Combat use of the bow by our ancestors. What types of bows are there, and how to choose yours? Combat bow and sports

Along with the growing popularity of the fantasy genre, interest in archery is being revived. In this regard, we decided to recall the main types of bows in history, as well as their famous representatives - the English longbow, the Egyptian triangle and the Scythian bow.

Simple bow bow

Now it is difficult to say what the oldest bow of the Stone Age was, but obviously, in shape it resembled an arched, or simple, bow - a curved wooden plank, tied with a bowstring. In medieval Europe they were made from yew, elm, birch and juniper. The length of the bar corresponded to the owner’s arm span or height. Let's say, if your height was 180 cm, then the bar was 180 cm, so this type of bow is often called a growth bow.

Perhaps the most famous representative of the “arc-shaped” is the English longbow, which ensured the British success in the early periods of the Hundred Years' War. The length of this bow reached two meters, and the arrows pierced the plate armor of French knights. The flight range could reach several hundred meters at an initial speed of 50-60 m/s.

But such a bow had many disadvantages. Firstly, a colossal pulling force was required - 50-60 kilograms. Secondly, despite its simple shape, its manufacture was a complex task. The wooden bow is capricious and short-lived, so it required maximum processing. The bows were kept in special conditions and solutions, specially dried and protected from moisture. Otherwise, they broke in the first battle. In England, archery craftsmen were exempt from duties and taxes, which once again indicates the labor intensity of production.

But even prolonged drying and processing did not save the onion from its most important enemy - moisture. They could not be used in wet weather - the softened wood lost its springy qualities, and the hemp bowstring broke. They didn’t like longbows and frost - at sub-zero temperatures they broke when any attempt was made to shoot them.

Asymmetrical bow

The eastern variety of the arcuate meadow are the asymmetrical bows of Japan and China. Their handle is not located in the middle, but approximately one-third of the length of the bow from below. Where this form came from is not known for certain. According to one version, it allowed shooting from a horse in any direction (the British, like the rest of the peoples of Europe in general, did not practice shooting while galloping, only from chariots in ancient times). Another hypothesis says that such asymmetry made it possible to shoot while sitting.

One of the varieties of this class, the Japanese yumi bow, is still used to this day in the practice of kyudo (“the way/teaching of the bow”) - the traditional Japanese art of archery, which is more reminiscent of meditation than a martial discipline. The yumi is longer than the longbow and sometimes reaches 2.5 meters. History knows of cases when such bows were made even longer. According to legend, the legendary Japanese archer Minamoto (1139-1170) had a bow that reached 280 cm.

According to historical sources, in the Middle Ages it was sometimes made so heavy that one person could not shoot it. Yumi, used in naval battles, pulled 7 people.

Today, Japanese bows are made, as in ancient times, from bamboo, wood and leather. The standard sighting distance of arrows is 60 meters. Such a weapon in the hands of a master shoots at a distance of up to 120 meters.

The arrowheads are made hollow and make whistling sounds when flying. Legends say that in this way warriors scared away evil spirits. In addition, it was believed that the whistling of arrows terrified enemies.

Double recurve bow

The main disadvantage of a simple arched bow remained the tight tension. How long will an archer last on the battlefield if, with a single shot, he spends the same amount of force as when lifting a 60-kilogram weight (in the case of a longbow). Obviously not for long. This means that it was necessary to somehow reduce the load and at the same time not lose in the range of the arrow and the power of destruction. The ancient Egyptians first achieved this by bending the ends of the bow forward in a state without a bowstring. Thus, even when bending, the bow was quite tense, and much less force had to be spent on tension.

Another invention of the ancient Egyptians of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC was the angular, or triangular, bow. It already belonged to complex bows, and was made from wood of different species and horn plates. When the bowstring was put on, it formed a triangle, and when pulled, it formed a semicircle, but only its shoulders bent - the angle in the center of the bow remained rigid. This made it possible to avoid a sharp jerk, and therefore increase accuracy. Images of such bows are found on Mesopotamian seals, Egyptian tomb paintings and Assyrian reliefs. The original triangular bows were discovered by archaeologist Carter in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Apparently, this design was used for about two thousand years - from 2400 to 600 BC, when the Scythians put an end to the Assyrian Empire, and with it all manufacturers of triangular bows.

