The arrow is, perhaps, the most important of all the implements of the Archer, and requires the greatest nicety of make, and excel­lence of materials; for though he may get on without absolute failure with an inferior bow and other tackle, unless the arrow be of the best, Robin Hood himself would have aimed in vain. Two things are essential to a good arrow, namely, perfect straightness, and a stiffness or rigidity sufficient to stand in the bow, i.e., to re­ceive the whole force of the bow, without flirting or gadding, for a weak or supple, is even worse than a crooked arrow, and it need hardly be said how little conducive to shooting straight is the latter. The straightness of the arrow may be easily tested by the following simple process: — place the nails of the thumb and middle finger of the left hand so as just to touch, and with the same fingers of the right hand spin the arrow upon them; if it revolve true and steady, and close to the nail, it is straight, but if it jumps in the very least, the contrary is the case. To test its strength or stiffness, place the pile on any solid substance, holding it by the nock, and with the other hand press it gently downward in the middle. A very little experience will suffice to tell whether it be sufficiently stiff or not. An arrow that is weaker on one side than the other should also be rejected.

Arrows are either selfs or footed; the former are made of a single piece of wood; the latter, and the more preferable, have a different and harder wood dovetailed on to them at the pile end. "A shaft," says old Roger Ascham, "hath three principal parts, the stele, the feather, and the head, of which each must be severally spoken of." The stele, that is, the wooden body of the arrow, used to be, and sometimes now is, made of different woods; but for target, or indeed any other modern shooting, all may be discarded save one — red deal, which, when of clean, straight grain, and well seasoned, whether for selfs or footed shafts, is incomparably superior to all others. For footing, any hard wood will do; and if this be solid for one inch below the pile, it will be amply sufficient. Lance and Washaba are perhaps the best woods for this purpose; the latter is the toughest, but the former, I think, the preferable, the darkness of the Washaba having a tendency to attract the eye. This footing has three recommendations; — the first, that it causes the arrow to fly steadier, and get through a wind better; the second, that being of a harder nature than deal, it is not so easily worn away by the friction it unavoidably meets with on entering the target or the ground; and the third, that the same hardness saves the point from being broken off, should it happen to strike against any hard substance, such as a stone in the ground for instance. Before shooting is commenced, and after it is finished, let the arrows be rubbed with a piece of oiled flannel; this will prevent the paint of the target adhering to them (which otherwise it will assuredly more or less do), and save the application of sand-paper to clean them, which is objectionable on account of its wearing away the wood.

Before entering upon the question as to the best shape of the "stele" for practical use, it is necessary to say a few words con­cerning a point where the theory and practice of Archery, apparently clash; as follows: —

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The bobtail arrow.

A. Section of the bow.

B. The string drawn 6 inches.

C. The arrow nocked, but not drawn.

D. The arrow drawn 27 inches.

The dotted lines represent the lines of direction of the two arrows and the string.

If a straight arrow be placed on the bowstring, the bow drawn, and aim taken at an object, and if the bow be then slowly relaxed, the arrow being held until it returns to the position of rest — that is, if the passage of the arrow over the bow be slow and gradual — it will be found that the arrow does not finally point to the object aimed at, but in a direction deviating to the left of it; in fact, that its direction has been altering at each point of its return to the position of rest. This is evidently due to the half-breadth of the bow, and the nock of the arrow being carried on the string, in a plane containing the string and the axis of the bow's length — and this deviation will be greater if the arrow be chested, less if it be bobtailed. (Vide plate 4).

If the same arrow, when drawn to its head, be loosed at the object aimed at — that is, if the passage of the arrow over the bow be impulsive and instantaneous — it will go straight to the object aimed at (the shooting being in all respects perfect).

How then is the difference of final direction in the two cases to be explained?

It must be observed that the nock of the arrow being constrained to move as it does move, causes, in the last case, a blow of the arrow upon the bow (owing to its slanting position on the bow, and its simultaneous rapidity of passage) and, therefore, a blow of the bow upon the arrow. This makes the bow have quite a different effect upon the deviation from what it had in the first case, when the arrow was merely moved slowly and gradually along it, the obstacle presented by the half breadth of the bow then causing a deviation wholly to the le ft. The blow, however, now considered, has a tendency to cause deviation to the left only during the first half of the arrow's passage along the bow, whilst, during the second half, it causes a deviation to the right; or, more correctly speaking, the blow of the bow upon the arrow bas a tendency to cause a deviation to the left, so long as the centre of gravity of the arrow is within the bow, and vice versa. So that, if this were the only force upon the arrow, the centre of gravity should lie midway in that part of the arrow which is in contact with the bow during the recoil.

The blow of the bow during the latter part of the arrow's passage causing deviation of the point towards the right, is, how­ever, counteracted to some extent, if not altogether, by the action of the string which holds the arrow.

