Osprey Publishing continues to expand its Weapon Series this time with a book dedicated to the Composite Bow by Mike Loades.

This book is broken down in a natural way with the following chapters

• Introduction
• Development
• Use
• Impact
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index

The most relevant chapters of this book are the Development and Use ones, as it covers dozens of different composite bow types and how they were used by different cultures and nations over the centuries. The use section includes details on how different ancient warriors trained –for combat- and how the bow tactics evolved over time.

In several cases the author demonstrates how to shoot and even how to build and take care of composite bows.

Mike Loades has written an impressive book with tons of information on the history and use of the composite bow. Don’t let the relatively low number of pages (80) fool you, this book is loaded with information.

Highly recommended.

I would like to thank Osprey Publishing and IPMS/USA for the review sample.