Poisons are used on Kenyan battle arrows. Accomplished runner Wesley Gnetich died from a poison arrow to the chest in Kenya earlier this year. How extensively this enhancement is utilized, don't know.



Using camouflage or earth-toned colors would be of little use on such open ground where a man-sized, quickly moving target will be easily spotted regardless of the colors he wears, no?



Haven't been to Kenya, but the vegetation shown in the pics suggests cost-benefit ratios to favor short bows made from small-diameter stock. Like, it takes several days of searching to find a stave fit for a long bow, whereas a 40-incher can be quickly made anywhere. Long arrows needed for the long bows compound the issue when making arrows out of open-ground bushes, where 20" shafts may abound while 30-inchers are a rare find. Short bows vs. long bows revisited. Short native bows are used for self-defence in many African cities. The guys in the pics may well be men who need to be able to carry a bow with them anywhere, unobtrusively. A bit hard with a 72-incher. Have never made full-speed downhill running shots myself but intuitively it seems to me that it's much easier with a short bow and a short draw than otherwise. Typical short draw shots are also quite a bit faster than typical long draw shots, a decided advantage in combat.



Prairie Man,



having shot very short selfbows and arrows at distances up to 60 yards extensively, I find your comparison of them to snowballs quite amusing. When armed with sharp broadheads of succifient mass (as African arrows typically are), those puny stick shorties and unfletched twigs will kill a man dead at considerable distance. Neither accuracy nor penetration is near as bad as many seem to think.



Tuukka