His eyes are peeled, his bow is taut and his razor-sharp arrowhead is ready to pierce the heart, liver or lungs of any roebuck that comes by. “Deep down, I know I still have a real predator’s instinct,” said Michel Legoux as he perched in a makeshift platform in an oak tree in Le Roncey forest near Flins-sur-Seine, north of Paris.

A bespectacled, balding pensioner — he retired from an office job in a car insurance company last year — Mr Legoux does not look like a prehistoric hunter but he is among a growing number of Europeans who have taken to stalking prey with bows and arrows — a weapon that may have been first used about 12,000 years ago.

“I guess we want to get back towards a primitive state,” he said. “When you rub up against wildness, all your senses are finer. You have better hearing, better sight and even a better sense of smell.”

The movement arrived in Europe from the US in the 1970s and has taken off in the past decade, notably in France, where the Government has sought to regulate the practice through the introduction of a bow hunting licence. More than 15,000 French people have obtained the licence — up from a few hundred in the 1990s — and about 5,000 are regular practitioners of la chasse à l’arc, which has also gained in popularity in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Scandinavia. Deer, boar, rabbits, hares, pheasants and coypu are among the prey.

A spokesman for the French Bowhunting Federation said that the pursuit was gaining ground because it offered an alternative to a technological society. “A hundred hours alone, concentrating on hunting a roebuck or a wild boar, has a different impact on you than 100 hours in front of a television”.

The spokesman said that the rise of bowhunting enabled the country’s archers to claim an unprecedented superiority over their British counterparts, who shoot at targets but not at game. “We’ve looked up to British archers ever since Agincourt,” he said. “But we’re probably better than you now.”

Bowhunting is fiercely controversial, with detractors denouncing it as barbaric. They say that animals hit by an arrow often bleed to death slowly and endure far more suffering than those shot from a rifle. “That’s why we make enormous efforts to ensure that bowhunters respect the rules,” Mr Legoux said. “We get very close to the animals before we shoot and we wait until they are stationary. If they are moving, there’s more chance that they will be injured and not killed outright.

“We shoot to kill and only to kill. And we do everything possible to find the animals as quickly as possible to end their suffering.” He said that a roebuck or boar managed to run an average of 80m (260ft) after being hit by an arrow, “and 80m means only about 10 seconds”. Bowhunters also point out that they rarely hit anything. Mr Legoux will be happy if he brings home a couple of roebuck during the whole hunting season. A boar would be a triumph.

“Killing is the object and it doesn’t worry me — I guess it’s in my nature,” the 60-year-old said. “But if I don’t kill anything, it’s not important. I’ll have had a good time anyway.” In the 180ha of dense woodland used by the hunters in Roncey forest, he often crouches near scrub or low branches in a US Army camouflage cape. Sometimes he climbs on to his tree platform, where he has made himself a small seat; on other occasions he hides behind green and brown netting next to a path used by roebuck and boar.

His favoured weapon is the E1000, a 58in wooden bow — called a Black Widow — that fires arrows at up to 60km/h (37mph).

“I’ve spent so much time stalking them here that I’ve become very familiar with them,” he said. “There’s one doe — I wouldn’t say it’s my friend — but I know it very well.” That, however, is unlikely to stop him from killing it if he can. “After all,” he said, “that’s the aim of hunting.”

INTO THE BREACH

— The English Army had approximately 5,000 archers at Agincourt, and a stock of about 400,000 arrows

— With each archer capable of shooting about ten arrows a minute, the ammunition would last only about eight minutes. However, such firepower would have been devastating. More than 800 arrows a second would have rained on the French cavalry, killing or wounding hundreds

— The V-sign is seen as a gesture of English defiance, originating in the archers of the 100 Years War. It is widely believed — although not supported by historians — that it was a means of telling your opponent that you still had two fingers and could draw a bow

Sources: Physics Review 1995, Times research

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