The design of the angled bow allowed for an accurate and smooth shot. The length of the string tension was 110 cm. Moreover, due to its shape, the angled bow, like a recurve, was under tension and made the task easier for the shooter.

Today, this type of bow is almost never seen. But the production secret is not lost, thanks to Carter's findings. Therefore, big fans of rare weapons sometimes take up the task of reconstructing them.

Four Recurve Bow (Retroflex)

The Scythians, who were “always on horseback,” made the task of drawing even easier for themselves by inventing a bow with four bends. They achieved this result by gluing an arc from different types of wood. The Scythians noticed that some of the wood from which bows are made breaks on the back, and some on the belly of the bow, and as a result they concluded that it is better to use softer and more flexible wood on the back of the bow, while relatively hard wood is used on the belly. The Scythians also figured out that it was best not to bend the curved ends over steam or during the growth of a living tree, as the Indians did, but rather to make them from whole horns or animal bones, which were simply glued and tied to the ends of the bow.

The Scythian bow was a “wooden spring” - a mechanism that was always ready for battle. It did not have to be stretched “from scratch” - 80% of it was already charged due to the form. There was only 20% left to tighten. This made him indispensable in battle, both for foot and horseback warriors. Since drawing such a bow did not require much muscular strength, it was actually the main weapon of the Scythian light-horse units, consisting of boys, girls and young women.

Since the Scythians were nomads, some elements of their weapons, including the bow, spread to the territories of Ancient Greece, the Black Sea region and the Middle East. Subsequently, it was used by our ancestors - the ancient Slavs. It received its further development in the Turkish bow. The Turks increased the flight range by increasing the curvature - the shoulders of the Turkish bow in the state without a bowstring practically close into a ring on the side opposite to the shooter. Such bows are called retroflex. The flight range of a Turkish bow arrow reaches 400-500 meters. The record was set by the Turkish Sultan Selim III at a competition in Istanbul in 1798 - the range of his shot was 889 meters.

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Briefly about the article: It would seem that a bow is the simplest structure, consisting of a rod and string. But in the Middle Ages, many ways were invented to increase the durability and range of bows; Although medieval models cannot be compared with modern sports bows, their use often decided the outcome of many battles. Read about the main types and design features of medieval bows on the pages of the World of Fantasy.

Rope on a stick

Design and manufacturing methods of medieval bows

Having skillfully processed, the famous Rogodelets rallied,

He glazed the entire onion brightly and covered its surface with gold.

Homer, "Iliad"

The bow and arrow represent one of the most revolutionary inventions of ancient people. Points of view differ regarding the complexity of manufacturing this device. According to one of them, presented, for example, in the film “Predator”, to make a bow it is enough to find a stick and be Schwarzenegger. According to another, the production of bows was a secret of ancient masters passed down from generation to generation, now, of course, lost...

In fact, both points of view are quite far from the truth. Making a bow is not easy, but it is not so difficult that anyone (given the time and materials) cannot cope with the task.

Simple bows

Making even the simplest bow was a rather complicated procedure. The difficulty was the need to find a straight, branchless branch in the forest yew, ash, juniper, maple, elm, acacia, hickory, walnut or red cedar. The side of the branch facing the main trunk was further considered as the outer surface, or " back » onion. The cut workpiece had to be kept in a damp, warm place with its back facing up.

The outer and inner sides of the bending stick are exposed to different conditions and must have different properties. On the inside, or " stomach » The wood fibers will shrink. Here, maximum hardness is required from the material, otherwise delamination will begin. The fibers of the back of the bow stretch. The softer the wood, the less danger there will be of them breaking. Proper selection and conditioning of the workpiece provided the bow with power and durability.

Bows made using this technique were usually short - only 100-140 centimeters. American Indians and European medieval hunters did not require anything else. With a longbow it is difficult to sneak up on game through the bush. But military shooters needed more powerful weapons.

Longbows - such as the famous English longbow , - were cut from a fragment of a yew log split along the length. The trick was to make the workpiece include two layers of wood equal in thickness - soft core and the surrounding solid sapwood .

Despite the extensive list of wood species suitable for making bows, in many regions of the planet it was impossible to find anything suitable. In view of this, in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, vast areas remained where bows, although they were known, did not gain noticeable popularity.

