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Standarts of accuracy

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Len:
I've come in a bit late on this topic I know but the comment was made that maille (chain-mail ) was the main form of armour at Crecy when in fact by the 1340's plate armour was well established, though not anywhere as advanced as seen by the end of the 14th C. A typical well off man-at-arms at Crecy would have worn maille from head to foot and over this he would wear a coat-of-plates and plate made of iron or hardened leather on his legs and arms. The armour worn from the 1340's to 1370 was probably the heaviest (for wieght) worn at any stage in the middle ages and would have taken a decent shot from a arrow to penatrate.By 1400 the plate was so advanced that the maille had shrunk to T-shirt size.

sagitarius boemoru:
That is off course a rig of a wealthy noble. And plate by 1340 where its really only aditionall protection over chainmail and by 1420´ where its more or less main armour is somehow different.

Though I would not like this to be debate of armour piercing.
You cannot pierce what you cannot hit.

J.

Rod:
When I first suggested this to Jaro it was so that standards of accuracy could be assessed without bias. This means recording a score and finding out your actual average in hard numbers.
Anything else is open to question and reorts tend to be anecdotal.
BTW we have the site of some butts just down the road here at Silk Willoughby hard by the old moot ground, and they are not all that big, considering that they would most likely have been shot from around 12 score  paces.
Trouble is the heavy bow guys go all defensive and not interested when you talk of keeping scores.
Don't be faint hearted, shoot 6 dozen on a 48" face at 100 and report your scores.
They can only get better if you practice.
Where do you think target archery came from in the first place...?
Rod.

sagitarius boemoru:
I somehow tend to think these bows are easier to shoot in some sort of clout shooting - but as I wrote at begining of the thread and Rod clears it up - we should record our scores and post a chart so we can keep a track what is possible with these bows and what not.

Jaro

Rod:
That kinds of leads onto an interesting question about shooting style and aiming. The fact is that with a long shaft and especially with a very high draw weight your chances of getting the shaft beneath your eye are very limited which makes very accurate alignment more problematic.
True there are enough images of menshooting with what we might call more of a bowhunters anchor, but that would tend to cut down on your maximum cast.
Given that, so far as I am aware, none of the heavy bow shooters are what I might call competitive in open competition at either instinctive field , clout or target shooting, I reckon any of the present heavy bow shooters would be doing well to make more than 50% hits on a 48" target face at 100 yards.
Before anyone gets up in arms about this statement, it is based upon knowledge of target shooting performance and if you haven't done this, it might be usefulto go out and record some scores before voicing an opinion.
True enough, Mark has won at Herstmonceaux often enough, but the shoot at Herstmonceaux has not until recently been shot by anyone who would be considered a contender at national levels in any discipline, until Dennis Alston turned out in costume. This is not to belittle Mark's achievements, we are acquainted and I like the man, but I have only seen him in open competition once, back in November 200 at Long Eaton and all I can say is that he would probably shoot better scores with a lighter bow, but then that is usually true of anyone who is pushing their comfortable draw weight.
To be honest I only know one heavy bow shooter who is considered competitive in NFAS competition and he shoots about 70lb for such events.
At the end of the day, you have to start somewhere, and I don't think it matters that scores will be relatively low at first.
You need to set a standard to build upon with the heavy bow.
But how many can shoot 60 consecutive arrows with control? This is how you will find out I guess.
I do not think that anecdotal reports of what so and so did are sufficient. These can always be called into question, but an honestly recorded score shot in public gives you an average figure that does not decieve.
Heaven knows, there are enough competitive who will tell you what scoes they can shoot, but never seem to do so in open competition.
So come on heavy bow men, swallow your pride and lets see some recorded scores.
I will be pleasantly surprised if any of you break 50% hits at 100 yards, which is pretty much the yardstick of success for a run of the mill longbow target shooter.
Rod.

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