The basic idea of archery — harnessing the energy in bent bow limbs to propel a projectile — hasn’t changed in thousands of years. While the principle hasn’t changed, the equipment has improved immensely.

Bow hunting remains a very challenging sport, but here are the eight notable developments that have made it a lot easier than it used to be:

Laser rangefinders

Though marketed mostly to estimate extreme range for accurate rifle shots, laser rangefinders are actually more valuable to archery hunters.

If a rifle hunter underestimates his shooting range by 10 yards, it scarcely affects the rifle shot. If a bow hunter underestimates the range by 10 yards, it can mean the difference in a hit or miss or, worse, a poorly placed arrow.

Arrow shafts other than wood

Modern hunting arrows are most often constructed of aluminum or carbon fibers.

Modern material produces perfectly straight shafts of uniform weights and strong, resilient spines that are free of defects. The result is a more accurate and safer arrow.

Scent-control agents

A white-tailed deer has a nose equal to a bloodhound’s. At bow range, even on a very still day, the hunter’s scent oozes away from his stand like water dissipating from a leaky water line. Archery hunters use a variety of odor-neutralizing chemicals to erase their scent. Many bow hunters wear rubber boots and special scent-blocker camouflage that includes a layer of carbon fibers to absorb the archer’s odor.

Better camouflage

Archery hunters get very close to their game. Forty yards is considered an extreme shot, and most archers are hoping for a shot of about 20 yards.

Bow hunters are sticklers for camouflage, including face masks or camouflage makeup or both. Modern camouflage patterns allow the hunter to blend in with any background.

Better blinds

More than 90 percent of white-tailed deer taken by bow hunters are shot from a blind. In areas with suitable trees, climbing tree stands allow an elevated stand to be quickly erected in a suitable hunting spot.

Where trees are not an option, hunters conceal themselves in ground blinds, including blinds that have shoot-through mesh windows. You can carefully draw the bow without being seen, then shoot through the mesh window. The arrow passes right through it without affecting arrow flight.

Sights for bows

Early archers shot instinctively, meaning they practiced so much that they instinctively knew where to aim to hit their target at various ranges.

With bow sights, aiming pins can be set to strike the target at 10, 20, 30, 40 yards or farther. Assuming the bow hunter knows that it’s 20 yards to a deer, he draws his bow, looks through a peep sight mounted to his string and places the 20-yard sight pin on the deer.

Mechanical releases

Bowstrings have traditionally been drawn using three fingers on the string. Perfect finger release of the string is a difficult exercise that frequently results in string torque, which affects arrow flight.

The mechanical release offers two advantages. One is a near-perfect string release by pressing a button or trigger. The second advantage is that the archer can grip the mechanical release with his palm, providing a little extra advantage when drawing a powerful hunting bow.

Compound bows

Some traditional bow hunters still cling to the longbow or the recurve bow, but the vast majority of archery hunters are using compound bows, which are smaller, yet more powerful. Simply put, a compound bow uses a pulley system to produce mechanical advantage.

Once the compound bow is drawn to a certain point, the mechanical advantage creates “let-off” of as much as 80 percent.

That means you pull a 50-pound draw weight, but you’re holding only 10 pounds of force at full draw.

That’s an important consideration when you draw and a deer suddenly becomes alert or turns to present a bad shot angle.