But even in the British Isles, rich in deciduous forests (in the Middle Ages, of course), the situation with raw materials for archery production was not at all easy. The English kings charged the peasants with the duty of planting yew, but there was still a constant shortage of it. After all, only a very small part of the trunk of a felled tree was used for harvesting, and besides, not every trunk was suitable for use.

A huge number of onions were required. Simple bows are short-lived: the fragile wood fibers gradually break and become deformed. Military wooden bows quickly failed because they were used “barbarously.” In battle, the archer, shooting arrows at the maximum distance, pulled the bowstring to the limit and very often.

As a result, during Hundred Years' War the convoys carried behind the British troops not only bundles of arrows, but also a large supply of blanks, from which new ones were planed right on the spot longbow to replace those used in the previous battle. The British did not have enough yew of their own, and they bought wood from Spain. Spanish yew, by the way, was considered the best, and Arab countries also bought it.

Compound bows

Something had to be done about the shortage of raw materials. If in Europe the problem of its shortage was still solvable, then the steppe nomads did not have so many species of trees available to be able to look for something special among them.

The most obvious - literally lying on the surface - was the decision to use two wooden parts with different hardnesses. As examples of the implementation of such an idea, we can mention Siberian and Novgorod bows with birch shell and core made of juniper , pine trees or ate .

Glue obtained by cooking for many days was used to connect the parts. hooves or tendons animals, or skin and bones of sturgeon fish. Fish glue was the best, but its production required an unrealistic amount of sturgeon by modern standards. Nowadays, it can be used to glue onion parts epoxy resin, which has two major advantages. Firstly, it is easier to get, and secondly, it is much stronger than fish glue.

The use of two types of wood made it possible to produce bows from cheap and accessible material. Replacing hard wood in the core with inserts of 2-3 mm thick plates of steamed and straightened horn (or whalebone) gave a more noticeable effect. The tension force of the bow increased significantly due to the greater strength of the horn. Such a bow could rightly be called strengthened .

From the strengthened bow there was only one step left to the bow composite , the back of which was covered with tendons. The tendons were taken from the legs or spine of cattle, cleaned, broken into individual fibers with a hammer, thoroughly washed and degreased. The bundles of the resulting fibers were fixed with fish glue in 3-4 layers, each about a millimeter thick.

The composite bow gave the shooter a number of very significant advantages. The most important of them, undoubtedly, can be considered the durability of the weapon. The horn retains elasticity at four times greater deformation than wood, and the tendons are 8-10 times more tensile than wood. In practice, this gave the archer the invaluable opportunity to carry his weapon equipped, with the bowstring installed.

The British kept the bowstring in a bag and began to draw their bows as soon as they saw the enemy. Even a relatively short stay in a tense state significantly and irreversibly reduced the fighting qualities of a wooden bow. The design of the most powerful Turkish or Chinese bows, on the contrary, did not at all provide for the possibility of removing the string “in the field.” This required a special machine.

It was very difficult to string the composite bow. The high extensibility of the tendons made it possible to attach them not to a straight wooden plank, but to a pre-bent one (by steaming and drying in a special form). The Turkish bow with the bowstring removed did not straighten, but bent forward into a complete ring.

Another important advantage of composite bows was their 40% higher efficiency. With equal tension force and equal shot energy, it could be made the same 40% shorter. This is how tiny Scythian bows with a span of only 65-80 centimeters, very convenient for riders, appeared, corresponding in effectiveness to simple bows of 90-110 centimeters in length.

Design features of the most powerful bows

One of the most important improvements in bow design was the addition of its limbs. ends ", or " ears » - strips bent forward at an angle of 120 degrees, to which the bowstring was attached. The “ears” of the bow were reinforced with bone, and sometimes metal, and were equipped with grooves in which the bowstring lay until the bow was drawn. When tensioned to approximately half, the string came out of the grooves, the ends of the bow “folded out,” and the 120-centimeter long bow convenient for the rider turned into an “infantry” 150-centimeter long bow.

Another feature of the most powerful and advanced bows is double curvature. The handle, pressed inward - recessed - significantly complicated the manufacture of the wooden base (it had to consist of at least three parts), but allowed the bowstring to be pulled back far using relatively short arrows. Of course, the question arises: what prevented you from simply taking a longer arrow? But the whole point is that the shorter and lighter the arrow, the more accurate and farther the shot will be.

