Archery is an ancient skill which has been practiced by different cultures throughout the world, both in the past and in present day time. The modern bow is far more superior than the ones used by the hunters, warriors and military of days gone by. Archery has been and still is the skill of firing an arrow from a bow at a target, but is now mainly used for recreational purposes.

The bow was thought to have been used around nine thousand years before present day or 9000 BP. The earliest ones found were from a swamp in Denmark. Archery became highly developed by many cultures in the past until firearms were developed, and this eventually saw their demise till the times of more recent days.

There are many types of bows to be found and there is a similar end to all the different types of construction of these. The aim of this a string is attached to a flexible limb, and when pulled back it fires the arrow with the stored mechanical energy it creates. This mainly creates two categories, one where the string is pulled back by the bowman or archer, and the other where it is pulled back mechanically by the user.

There are however many more classification within these two categories, especially where the archer has to pull the string. Some of these range from the longbow, which is tall and narrow limbed with a D shaped cross section, the flatbow with wide flat limbs, the cross section being rectangular. There are also ones like the cable backed bow which use cords at the back section with the draw weight being adjusted with a change on the tension on the cable.

Possibly one of the more popular today is the compound variety. This uses elliptical wheels or cams at each end of the limb achieving a situation where less force is then required to hold at full draw allowing more aiming time. With the right adjustments this type of bow only needs approximately twelve pounds of force to pull a sixty pound cord at full draw.

When using a bow, arrows are also needed. These can be made from a number of different types of materials such as wood, aluminum alloy, fiberglass, carbon fiber and a composite type material. The commoner form of the arrow is made up of the shaft, this being in the shape of a long rod, the arrowhead which is the sharp projectile at one end, the fletching which is the feather and the nock which is the groove for the cord or string.

The modern bow string is quite often made of materials like dacron which have a high strength. A traditional type of bow may use linen or some other material. An armguard is worn by archers to protect their arm from injury when the bow is fired, this is also know as a brace.

This type of hunting and recreation is now a recognized international type of sport. The most common form of the competition is target archery, where a target is shot from various distances. These games can be held indoors or in an outdoor setting often in a wooded area.

Author Bio: If you live in Southern California, you can find local archery clubs at Archery Orange County or Archery San Diego. If you live somewhere else, start with USA Archery.

Category: Sports
Keywords: archery, bows and arrows, archery southern california