Archery in the Back of Beyond

[Stavros]

Very interesting Cuprum and quite ironic that their native bows were probably far superior to firearms, certainly in respect to the earlier muskets...a case of the fascination with new technology and 'must have' shiny things to impress other tribes.
I should think the Tuvans were the same in terms of the time period in which fireams were obtained, probably earlier?

Thanks again

[mysteriousbill]

The change over to muskets from bows probably came about for three reasons.

1. It takes forever to be good with a bow, you have to practice, practice, practice all the time. A musket takes far less training.

2. Arrows can't be counted on to take down a target like a musket ball can. Unless you put the arrow in just the right place your target (even if dying) is still running loose for a while and can do damage to you.

3. Armor is worthless against muskets, and early on there were still some tribesmen equipped with armor. With a musket everyone becomes light cavalry.

I probably don't know what I am talking about in this case.

But the same thing happened with Native Americans and Africans. The bow gets discarded for rather mediocre firearms.