The historical record for archery range was set by the Turkish Sultan Selim III, who in 1798 fired an arrow at a distance of 889 meters. It is less known that in 1794, the secretary of the Turkish embassy in London shot arrows at 430 meters on a bet, and said that the Sultan - the greatest archer of all times - shoots as much as 20 meters further. It seems unlikely that Selim would double his tally in just four years. Rather, it can be assumed that when recording records, the august persons had certain “advantages”. The record for firing range from a modern compound bow is only 690 meters.

The energy of the shot depends on the tension and length of the bow. Both have strict natural boundaries. Of course, with equal kinetic energy, a lighter arrow will acquire greater speed and fly further. But the arrow cannot be made shorter - it cannot be less than the draw length. You can’t make it thinner either, because the more powerful the bow, the greater the load on it. It was not for nothing that crossbows fired short, thick bolts.

Modern bows have a whole range of differences from historical ones. By using a block that doubles the tension force and better quality materials, the firing range can be increased by more than one and a half times. The accuracy of shots was significantly increased by installing sighting devices, as well as by placing the arrow axis in the plane of movement of the bowstring. In ancient designs, the arrow was deflected to the side with a convex handle, bent when fired, and then “wobbled” in the air for some time.

* * *

True, the question arises - to what extent is the onion still an onion after all this? But this is a philosophical question. Let's leave it unanswered. Having not much in common with its historical prototype, today the bow remains popular as a sports equipment that reminds a person of the good old past, covered in the romance of legends.

Among such a variety of species, 3 can be distinguishedmain types of bows , which still exist: this is a straight traditional bow, a recurve bow and the pinnacle of archery evolution - a compound bow or, in other words, a “compound” (from the English Compound). What are the specifics of each type, what are the advantages and disadvantages, we will try to understand in this article.

First type - this is a straight bow, the progenitor of all other bows. It is impossible to determine even approximately when the first bow appeared, but it is reliably known that a straight bow at the beginning of its evolution was a wooden stick bent into an arc, the ends of which were pulled together with a bowstring. The first step towards improving the straight bow was made when bows began to be made not from one, but from two pieces of wood, connected in the middle at a certain slight angle and reinforced in certain places with linings of various materials.





The strength of combat from such a bow depended on its size and the strength of the central part. Despite the simplicity of its design, the straight bow is still used by archers from different countries to this day as the simplest and most classic option. Modern straight bows are, of course, different from their ancestors. Nowadays, solid plates are rarely used to make bows; most often, craftsmen glue bows from different layers and types of wood of different densities and sizes. A fine selection of natural and artificial materials, and an accurate calculation of the elasticity of the bow in its various parts ensures reliability and relatively high energy.

Often, a modern straight bow bears a highly artistic coloring and reflects a connection with a certain era. Today, straight bows are often a work of weaponry art and are purchased not for practical purposes, but as an expensive and fashionable fetish, the price of which often exceeds $1,000. It should be noted that straight bows are not subject to serious requirements for shooting accuracy, since most often shooting from a straight bow is carried out intuitively, without the use of sights. The main interest here is the high rate of fire and the special charm of primitive hunting. Speaking about the disadvantages of a straight bow, it is worth mentioning its large dimensions and the lack of the possibility of assembly and disassembly. Transporting a non-separable bow about one and a half meters long is not always convenient.

Second type of bow -This is a recurve bow. Being the most popular among professional archers, the recurve bow has long taken its place in the sport. What are its features? A recurve bow is characterized by the bend of its shoulders. This so-called recurve gives the bow limbs more energy at a smaller size. Compared to a straight bow, the limbs of a recurve bow, when the string is pulled, bend in the direction opposite to their natural bend, and during extension they make not one, but two movements, significantly speeding up the shooting process. At the same time, the speed of shoulder extension increases during the shot and more energy is transferred to the arrow. A modern recurve bow is elegant and lightweight, weighing just over one and a half kilograms, it can be non-separable, but most often consists of three parts: the limbs (upper and lower) and the central handle. This design is easily disassembled - the arms are attached to the handle and can be easily and quickly replaced. The handle of modern recurve bows is cast from light alloys or machined from wood, the limbs are made of composite, carbon or fiberglass.






The draw weight of modern recurve bows ranges from 14 to 30 kilograms. Shooting with a recurve bow has its advantages and disadvantages. The most important thing is that shooting with a recurve bow produces less vertical dispersion because the higher arrow speeds lead to more accurate shooting. Greater speed also gives an advantage in hunting, providing greater lethality. Therefore, recurve bows are very popular not only among athletes, but also among hunters.

