Abstract:

In this paper three flight bows (menzil), two war bows (tirkeş) and two target bows (puta) made by the author himself are tested for arrow velocity and efficiency. The testing was done with a shooting machine designed to release an arrow at the instant a desired draw length was reached. The force-draw curves for some of the tested bows are given and discussed. It is apparent that, even in the case of war and target bows braced higher then the flight bow. The bows stored a considerable amount of energy, which can easily be determined by the area under the measured force-draw curves. But, since the arrow velocity depends on the draw weight of the bow, it is difficult to compare different draw weights of the bows directly. The ratio of arrow mass in grains to the bow weight in pound is a useful factor used to make or facilitate the comparison. A grain/lb versus velocities and lengths diagram is derived for different types of Turkish bows. At the end of the paper, the experimental data’s concerning different types of Turkish bows are listed on a table. One can conclude at the level of performance that the Turkish bows are equal to the modern bows which are made of modern synthetic materials.

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