English military and medieval archery

[English Warbowman]

Several people have asked me about how to get started shooting powerful longbows and /or shooting in the medieval style. so here's some thoughts and guidelines:

Most people can shoot quite heavy draw weight bows if they WANT to. It's only a matter of doing the work which consists of learning the shooting technique and strengthening the body. It could be compared to learning how to bench press for example. You learn the technique and gradually increase the weight until you reach your goal.
All able bodied adult males and quite a number of females are more than capable of shooting a 100lb bow. It just requires the desire to do so.

If drawing a heavy weight bow is not for you but you still want to shoot in the same style then you have to look at the equipment you are using.

The bow and arrows need to be scaled down versions of what was being shot (in the 100yrs war for example.)

The bow (preferably without a handle) could be 60lbs or so but it would need to have a minimum draw length of 30" This is because the arrows would be 30"-32" long and the key to this style of shooting is to draw to the FULL length of the arrow. This allows you to draw to or past the ear which is what looks so different from many other styles of archery.
The arrows for a 60lb bow would be 11/32 in width with a self knock (no plastic knocks pleeeeze!!) and a 6"+ fletch. A bodkin type head looks the best but they can be pricey. A good substitute is to use a regular field point which has been ground down so that the end becomes conical,(perhaps Frosty could post a photo) this then gives it a slight resemblence to the Type 5 medieval target point.

If your technique is good and the equipment is sound then you should be able to send those arrows out to 200yds or more.

Various archery statutes were passed by English kings. One of the most well known being that of HenryV111 who said that 220yds was the MINIMUM distance that could be shot. This was to encourage "strong shooting". Which meant that really powerful bows had to be used to send the heavy war arrows that distance. Any sort of mark will suffice as a target. A flag (good for seeing wind direction) is what I normally shoot at.

Cheers

[Black Jack]

Excellent Keith! Very nice little synopsis of the warbow style.

John

[English Warbowman]

Thanks John
This is something we discussed last year. The words 'draw weight' can be hugely off putting for some people so maybe the info that I've posted can help somewhat.
I'd like this thread to become a bit of a Q&A section for this style of archery (if anyone's interested of course) .
There's plenty of video footage on youtube, search 'english warbow' for some superb examples. The technique is just as applicable for lighter poundage bows as well.

[Elspeth]

Hi,

"The bow (preferably without a handle) could be 60lbs or so but it would need to have a minimum draw length of 30" ....."

When you say "preferably without a handle" are you refering to the modern recurve bows having a nock to sit the arrow on, and a grip that forms to your hand, or do you mean no hand grip at all?

I'm asking because I use a "classic" bow from Turpin and it is bound with leather as a hand-grip- no probs in shooting, although haven't had 200 yards of space to practice with it in so can't comment on its long-distance accuracy...


Cheers,

~Elspeth

[crite40]

Just a minor query about the minimum draw on a warbow.
I'm 6ft tall and have, or had, a reasonable strong upper body.
Now with careful checking my optimum arrow length is 29 inches.
I have read up this point quite a lot. 2 things have to be taken into account.
1. Arrows were probably mainly one size fits all when England produced then by the million. That would make just over 30 inches a good compromise.
2. Old tales speak of "clothyard shafts". Now the medieaval "ell" or clothyard
varied all the way from 27 inches up to 48 depending on where you were.
Incidentally right up until the 20th century cloth was still available in the same widths!!!
Powerfully built but shorter Archers would probably find a 27 Inch arrow OK.
But so often people seem to think that arrows were literally 36 inches long!
The extra weight might increase the hitting power but it wouldn't do much for long range shooting.
Personally I would imagine that "standard" arrows would be produced at about the 30/31 inch size as a good compromise.

[Frosty]

[English Warbowman]

It's just that there is no reference to handle bindings on medieval bows.

A person's drawlength has no bearing on this type of archery. It's only relevent for target/field archery. I'm 5'11 and draw 32" arrows to their full length. Frosty is shorter and lighter than me and does the same drawlength with a 100lb bow. The Mary Rose arrows which are what we use for reference average around 30.5".
A couple of weeks ago I shot a 120g arrow 190yds and sent a 65g arrow 230yds these are the sort of distances we are trying to surpass . The whole concept of military archery is to send the big, heavy armour penetrating arrows as far as possible.

Have a look at the English Warbow Society website for all the arrow specs that we shoot.

Cheers