Bow and arrow



The bow and arrow is a projectile weapon (a with ) that predates recorded history and is common to most cultures. is the art, practice, or skill of applying it. Katniss Everdeen uses a bow to hunt for food and it becomes her weapon of choice in the arena. Gale Hawthorne is also a skilled archer, which he learned from Katniss, who learned from her father.

Design
The bow is a flexible arc with the ends tightly connected by catgut or a linen string coated in beeswax. Bows may be made of wood (usually or ),, s, and  components.

A bow's power is referred to as its draw strength, which is measured by the pounds of pressure it takes to pull the draw string to the anchor point from where the arrow is fired. The arrows are straight pieces of wood, plastic or light metal. The arrowheads are tipped with sharp bits of metal or stone. The arrows' ends are with goose feathers or plastic to help keep them straight in flight. They are stored in a container called which the archer wears over either shoulder.

The three major bow varieties are, , and s. Compound bows use pulleys to lessen the necessary strength of the user. Recurve bows get their power by having two forward curving arcs that come together in the center. Longbows are the plainest, having a mostly straight, but very long body. They require the most draw power of the three types. Katniss likely uses a recurve bow because it provides ample power without being too long to easily move throughout the forest. In The Hunger Games film she is also depicted using a leather shooting glove.

The Hunger Games


The bow was favored by Katniss in the 74th Hunger Games. Her father had made several bows of wood and one for her before he died, but when she got older she used one of his larger bows. Eventually she ended up giving Gale Hawthorne one of her father's bows.

Katniss did not use the archery station during the three days that she had to practice in the Training Center on Haymitch Abernathy's advice to keep her archery skills a secret from the other tributes, saving this for her private session with the Gamemakers. She missed the dummy because the bow she was using had a tighter pull and she had to adjust to it first. However after this miss the Gamemakers essentially ignored her as they had gotten tired after watching the 23 other tributes perform. Despite putting on an impressive performance after getting the hang of the bow, this still failed to grab their attention. Out of frustration, Katniss caught the Gamemakers by surprise by shooting an apple out of the mouth of a that had been brought in for them to dine on before abruptly walking out. This audacity earned her an 11 training score, the highest of all the tributes.

Only one bow and quiver identical to that in the Training Center was supplied at the Cornucopia. When Katniss saw these she considered making a run for them despite Haymitch's advice to get away from the Cornucopia and avoid the bloodbath. It took Peeta Mellark's dissuasion to prevent her from doing so and the bow and arrows were acquired by Glimmer, who also favored them, but lacked Katniss' level of skill. After Glimmer was stung to death by the tracker jackers, Katniss was able to recover her bow and arrows despite the hallucinations she was experiencing from the tracker jacker venom.

Catching Fire
In the 75th Hunger Games numerous bows and quivers were supplied at the Cornucopia. When Katniss obtained her bow she briefly faced off against Finnick Odair, who was poised to attack her with his trident, before they quickly became allies. Katniss fired and missed at Enobaria, but hit Gloss in the calf. Brutus deflected her first arrow with his flotation belt and submerged himself before she could fire a second shot.

Mockingjay
After Katniss joins the rebellion Beetee designs a special military-grade bow for her in District 13. It is highly advanced, specifically crafted to fit her, and uses explosive and incendiary arrows alongside regular ones. Beetee designed it to look showy on the outside, but used the inside to make it a deadly weapon, disguised as a sleek bow.