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Warbow speed shooting

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CraigMBeckett:
Hi Erik,


--- Quote ---How did they measure a minute when clocks did not measure anything beyond the twelve divisions of the hour ?
--- End quote ---

A very good question! I have just done a quick search on the word minute, it seems that its first known use in English (middle English actually) was in 14th Century, (or so states merriam-webster in their online dictionary), so it cannot have been used in "the 1415 exchequers 2nd quarter financial records regarding the Duke of York's men after the siege of Harfleur" as stated.

I have heard/read of this claim concerning 10 shots a minute, usually quoted in the same terms as used by Bumppo probably from the same source but have not seen the actual text that it is based on. It would be interesting to read what was actually written.

Craig

adb:
Perhaps a Sargeant or Captain of Archers just simply counted to 50, 60, or maybe 100, and all those who could loose a standard number of arrows was accepted. Or maybe an archer of known standard was used, and all those who could not match his pace were rejected. No, I don't think they had any sort of time piece that could provide seconds or minutes during medieval times, and I'm sure it was not important.

CraigMBeckett:
adb,

Of course that would be the way it was done at all to any form of time, I would suggest that if it were done it would more likely have been done by the tester knowing, from long practice, how fast the arrows should be released and assessing against this.

Craig.

adb:
Exactly what I was thinking. Seems counter-productive and distracting to be arguing about grammar and periods of recorded time from the original post. JMHO.

backgardenbowyer:
I've read Juliet Barker's book on Agincourt which is very good indeed, but she makes a number of linguistic mistakes and anachronisms when talking about archery (eg. "firing" arrows) and she should be read as a historian not an authority on archery.  She is brilliant at describing the politics of the period.

I doubt if there was a fixed understanding of a "minute" in the middle ages - even the "hour" wasn't normally fixed in length being merely one 12th of the time between dawn and dusk.  It would have been possible to measure short periods of time using sand glasses or by running water from a vessel, but I really can't imagine that there was a standardised speed shooting test.  Maybe master archers or whatever they called sergeant majors in those days just had their own standards for what they thought acceptable shooting. 

I've shot at speed in a line of archers many times.  I can tell you that being in a tightly packed line slows things down a lot.  I can shoot 11 arrows a minute on my own but I doubt it is much more than 8 when shooting in the line and the faster you go the shorter your draw gets! (I'm left handed which makes it even harder in the line).   Similarly when I used to shoot muzzle loading rifles we occasionally had timed shoots - 4 rounds a minute is possible, but we normally had a table to load from.  In the confusion of combat 3 rounds a minute would be pretty good - and this was the military standard.

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