And finally, we move on to the last type of bow, the pinnacle of archery evolution.Compound bow, compound bow – this is a product of high technology multiplied by cutting-edge materials. Compound is the most effective and most compact bow. The main feature of its design is a system of eccentric blocks located at the ends of the arms.






This system provides unprecedented power combined with comfort and small dimensions (the length of the loaded compound is usually from 70 to 100 cm). It’s really very difficult to describe how eccentrics work, and it’s not important; what’s important is that they perform two important functions: they make it easier to cock the bowstring and speed up its acceleration during the shot. The power of compound bows far exceeds that of both straight and recurve bows. The bowstring tension of modern blockers ranges from 25 to 40 kilograms on average. The speed of arrows fired from the best compounds can reach 100 meters per second or more! Possessing such frantic kinetic energy, the arrow is capable of accurately hitting a target at a very long distance (up to 100 meters). Thanks to their power, compactness and comfort, compound bows have gained recognition among hunters all over the world. There are practically no disadvantages to a block bow, except for problems with the selection of arrows - block bows, often possessing enormous power, are very demanding on arrows.






There are gradations (tables) of the ratio of bows and arrows, according to which you can correctly select the appropriate ammunition in weight, size and rigidity. For all bows, regardless of type, there are golden rules that should never be broken. Firstly, under no circumstances should you shoot empty - all the energy of the bow will go not into the arrow, but into the shoulders, and they can simply crack. Secondly, it is necessary to use protection for the left hand (grip) so as not to accidentally injure your hand with the bowstring during a shot. And thirdly, you cannot shoot at hard objects - when an arrow hits a hard surface, it either changes its geometry or simply collapses. (Special bow shields made of wood fiber boards are used for archery.) If you feel a spiritual need to own a bow, take your time, think about what purposes and how often you will use it. Archery requires special equipment and constant training, but the pleasure from this shooting compensates you for all moral and material costs. If you still decide to buy onions, contact specialized centers where you can not only choose and buy, but also receive valuable recommendations, and even become a member of the club. And never use the services of “basement gunsmiths”, my advice to you.






Let the poetry of archery fill your heart every morning.
Shoot to your health!

In this article we will look at what types of bows were most famous and widespread in the ancient world of our ancestors. As well as their main characteristics and a brief history of their occurrence. Of course, we have not listed all the types of these wonderful weapons and there are actually much more of them, but you will still get an idea of ​​the most famous bows in the world.

English onion

A simple bow (maple or yew) with a hemp (sometimes silk) string. Length about 2000 mm.It was distinguished by its power, such a bow could pierce armor with a light arrow within 70 m, and with a heavy arrow - up to 10 m. The length of the bow of English archers was 1.83 m, the length of the arrow reached from 0.915 m to 1.5 m, the maximum flight range of a light arrow was 350 m, for a heavy arrow - 180-200 m, accuracy - up to 100 m when the arrow hit the arrow. The advantage of the English bow was its rate of fire. At long distances, the English bow made it possible to hold 5 arrows in the air. The training of an English archer took years, from childhood, so English archers could fire 10-12 arrows per minute, and Genoese crossbowmen, known at that time, fired up to four arrows. The peasants of England used the yew bow for a long time; at a distance of up to 300 steps, the arrows of such a bow could pierce the armor of a knight. The English bow was considered the simplest and strongest of all European bows.

Asian onion

A complex compound bow of small size with a large bend and string tension. Asian bows are short, their length is 107-183 cm. Spanish yew is used as the main material. A design feature of these bows is the use of two layers of equal thickness - sapwood and core. The outer layer works well in tension, the inner layer works well in compression. This allows the bow to be made narrower, so that the draw force increases mainly due to the thickness of the limbs without the risk of irreversible deformations in the wood.

Thanks to the double structure of the yew arms, such a bow was less susceptible to permanent deformation. A regular wooden bow eventually loses its ability to fully return to its original position after the string is removed. To increase the length of draw, tendons are glued to the outer surface of the arms of the bow, which are taken from large animals - bull, elk, etc. But only those tendons that run along the animal's spinal column (or leg ligaments) are used. They are bundles of whitish fibers about a finger thick.

