beprepn

I read that Indian's would tell us that we could keep our bows if they could have our arrows! The author went on to discuss the difficulty of carving a decent arrow out of the straightest branch one could find, and then matching that arrow to another one.

Our advantages are, in no particular order, lathes, glue, tree stands, uniform broadheads (although the same author claimed that a stone broadhead could be made sharper than a steel one due to the greater density of stone), tools, sights (maybe not an advantage if you shoot enough?), compounds, compounds with offset wheels for letoff, cams, lock at full draw, optics, range finders, limb silencers, etc.

Where is the big jump from the Indian's equipment - is it really the arrow?

beprepn



Edited by - beprepn on 01/26/2003 08:12:47

LBR

Well, to paraphrase an Indian quoted in Byron Ferguson's "Become the Arrow", "Any old stick will make a bow, but it takes a heap of work to make a good arrow". (I know that is not word for word, but close). According to what I have read, gadgets wouldn't have benefited the Indians much, if any at all. When you are taking game in distances measured in feet, not yards, the optics, rangefinders, draw-lok, etc. would just be more crap to tote.

Off the top of my head, I would agree that the arrow is the main improvement. Mass produced, matched, and durable; plastic nocks, replaceable broadheads that attach with a screw or glue, ready to use feathes that glue on......big improvements over rivercane, stone, sinew, and pine pitch when your objective is kill some groceries or go hungry. I dare say that with the shots being so close you could take game with a bent hickory sapling with a good arrow. The next big improvement is string materials <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>. I'll take Dynaflight '97 over a sinew or squirrel hide string any day!

Chad

Long Bows Rule!

kodiakhuntmaster

That quote is also used in the 1911 edition of the boy scout handbook.

&quot;Hey ya'll, watch this&quot;