Wayne van Zwoll - Gun Digest Shooters Guide to Rifles

S taying safe when hunting or fighting was hard when your reach was limited to that of your hand, or perhaps a club. Throwing rocks afforded a margin of security, but rocks had no effect on big animals. Spears proved more lethal. The bow added reach, as it released with explosive force and great accuracy the power stored slowly by muscles drawing the string.

The bow dates back at least 15,000 years, to early Oranian and Caspian cultures. With it, Persians conquered the civilized world. Around 5,000 B.C., Egyptian archers helped free that culture from Persian domination. By 1,000 B.C., Persians were flinging arrows from horseback. Short recurve bows, for easier use from the saddle, arrived as early as 480 B.C.

The bow may have come to England by way of the Vikings, but the Welsh had it very early on. At the Battle of Hastings, in 1066, Normans drew their English foes onto the field with a false retreat, then drove arrows toward oncoming troops, winning the day. English archers came to prefer a one-piece bow deeply stackedthat is, thicker and not so broad in cross-section as the flat, sinew-backed bows where bow-worthy timber didnt grow. A long drawto the cheek, not the chestgave the English longbow its name, though staves commonly stood taller than the archers.

In battle, the Viking/Norman tactic of hailing arrows into distant troops held sway. Attackers could thus be discouraged from charging to engage with sword and spear. Advances toward well-positioned archers resulted in terrible casualties, even as armor evolved to defeat the feathered shaft. Steel-tipped arrows from powerful bows could drive through an oak door, and they perforated light metal; also the armor-wearied foot soldiers who wore it. English bowmen aimed for the joints and for the head of any man so foolish as to shed his helmet on a hot day. They deliberately targeted horses during a cavalry assault, not only to cripple and kill, but to make the steeds unmanageable and spill their riders. Open ground gave entrenched archers a lethal advantage.

Laws tailored to the bow soon appeared. Royal statutes dictated that anyone earning less than 100 pence a year had to own a bow and arrowsand yield them to inspections! Conscripts were required to practice. Deer poachers in Sherwood Forest, subject to hanging by their own bowstring if caught, earned a pardon if they served the king as archersmany did. A contingent of these men gave an historic account of themselves at Halidon Hill, in 1333. Their arrows killed 4,000 Scots, at a cost of only 14 English dead. At Crecy (1346) and Agincourt (1415), Englands archers famously vanquished the French.

The bow and arrow directed the course of history in Asia and Europe. At Crecy, in 1346, and Agincourt, in 1415, English archers loosed many thousands of arrows from longbows to defeat the French. On Americas western frontier, the bow remained popular among native tribes long after firearms became available. Bows and arrows could be fashioned on the trail; they could be carried easily and shot rapidly from horseback. At pistol range, the feathered shaft often proved more accurate, and as deadly!

While English yew wood served archers well enough, it couldnt match that from Mediterranean lands for purity and straightness. Some of the best bows derived from Spanish wood. After the longbow gained its fearsome reputation, Spain forbade the growing of yew, lest it find its way to England and thence into battle against Spanish troops. Desperate for staves, the English schemed their way around this sanction, requiring that some staves be included with every shipment Mediterranean wine!