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A long bow typically made from the wood of the ka-la-na tree or sometimes of temwood. Unstrung it is over six feet in length, and can require a pull of up to 120 lbs, depending upon the strength of the user. The bowstring itself is usually made of hemp or sinew lashed with silk thread. Armed with such a weapon, a highly skilled archer can accurately strike a target the size of a man's head at distances of up to 100 yards, and by arcing his line of fire upward to allow for gravity can fire a shaft into a ten foot diameter circle at up to 300 yards. The arrows of such a bow are temwood, metal-piled and fletched with the feathers of the vosk gull. Each such arrow is approximately three feet in length, and can be tipped with several different types of arrowheads; of these, the flight tip (a long narrow three-sided metal spike designed for extreme penetration) and the sheaf tip (a wide double or triple edged blade designed to inflict maximum tissue damage upon impact) are the most common. Special arrowheads such as ones fitted with whistles or noisemakers for signalling or reservoirs for inflammable liquids are not unknown. It is commonly carried slung or strapped over the shoulder of the archer when not in use, and is accompanied by a belt or shoulder quiver containing forty (or more) shafts. Its use requires the archer to wear a bracer of thick leather upon the forearm of his bowarm, and to utilize a special archer's glove or leather finger tab to protect his hands and arm from friction caused by the motion of the string when fired. It is a difficult weapon to master, though despite that fact it is widely used by both many members of the Caste of Peasants, and the rencers of the Vosk Delta. This weapon makes its first appearance in book #1, Tarnsman of Gor, and appears regularly thereafter. |
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