The struggle between these two forces is clearly indicated by the appearance of the arrow near the place where it is in contact with the bow when it leaves the string. It is here that the arrow is always most worn.

The nature then of the dynamical action may be thus briefly ex­plained. The first impulse given to the arrow, being instantaneous and very great in proportion to any other forces which act upon it, impresses a high initial velocity in the direction of aim, and this direction the arrow recovers, notwithstanding the slight deviations caused by the mutual action of the bow and arrow before explained — these in fact, as has been already shewn, to a great extent coun­teracting each other. Just as, for example, a hoop when in rapid motion may be slightly struck at the side, and a deviation from its path caused, which it nevertheless immediately recovers from, and continues in its original course.

The recoil of the bow, besides the motion in direction of aim, impresses a rotary motion upon the arrow about its centre of gravity. This tendency, however, to rotate about an axis through its centre of gravity is counteracted by the feathers. For, suppose the arrow to be shot off with a slight rotary motion about a vertical axis, in a short time its point will deviate to the left of the plane of projection, and the centre of gravity will be the only point which continues in that plane. The feathers of the arrow will now be turned to the right of the same plane, and the velocity of the arrow will cause a considerable resistance of the air against them. This resistance will twist the arrow until the point comes to the right of the plane of projection, when it will begin to turn the arrow the contrary way. Thus, through the agency of the feathers, the deviation of the point from the plane of projection is confined within very narrow limits indeed.

A rotation about a horizontal axis would be prevented in the same way by this action of the feathers. Both these tendencies may be distinctly observed in the actual motion of the arrow.

If the foregoing reasoning be carefully considered, it will be at once seen how prejudicial to the flight of the arrow in the direction of aim any variation in the shape of that part of it in contact with the bow must necessarily be: for by this means a new force is in­troduced into the elements of its flight. Take for example the cheated arrow, which is smallest at the point and largest at the feathers. Here there is, during its whole passage over the bow, a constant and increasing deviation to the left of the direction of aim, caused by the arrow's shape, independent of, and in addition to, a deviation in the like direction, caused by the retention of the nock upon the string. Thus this arrow has greater difficulty in recover­ing its first initial direction, the forces opposed to its doing so being so much increased. Accordingly, in practice, the cheated arrow has always a tendency to fly to the left.

And so as regards the bobtailed arrow, which is largest at the point and smallest at the feathers, the converse of this is true. For here the tendency during its whole passage over the bow is to the right of the direction of aim, only restrained by the retention of its nock on the string. But, as I have previously shown, the blow of the bow, during the last half of the arrow's passage, causing devia­tion also to the right, and in a degree, at least, to counteract the action of the string, there is a preponderance of deviation to the right for the arrow to overcome, in order to recover its initial direc­tion: accordingly in practice, the bobtailed arrow has invariably a tendency to fly to the right.

Oddly enough, however, the bobtailed arrow has been looked upon as the easiest to shoot straight with, its shape having been considered partially to counteract the deviation to the left, believed to be caused by the action of the string. But as has been already shown, this left-hand deviation has no practical existence; the right-hand tendency, therefore, of the bobtail is an unmitigated evil. Excepting, indeed, to those who erroneously draw the arrow to the right of the eye; as, when this is the case, the arrow when pointing to the left of the mark, is ap­parently to the shooter directed straight towards it; thus the fault of the arrow operating in the op­posite direction partially, counter­acts the fault of the shooter. It is a bad system, however, to mend one fault by another. Better far to get rid of both.

Bobtail. Chested. Barrell'd. Straight.

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PLATE W.
Diag. 1.

A.B. Arrow with sharp pile. VIII I ;? C.D. Arrow with straight pile.

E. Section of bow.

6. 7. 8. 9.

1. Best for all purposes.I 5. Bullet-headed pile.

2. Beet sharp pile, but bad. 6. Old English barb.

3 . Old sharp pile, (but worst). 7. Head for popinjay bolt.

4. Round-ended d pile. 8. Crescent-headed pile. 9. Head of whistling arrow.

There is another arrow very much in use, called the barrelled arrow. This arrow is largest in the centre, and tapers thence to both ends; it has a rapid flight, but does not follow the point well; and is additionally objectionable as a departure from the straight line. In short, it may be set down as an incontrovertible position in target shooting, that any shape of arrow that causes the centre of its thickness to vary in its relation to the edge of the bow, is radically bad. Therefore none other than the perfectly straight arrow is here recommended.

The feathering of the arrow is the most delicate part of the Fletcher's art, and requires great care and experience to effect it as it should be effected. Rather full-sized feathers are to be preferred, as giving a steadiness and solidity, as it were, to the flight; they should have a fair amount of rib, for if pared too fine their lasting qualities are diminished; and all three should be of the same wing, right or left. The turkey supplies most of the feathers now in use; those of the eagle-and peacock, though most excellent, being too scarce to be generally attainable. The feathers of the "grey goose wing," so much spoken of in the legends of our forefathers, as guiding their unerring shafts to the heart of knight and yeoman, despite of "Milan steel" and "Jerkins buff," are now quite out of fashion; but as, of course, it would be absurd to suppose that they were not wiser in their generation than we are in ours, we must conclude that either turkeys did not exist in those days, or that geese have degenerated!

