailed information about all U. Posting Quick Reply - Please Wait. Search this Thread Advanced Search. Similar Threads The worst English king? User Name.
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