Another design feature of the Asian bow is provided by special wooden inserts at the ends of the arms. This is a separate piece of wood glued into the shoulder, making the ends of the arms rigid. The connection is a fishtail lock; this design is the prototype of the modern compound bow. The stiff ends of the bow provide a very smooth draw (1-2 lbs/in) at the end of the draw. As a result, it seems that a much stronger bow is being drawn. And this happens due to the fact that the tension force increases sharply at the beginning and more gradually at the end.

It took a very skilled craftsman to make an Asian bow. Layers of horn, boiled sinew and wood had to be firmly glued together under strong pressure, after which the rough-finished bow was subjected to special drying for several years. To protect against dampness, the finally finished bow was covered with thin leather, parchment or birch bark, and glued with the best glue. The finished onion was coated with durable transparent varnish. The bowstring was made from veins (strings) or strong twine and wrapped in silk.

Asian bows are 25-30% more effective than long bows, they are distinguished by greater strength, survivability, lighter weight, and shorter, lighter arrows. Therefore, an archer could carry a large number of such arrows with him. The Asian bow was quite convenient for the rider.

Ancient Egyptian bow

A simple bow common in Ancient Egypt. Length - from 1500 mm. Compound bows were common in royal use.Bows of this type were distinguished by their simplicity of design and segmented or biconcave shape. The bow was considered the main weapon in Ancient Egypt and was used in war throughout ancient history. Despite the fact that the bow was simple, due to its fairly large size and the use of especially durable wood, it was a powerful weapon.

In Egypt in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Compound bows also became widespread. They were glued together from plates of wood and horn, and were also often reinforced with tendons. Such bows had a segmented shape; if they were in a lowered state, then there was no bending in the direction opposite to the tension. These bows were very powerful - an arrow fired from such a bow would pierce a finger-thick copper board. Bows came to Egypt from Mesopotamia, where both compound and composite bows were common.

Caucasian onion

A variety of Western Iranian onion. A compound bow was made from glued horn, boiled sinew, and wood. Due to the fact that after pulling the bowstring, the horn was on the inside of the bow, strong tension was achieved. The elasticity of the onion was given by boiled tendons, as well as glue made from fish scales, which was used to glue parts of the onion. The outer side of the bow was represented by a thin layer of wood. The ends of the bow were made from bone, as the wood wore down over time. The wooden back of the bow was covered with leather, usually black, and also decorated with gold stars.

Author of the 15th century writes that all Circassians, including noble ones, make arrows every day, after which the arrows fly long distances and have a good point. Women were engaged in the production of cases. For the bow and quiver, red or black morocco was used, its edges were trimmed with strips of colored leather or galloon. In the 18th century, despite the fact that firearms were already widespread, bows did not lose their purpose. Circassian arrows became widespread and popular among the Tatars and Nogais, who bought them every year in quantities of about 300 thousand pieces.

Chinese onion

A complex and composite bow with reflection at the same time. Length - up to 1400 mm. In China, the most widespread were composite bows made from sinew, wood and horn (sometimes other materials were used). Around the 2nd millennium, the design of the Chinese bow was improved by introducing metal arc weights. Later, around the 14th-16th centuries, bows in China began to be replaced with crossbows.

Korean onion

A complex and composite Chinese bow with reflection at the same time. The bow was small, not tight, the arrows were light. The one made from horn was called kakguni, and the fully recurved bow was called mankokgun. They were made from the following materials: a bamboo base, reinforced with tendons, and a handle reinforced with oak overlays. The horn was used on the side facing the shooter, the ends of the arms were made of mulberry wood or acacia glued with bamboo. These qualities allowed this type of bow to send an arrow over a long distance. With the help of birch bark, the protective and decorative external decoration of the bow was made, or, as it was called in ancient times, bark.

The Korean bow was considered super powerful; it was even pulled by two people. Ancient manuscripts claim that the bow of the Hwarang warriors could shoot an arrow almost 1000 meters (1500 m).

Modern layered bows, with one or two layers of carbon for more efficient arrow throw, are designed to have a draw range of 31 to 35 inches, which is why they are sometimes called no-draw bows.

Archery was the basis of the Korean warrior's art. Stone arrow tips were smeared with powerful poisons; the archer aimed at the enemy's eye, which required high art of shooting. Getting hit in the eye from forty or even eighty steps was considered normal - Koreans and their ancestors have been famous for their accuracy since ancient times.

