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By Matt Weight

Shooting an arrow from a bow has been an ancient practice for armies engaged in war and was also the method used by hunters to get them their next meal. That was until man invented gunpowder which then relegated archery to becoming a sport in which to shoot at targets. This means that besides hunting, it is now merely shooting it at a selected target that could be placed from eighteen to ninety meters away with seventy meters being the distance commonly used in Olympic Games.

Shaft And Its Spine

The construction of it means having a shaft to which is attached an arrowhead on the front of it while at the other side there is fletchings as well as a nock. Even the size of individual arrows varies which begins at about a foot and a half and can go all the way up and touch five feet in length. The modern day arrow is not more than a few feet in length and closely resembles those that were used during the English war and are shot from within a guide that may be fixed to the bow, or to the wrist of the archer.

The main part of the arrow is of course the shaft and they were made by tradition from bamboo, light woods and even reeds though today you will find those made from aluminum as well as artificial plastics. There is special attention paid to how stiff be the shaft, which is referred to as its spine and to get more accuracy you need to use those with the same type of spine. At the front of the shaft are the arrowhead and the type of arrowhead that is used will determine the purpose of the arrow. There are different types of arrowheads such as Bodkin points, blunts, judo points, broadheads, field tips and target points and a few more.

You will also find fletchings to the rear end of the arrow whose main purpose is to give the arrow drag and thus keep it pointed in the desired direction by not allowing it to pitch or to yaw. The fletchings generally are made from feathers, though modern day ones are made from plastic.

Another part of the arrow is known as the nock whose main use is to keep it correctly in place when drawing on the string. It is usual to have the nock being a cut in the rear end of the arrow, or sometimes a few pieces of wood or plastic may be fixed to the rear of the arrow. The modern nock as well as the Turkish nock can be made such that they curve or pinch the string to ensure that the arrow cannot slip.

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Article added 02/20/2008.
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Basic Construction Of A Bow and Arrow