Science Forums 2

[Turtle]

___Excellent point Infamous; may I expound?
___A bow is a good idea for several reasons beyond the hunting you mention. First of course is defense, & in the vein of survival, if you have stuff & others don't, they will attack you for it. Further, with a bow, you can make more arrows from sticks & stones, & in fact make a suitable bow from found wood.
___Firearms have their advantages & disadvantages. Over a long term, you will run out of ammunition & its unlikely you could make your own, but in terms of defence, firearms are rather more powerfull in both range, rapidity of fire, & effective stopping power. In addition, the weight of ammunition is rather high compared to arrows. Moreover, firearms require oil to stay in good operating condition, & in the long haul situation this will run out too.
___I gave away my last bow (a 30lb target recurved jobby) because it was a right hand bow & when I blinded my right eye, I could no longer aim it properly. While I adapt to rifles by shooting lefthanded, this is not easily done with bows due to their construction.
I have found that with pistols, I have about equal facility with either hand, the biggest problem being with automatic pistols fired left-handed throwing ejected casings across my field of view & spattering my face with powder residue from the open receiver.
___All in all, the bow is an excellent addition to any survival wagon; good call.