Mongolian onion

A compound bow with reflex among the Mongols, widespread among the peoples of Eurasia. The Mongolian bow was called “saadak”. An arrow fired from such a bow pierced metal armor from 100-150 m. The Mongolian bow was also called a killing machine.

Bows did not have sights, so shooting them required many years of training.

Saadak was glued together from three layers of wood, boiled sinew and bone, and was wrapped with tendons to protect against dampness; gluing was carried out under a press, and drying required aging for three years. This technological secret of making bows was kept in the strictest confidence.

Arrows with iron tips, long wooden shafts and feathers were used for archery. Several groups stood out among them. One group was represented by asymmetrically rhombic arrows (feather length - 6 cm, feather width - 2 cm, petiole length - 4 cm and tips with an obtuse point, flat shoulders, stop).

It also included 6 specimens from Khovd (feather length - 7 cm, feather width - 1 cm, petiole length - 4 cm, tips with an acute-angled point, a distinct combat head, an elongated neck, a stop).

Another type - sectorial, included a specimen from Mongolia (feather length - 5 cm, feather width - 2 cm, petiole length - 4 cm, tip with a rounded tip, flat shoulders, stop). And the last type - oval-winged, included two specimens from Muren and Mongolia (feather length - 8 cm, feather width - 5 cm, petiole length - 6 cm, tips with an oval point, protruding wings, rounded shoulders, stop). The second group included tetrahedral, elongated rhombic arrows (feather length - 4.5 cm, feather width - 1 cm, tips with an acute angled point, sloping shoulders, stop). Mongolian bows are easy to use, have proven themselves to be highly effective rapid-fire weapons for distance combat, and are well suited for shooting in conditions of intense, maneuverable mounted combat.

Russian onion

The collective name of the Moscow, Bukhara, Crimean, Circassian, Tours, Meshetsky and Edrinsky bows.In Rus', the bow has been developed since the 1st millennium BC. e. The bow was widely used in battle and hunting by warriors of Kievan Rus. The bows used by the horsemen of the local army in the 15th-17th centuries have survived to the present day. The main types of wood from which Russian bows were made were juniper, birch, ash, and oak.

To connect the workpieces, glue made from fish scales was used. After gluing, the parts were placed under a press. In order to preserve the onion for as long as possible, it was covered with birch bark, thin leather, and also parchment, after which it had to be varnished. Each part of the onion had its own name.

The main parts of the bow were the shaft and the string. The shaft was called a spring, and the bowstring was called a string. The middle part of the shaft was called kibit, the middle of the kibiti was a handle or handgun, the ends were horns, the thick part of the horns were valances, the thin ones were midians, the inserts against the midians were bones. The purpose of the bones was to hold the string in place and also to prevent the wooden ends of the bow from rubbing. The case for the bow was called the bow (or lubye), and the case for the arrows was called the quiver.

Together they make up a set called saadak. Leather or morocco was used to make saadaks. A bow was worn on the left side, and a quiver with arrows was worn on the right side. The archery range reached 300 steps. If shooting was carried out from a horse, then the range increased by 50-60 steps. The bow was used in Russia until the 17th century, and the soldiers of the Bashkir, Teptyar and Kalmyk troops used the bow in 1814, when they came to Paris.

Scythian bow

A small sigma-shaped bow, adapted for shooting from a horse. Length - 700-1000 mm. Appeared in Mesopotamia (3rd millennium BC), spread widely among the Scythians (1st millennium BC), from whom it received its name.

The appearance of such a bow is associated with the cavalry of the cattle breeders who dominated the Eurasian steppes. Basically, Scythian bows were small in size, but there were also large bows that reached a length of 1.2 m. They were pulled with the lower end resting on the ground. The appearance of the Scythian bow was due to the traditions of East Asia in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The oldest steppe bows of the Scythian type originated from the Chinese, and they were not inferior to them in size.

Gradually, by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. the size of the Scythian bows began to decrease, this was explained by their advancement to the West. But around the 8th century. BC e. There is a return of the already reduced Scythian bow to the Near and Middle East, and it returns along with accessories and shells for shooting. They were arrowheads, cases that held arrows and a bow. The Scythian bow was distinguished by the following features: the long handle was curved towards the shooter, the shoulders were sharply bent back, while their size was twice the size of the handle, the bend of the transition of the handle to the shoulder was distinguished by its angularity.