Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
what lbs makes it a warbow insted of a longbow
triton:
--- Quote from: Loki on March 25, 2009, 05:00:43 pm ---I shot a MR replica arrow from my 75# Bow and it only travelled about 80yds ;D.
--- End quote ---
And I bet you could have ran along side it ;D
AD:
I also find this interesting, in that there differeing views and I am unable to make up my mind. I just found Bickerstaffe's 'Medieval War Bows' book, flicked through it and it looks like he came to different conclusions in various areas:
Archers were expected to shoot 240 yards, but how was it measured? By a man's pace or about 30 inches. 240 paces would be about 200 yards.
Goose feathers are not large enough to be made into 7.5inch triangular fletchings, it's likely they were shaped into swineback/hogsback, which enable an arrow to fly further.
His examination of the MR bows he found to be in support of his approximate 100lb @ 30inch standard bow.
He write that bows he made of Italian yew around 85lb @30 when drawn to 31.5 can reach the necessary distances.
Then there is the hemp/linen bowstring practical limitations, and the standardisation of thousands of pieces of equipment as previously mentioned.
I think that's a fair summary.
I'm not arguing, just reckon more evidence is needed for firm conclusions about medieval war bow weights.
Regards
triton:
as has been illustrated in a couple of comments above, it's an easy experiment to try yourself.
The nearest I've found to Aspen is yellow poplar (tulipwood) or Lombardi poplar. make a half inch shaft with horn reinforcement 2" long and fit a heavy war bodkin. taper the shaft from 3/8" from the nock until you get the desired balance point, just fore of the centre. I have goose feathers here that are 9 1/2" long, plenty long enough to make 7 1/2" triangular cut fletchings, I prefer to follow the grease line so they come out swine or hogs back.
Now go out and shoot it. does it appear slow enough for you to run alongside?
can you hit the modern clout distance of 180 Yards? If you can clear 220 yards then there can be no doubt you would have made muster.
If not, then why not? is it your technique? is your bow of the requisite draw weight to get the arrow there?
I have an 80LB bow here that when I shot an Ash shaft at a 50 gallon oil drum, the arrow merely bounced off. the same arrow pierced the crimped end of the drum (bum shot). remember that is a double crimp, 6 thicknesses) but I was using a 110LB bow from the same distance 30 yards.
When I was training into becoming a computer network engineer, a lecturer was commenting on Norton security products "there are them that can and there are them that write books" at that time, it seemed Norton were producing as many books as there were new security threats ;)
stevesjem:
Well pointed out Mike, there are those that do and then those that write books, I will refrain from commenting on what is written in that "warbow" book,quite simply because I know the truth about these none existant experiments, I was there!
But nevertheless triton is right, make up a replica arrow and see what weight bow it takes to get it 220yds not 240.
This distance is the recognized distance between the 2 butts.
So far here in the uk only a handfull of archers have managed a military weight arrow over 220yds. And all the bows were well over 120lb and only 4 people have managed this same arrow over 240yds and these bows were 140+lbs, so this fact alone should show you that an 85lb bow has no chance at all, Italian yew or not.
Just think about it, you may start to see some contradictions in books by the same author.
Cheers
Steve
Rod:
Chris,
Ain't that the truth. Just goes to show that we should double check our sources before committing it to print.
Steve,
It would perhaps be interesting to see the head weight and %FOC included in any description of arrows as regards achieving distance.
Rod.
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