ARCHERY

ARCHERY

He development of endered bows obsolete in warfare. Despite the high social status, ongoing utility, and widespread pleasure of archery in Korea, England, China, Japan, Turkey, Armenia, Egypt, India and elsewhere, almost every culture that gained access to even early firearms used them widely, to the relative neglect of archery. Early firearms were vastly inferior in rate-of-fire, and were very susceptible to wet weather. However, they had longer effective rangeand were tactically superior in the common situation of soldiers shooting at each other from behind obstructions.

 They also required significantly less training to use properly, in particular penetrating steel armour without any need to develop special Armies equipped with guns could thus provide superior firepower by sheer weight of numbers, and highly-trained archers became almost obsolete on the battlefield. However, archers are still effective and have seen action even in the 21st century. Traditional archery remains in use for sport, and for hunting in many areas.

From the 1920s, professional engineers took an interest in archery, previously the exclusive field of traditional craft experts.

 They led the commercial development of new forms of bow including the modern and These modern forms are now dominant in modern Western archery; traditional bows are in a minority. In the 1980s, the skills of traditional archery were revived by American enthusiasts, and combined with the new scientific understanding.

Much of this expertise is available in the Traditional Bowyer's Bibles (see Additional reading). Modern game archery owes much of its success to an American bow hunter and bow manufacturer.

Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling with the use of. Archery has historically been used fo and; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity. One who practices archery is typically known as an "archer" or "bowman," and one who is fond of or an expert at archery can be referred to as a "toxophilite.