Bow Hunting

Bow hunting is believed to date back to the Paleolithic era. Primitive men to increase their hunting skills probably invented the first bows and arrows. Through thousands of years man has been experimenting with different materials starting with thin sticks of flexible wood for the bows and sharpened thin sturdy sticks for the arrows. When arrows progressed to utilizing sharp rocks and pieces of bone for arrowheads, this was a definite step forward increasing the maiming or killing effect. During these primitive efforts to improve accuracy, differing types of wood for the bow were tried, discarded and retested until they found a compound use of wood, gut and horn from animals that worked reasonably well. This was believed to be around 600 B.C when the crossbow was utilized in ancient China.

The invention of the long bow was a major step forward in technology producing an accurate deadly weapon in the hands of a good marksman about 1066 B.C. Fashioned of a superior wood that leveraged speed and accuracy, the long bow became a powerful weapon of mass human destruction during warfare that eventually replaced the crossbow. Believed to have been developed in Wales possibly during the era of the Roman Empire, English soldiers trained and outfitted with these new weapons of warfare literally slaughtered thousands of advancing enemies by raining down multi thousands of arrows at a distance of up to 70 yards away, while the enemy fought with swords and knives. You can readily see how the English began to dominate in warfare with this technological advantage when they positioned several thousand archers to rain thousands of arrows on the advancing enemy troops.

Some museums today believe they have in their possession a few long bows from that era. They are made of either yew or elm wood that was believed to be meticulously seasoned over several winters before fashioning the wood into a leveraged superior war instrument. The longbow found in museums today measure about 70 inches long and can withstand 100 pounds of arm pull. This amount of pressure is believed to send the arrow about 70 yards.

Bow and arrow hunting nearly became extinct when guns and gunpowder came into existence. People had been tinkering with gunpowder and its explosive qualities during the 9th Century in China. Only after this technology improved dramatically could gunpowder be safely used in guns. A crude hand cannon came into existence about 1364 A.D. The first handgun came into production in 1397 A.D.

In 1492 Columbus discovered America. This ushered in the long rifle in 1498 A.D., which gave the new colonies supremacy over the American Indian who still used bows and arrows for hunting and for warfare. After the American Indian came into possession of the white man’s rifle usually by bartering home brewed alcohol or through confiscation after a surprise attack that killed white settlers, bows and arrows became obsolete and were eventually virtually non-existent.

Bow hunting has been revived in recent years, becoming a sought after type of hunting that supposedly gives the animal an edge over the hunter. When hunting bear and moose due to their size with a bow, understand this, if the arrow does not take the animal immediately, instead of running from you, a crazed wounded could make you their target.