The science of Ballistics in the mind of the average person is confined to firearms and ammunition, ranging from the single shot .22 caliber rifle to the batteries of 16 inch rifles in the turrets of a modern battleship.

When gun enthusiasts congregate around the open fireplace in the winter evenings, the conversation will shortly fall into a familiar pattern and the ear will catch snatches of conversation where the words: headspace, rim-fire, cases, pattern, lands, and hollow point, etc. fill the air, and to the uninformed make no sense whatsoever. Volumes have been written since the ad vent of gunpowder on this one phase of the science and the end is not yet in sight. Ballistics in its broad sense covers a far larger field. Defined as “the science or art of hurling missile weapons by use of an engine,” we can substitute for the words, missile weapons the single word “arrows,” and for the word engine the word “bow,” and we realize that the archer as well as the rifleman is interested in the science of ballistics, and that the glossary of archery terms is no less con fusing to the uninitiated than is that of the rifleman.

Since the bow was in common use throughout the ancient world, it follows naturally that both the bow and the arrow varied widely in design and the materials from which they were constructed. In parts of the world where the bow is still the principal weapon of primitive peoples it varies in size and drawing weight from the light weight three-foot bow of the African pigmy to the moderate weight eight-foot bow of the Siriono Indian. Archery Equipment - Read More.