rambo

Well, it’s time I earn my job title so let us look at the old reliable bow and arrow.

The bow and arrow stands as one of the first successful attempts of man to create a weapon that extended his reach.

For how long the bow has been around in its many skins, from the Hunic Composite bow to the English Longbow as well as the Japanese Yumi, it is amazing that it has not fallen in to the place of yesteryear, or yester-century. While the bow and it younger brother the crossbow, do not have the flash of the latest and greatest assault weapons they are battle proven and have several pluses.

Some Advantages:

  1. The greatest advantage of the bow and arrow is that there are few modern requirements or machinery to make one in the ways of old. If you know how you can make a long bow or a short bow out of wood and sinew that can be found in the forest. Of course this is supposing that the forest near you still has trees and wildlife. There are however many modern materials that are used to make bows and they are, not yet at least, restricted as are firearms.
  2. The weapon is inherently silent. No need to add the can to the end of the barrel to lower the noise level. Also in the forest and less so in urban areas the sound the bow makes if it hits an object is not foreign unlike that of polymer or kydex.
  3. The weapon is low maintenance and about as close to idiot proof as you’re likely to get. All a wooden bow requires is a little oil and the occasional new string.

Even with these advantages the bow does house many problems.

  1. The bow requires a great deal of strength to fire effectively and require years if not a life time of practice to become truly deadly with the weapon. While even a relatively weak person can be taught to use a gun with relative ease the bow is simply not that easy to learn.
  2. While during the medieval era as times before then the range of the bow was measured often in hundreds of feet if not meters to need the make a head shot to dispatch a zombie reduces its range to perhaps a dozen or so meters, though the ability to place several dozen or even hundreds of people together volley fire may be feasible. Simply put the volley method would be to find the maximal range your men and once a large group of zombie had entered the kill zone to commence fire. The arrows by simple probability hitting the head and if not possibly stapling some zombies to the ground. Once the group has been significantly thinned moving in to dispatch the remainder by hand. In smaller groups it is simply not an option.
  3. Another consideration is the fact that you’re not going to be able to go in close with the bow. While an old fashioned long bow may be able to stand up to a few strikes it is not a staff and the trying to clear a building with a bow is not the path to longevity. So if you choose the bow as a weapon pick up a short sword or hatchet for close encounters.
  4. The weapon requires a great deal of instinctive aiming. While there are sighting units for bows, even mounts for scopes the most basic of aiming is using the arrow and for extended ranges results are less than precise for those who are not skilled with the bow.
  5. Another note is that while a crossbow may seem to be the way to go, what with all the advantages of a bow but with the ability to aim it like a gun, one should not assume that it is better. A cross bow does not have the rate of fire of the bow or the range in the volley method.

In the end to bow is a weapon that or ancestors used but it is not something that you are going to be able to pick up and use unless you are well versed in its use. It nonetheless is one that hold promise if civilization falls and hope for those who live in places that are less than gun friendly.

Stay safe.  Stay informed.  Stay alive.