- Historians believe the bow and arrow dates as far back as 50,000 B.C. Archery: Sport of Champions states that the earliest bows were "undoubtedly made from wood, probably simply cut from saplings and whittled into the desired shape and strung with animal gut."
- Five parts comprise an arrow: the arrowhead, the shaft, crest, fletching, and nock, according to okchampionarchery.com. Bows consist of limbs, a grip or handle, and a string.
- According to Archery: Sport of Champions, bow types include: the recurve, the reflex, the self, the straight, the longbow, the composite bow and the compound bow.
- Okchampionarchery.com reports that most arrows are made from aluminum, fiberglass, wood, and carbon graphite. Previously made from animal intestines or plant fibers, strings are currently constructed from synthetic polymer or steel cables. Wood is still the most common material, but molded fiberglass, tubular steel, and plastics have replaced the more natural elements.
- Sacrifice bow distinction for arrow quality. Archery: Sport of Champions explains that less expensive wooden arrows contain flaws that affect precision, while fiberglass arrows break easily in hunting. More expensive, aluminum and carbon arrows provide the best variety of sizes and shapes, as well as greater durability.
- During the early days of longbow battles, according to the Association of Traditional Hunting Archers, the English were said to have had as many as 4,000 to 5,000 archers capable of firing more than 50,000 arrows per minute.
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