| Knowing your purpose and what type of bow | | | | environments where long weapons could be |
| suits you best will definitely help in honing your | | | | burdensome. |
| skills as a target shooter or hunter. Two of the | | | | Longbow archery was used in medieval warfare |
| most common types of bows are the recurve | | | | to a devastating effect. People in Medieval England |
| and longbow archery. How are these two | | | | saw the bow as effective in naval battles as well. |
| differentiated? | | | | It is a distinctively tall bow, sometimes roughly |
| Recurve bows, when made of horns, make use | | | | equal to the height of the archer who uses it. The |
| of a pre-curved design so that when the bow is | | | | reason for this is to allow the users to have a |
| drawn, tension is gained thus emitting more | | | | fairly long draw, at least to the jaw. Unlike the |
| power. This type of bow has tips that curve | | | | recurve bow, its limbs are relatively narrow, they |
| away from the archer when the bow is unstrung. | | | | are circular or D-shaped in cross section. A |
| One distinction of the recurve is that the string | | | | longbow gets its power mainly from the length of |
| touches sections of the limbs when the bow is | | | | its body. It can be made from a single piece of |
| strung. It stores more energy compared to other | | | | wood and it can be crafted pretty easily and |
| straight-limbed bows. It can permit a shorter bow | | | | quickly. Highly skilled bowyers can produce |
| than the simple bow for a certain arrow energy. | | | | wooden longbows in just a few hours. |
| This form is often preferred by archers in | | | | |