The bow can truthfully be said to have been man’s universal weapon, down through the ages. With it he procured food for himself and his family and defended himself from his enemies. Australia is the only large land mass where the bow was unknown to the aborigines. The Bush man of Aus tralia is at the bottom of the scale of civilized man; and it is interesting to note in reading history, that from ancient times to the advent of firearms, the nations who reached the highest degree of civilization also excelled in the use of the bow as a military weapon.

Lacking modern means of communication and transportation, the ancients were unable to exchange either commodities or ideas, and although the bow was almost universally known, it was constructed by necessity of materials indigenous to a local ity and readily available to the inhabitants. Thus from the high steppes of Asia and the Far East where timber was scarce and almost non-existent over large areas, came the earliest counter part of the modern composite bow. Fabricated from horn, wood, and sinew, it was used by the armies of Assyria, by the Mongols, the Chinese, and the Turks.

The wooden long bow of Western Europe was probably introduced into England from the Scandinavian countries, and underwent little change or improvement until the present cen tury. Discarded by the English speaking peoples as a military weapon, it was relegated to a minor role in sport and no sincere effort was made to improve its performance. Archery Equipment - Read More.