The pile or point is a very important part of the arrow. Of the different shapes in use, the blunt or square-shouldered pile is the only good one. In every respect, even for distant shooting, it is superior to all others; but the greatest advantage it possesses is, that if the arrow be overdrawn, so as to bring the pile on to the bow, it will not alter the direction of its flight, as is the case with all the sharp piles. (See plate 5.)

No. 1 (in the same plate) is the only one recommended for target shooting. No. 5 has great penetrating power, for if it passes through the object struck, the whole "stele" will follow it, No. 6 is the old English barb. No. 8 is probably the shape of the pile used by the Emperor Commodus, who is said to have cut off the heads of ostriches at full speed! No. 9 is the whistling head, sup­posed to have been used to give alarm at night.

To prevent the pile coming off, either by damp or by a blow, it may be slightly indented on opposite sides by a gentle rap with a pointed instrument; a broken bradawl filed to a point is as good as anything.

The nock should be full and strong, and the notch as deep as will hold the string safely. To provide against the risk of splitting, I have found it a good plan to drill a hole through the solid part of the nook, as near the surface on which the string rests as may be, and to insert a piece of copper wire, which, when clenched or flattened at both ends, forms a safe rivet. A small Archimedean screw drill is the best for this purpose, but great care is required in using it, or it will cause the very evil it is intended to guard against.

As regards the length of the arrow, no arbitrary rule can be laid down: every archer must suit himself according to the length of his pull: hereafter I hope to lay down some principles which will guide him in this: for the present it will merely be observed, that no man's arrow, whatever his pull may be, should be less than twenty-six inches in length, as experiment has proved that a short arrow flies less steadily than a longer one. It is not absolutely necessary, though it is better, that he should pull the whole length of the arrow, provided his draw be always to the same mark.

The weight of an arrow must, to a certain extent, be regulated by its length, and the strength of the bow with which it is to be used; for if an arrow be a long one, it must have bulk sufficient to insure stiffness, and stiffness in proportion to the strength of the bow; 4s. 3d. for the lowest, and 5s. 6d. for the highest weight, are two extremes, within which every length of arrow and strength of bow may be properly fitted, so far as gentlemen are concerned. For ladies, 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d. should perhaps be the limits. It must be borne in mind that a light arrow is a decided mistake for target shooting. Even flight arrows need not be less than 4s. in weight.

To preserve the feathers from damp, let a coat of oil paint be laid on between and for 1/8th inch above and below them, and let this be afterwards varnished with a mixture of mastic and gold size, taking care that the rib of the feather be well covered, otherwise the desired purpose will not be attained. If the feathers be laid or ruffled by wet, they may be restored to their proper shape and firm­ness by being held for a short time before a fire, and kept turning, to prevent scorching.

Mr. Roberts mentions, and I have proved, a curious effect which is produced by feathering a light arrow at both ends, the wood being lightest at the pile-end; and the feather trimmed low at the nock and high at the pile-end; this, if shot against a wind, will return back again, like a Bomerang. If the same shaped arrow be feathered in the middle only, it will, in its flight, make a right angle, and no power of bow can send it any distance.

As the elevation should be regulated by the rise or fall of the left arm, and not by the weight of the arrow, the use of the same shafts at all distances is strongly recommended. Indeed, it is a great mistake to change any part of the tackle, bow or arrow, during the shooting, excepting in extraordinary cases; seldom, in­deed, is the scoring bettered by such means.

Three arrows are usually shot at one time, and a fourth kept in reserve, in case of accidents. Now let it be remembered, that if the slightest variation either in shape or weight occurs amongst them, the line or the elevation is sure to be effected, to the serious detriment of accurate hitting; therefore too much care cannot be taken in their choice. Whatever kind or weight is used, let all the four be precisely similar in every respect.

Whether for store or daily use, the arrows should be kept in a quiver or case, made on such a plan that each shall have its separate cell, and so be insured from warping, or from having the feathers crushed. It is too much the custom to squeeze a quantity of arrows into a small quiver; let not the archer who prizes his tackle be guilty of this folly. They will wear out quite speedily enough, with­out the addition of ill-usage to hasten it. In drawing them from the ground, or the target, let the hand take hold as near the pile end as possible. Every archer should have an appropriate mark painted on each of his arrows, so that they may be easily distinguished from those of his neighbour.

It is a great point to have the arrow well stopped — that is, the wood should completely fill the pile, which otherwise, in striking against any hard substance, is apt to be driven down the stele, to the great detriment of the arrow, and often the destruction, by splitting, of the pile itself.