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Graham Lyerly ENGL 1102 25 March 2014 Short Research Project Hunting over the Years My life is faced with deadlines, due dates, places to be, and things to complete. Also, being a college student requires many hours out of class to complete assignments and study for tests. Through constant repetition of ongoing school work and studying, much stress is built up. My remedy for this problem is spending time in woods, enjoying nature, and hunting. Hunting is one of the main centers in my life in which I spend a majority of my free time doing. Since this is the case, I felt it would be more entertaining to write about something that interests me. In this essay, I will focus on the evolution of bows and bow hunting through the years. When I hunt, my favorite weapon of choice would be my bow because it offers more of a challenge than using a gun. Today as a bow hunter, I am much better off than if I was a bow hunter a 100 years ago. Hunters now have state of the art equipment available to help succeed them in many ways to harvest the animals they are after. One key equipment evolution would have to be the compound bow. Back in the early 1900s and previous years, hunters who bow hunted, had to use a recurve bow. A recurve bow is what many people would be familiar with seeing Indians use in movies or pictures. Plus recurve bows were made out wood or composite materials and used by the Greeks, Turks, Mongols, and Chinese. Eventually, the recurve bow spread into Egypt and Asia. Recurve bows were used as a weapon in warfare until the availability of effective firearms. These bows are complicated to shoot while also takes much practice to properly shoot these bows. A recurve bow was typically made entirely out of wood, although some are made of fiberglass. The arrows shot out of these bows were usually made out

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of a cedar stick whittled by hand. Cedar is a great wood to use for an arrow because it is dense and is able to with stand weathering better than other wood. The fletching is the most important part on the arrow, in which it enables the arrow to fly through the air straighter and shoot more accurately. These fletchings came from birds with dense, thick feathers and are glued on with a paste. In order to draw back a recurve bow, the archer (person shooting the bow) has to pull back the entire weight of the string that carries the tension of the bows limbs. Plus, once the bow is drawn back, the archer of the recurve bow has to hold the entire weight with no left off. Because there is no let off of the weight, the archer has to be quick with his aiming and shot. As a result of quick aiming, the accuracy and precision of the shot is decreased. Also, the design of the recurve bows resulted in speeds that were less than 200 feet per second. Due to this, the effective range of these bows would be no further than 20 yards. This would be a hassle for hunters today because it is such a challenge to get this close to wild animals without being detected. As a hunter, I salute the men who hunted with and provided food for their family by harvesting animals with these weapons. On June 23, 1966, Holless Wilbur Allen applied for a patent of a product: Archery bow with draw-force multiplying attachment. What Allen applied for was a bow that was called a compound bow and forever changed the face of archery (Archery History). Holles Allen created this design by sawing off the tips of the limbs from a recurve bow and placing pulleys in their place. The advantage of using pulleys was to be able to pull more draw weight than possible with a recurve bow. This explanation can be understood by using simple physics in which the pulley reduces the force required to pull an object. The first compound bows in the 1970s were much more accurate and effective than recurve bows. Yet, the compound bows from the 1970s are nothing compared to the compound bows of the 21st century. The first compound bows that

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came out on the market shot around the low to mid 200s in feet per second (fps) (History of Archery). These bows were made from aluminum riser and fiberglass limbs which were kind of heavy. The arrows shot out these bows were mostly made from aluminum and contained factory made fletchings. The factory made fletchings were available in the form of the traditional feather type, or a new plastic rubber design (Bauserman). The new plastic fletchings proved to be a great innovation because of their durability compared to feather fletchings. After many shots using the feather fletchings, they tend to become worn out and do not fly as accurately. Although archers at this time were well impressed with the new design of the compound bow. The first archers to shoot compound bows shot arrows made of aluminum. Today, almost all compound bows average over 300 fps and have even more advanced features on them. A bow company named Hoyt, designed a bow this past year that shoots 340 fps (Hoyt Compound Bows). This bow is one of the top bows made in the industry and is made completely of carbon. Carbon is the latest breakthrough in archery equipment due to it lightness and sleek design. Almost all archers today shoot arrows made of carbon which offer the best available accuracy and penetration into the desired target. While shooting one of todays modern bows, the archer is able to draw the bow back and experience almost 80 percent of the weight to let off. The reason behind this new feature is due to advanced cam design which act a pulley on the bow once tension is applied. The benefit to the archer for having 80 percent weight let off is that they can hold the bow back for much longer. This is a benefit because more time can be taken to focus on the shot to increase accuracy. Plus, it gives bow hunters more time to wait for the perfect moment to make the best, most ethical shot on the animal they are hunting. In conclusion, bows today have advanced dramatically to what they used to be in the 1960s. The bows has come a long way from just a piece of wood and a string to an aluminum

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structure with pulleys. In the future, I feel that bow technology will only keep increasing to higher standards. Many people still enjoy shooting traditional equipment, yet bow shooters today are equipped with unbelievable equipment. As a bow hunter myself, I cant wait to see what the future holds in the bow manufacturing industry.

Works Cited "Archery History: The First Compound Bow." Archery History: The First Compound Bow. Archery Report, 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. Bauserman, Jace. "Bow Speed Shop." Field&Stream Outdoor Magazine. Oct 2013: 40. Print. "History of Archery." World Archery. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar 2014. <http://www.worldarchery.org/HOME/History/History-of-Archery>. "Hoyt Compound Bows." Hoyt. Gray Loon Marketing Group, n.d. Web. 25 Mar 2014. <www.Hoyt.com>.

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Reflection on Comments

By looking back on my peers comments, they helped me tremendously in making my paper the best it could be. At first, I forgot to number my pages with the appropriate header and included my last name. Plus, with peer review, I was able to make my paper flow better. I was able to do this by adding paragraph breaks in the body of my paper. Also, I changed wording and sentence structure to help sentences flow from one to the next. I feel that peer reviewing is a great tool since others pick up on things that you may look over or leave out.