Warbow

[Leganoth]

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=WB009&name=Warbow

Just ordered this, anyone have something similar or this exact bow?

[Lord Dane]

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=WB009&name=Warbow

Just ordered this, anyone have something similar or this exact bow?

I have a similar Longbow with a draw weight of 45-50lbs. It's made of solid hickory wood though. Red Oak w/ linen was my last bow & I snapped it in 2. Oops. Not so strong as other materials.  If you want a solid bow, I'd get a yew bow or hickory wood. Most durable & reliable.

[Thorsteinn]

Are you going to work your way up for a good ol' English Warbow?

You can go from 50lbs to 150lbs draw weight in 2 years IIRC.

[Sir Edward]

In that draw-weight range, you might also look at http://woodbows.com/, as they have pretty reasonable prices.

[Lord Dane]

Are you going to work your way up for a good ol' English Warbow?

You can go from 50lbs to 150lbs draw weight in 2 years IIRC.

If I shot it that much....perhaps. I'm not so dedicated to my archery skills but I will focus more time.

[Sir Wolf]

red oak and other open pore wood are not very good for bows. at least unbacked that is. i have white ash from england i think.... can't remember. the best is yew, but yew does not do so well in american humidity

[Ian]

Start getting serious about your bent-over dumbell rows and weighted pull-ups! 

[Lord Dane]

About as serious as my morning coffee chugs & donut dunks??? 

[Leganoth]

well hopefully it wont snap in 2!, even if it does the website said if it breaks they will replace free of charge! i can pull a 50 pound back pretty easily, i have a 45-50 compound bow, but I wanted to go traditional

[Sir Edward]

well hopefully it wont snap in 2!, even if it does the website said if it breaks they will replace free of charge! i can pull a 50 pound back pretty easily, i have a 45-50 compound bow, but I wanted to go traditional

I'm assuming you already know this, but a traditional bow will feel a little heavier than a compound bow (for the same draw weight), since it doesn't give you that mechanical advantage to relax a bit when it's pulled. But it's worth saying, for folks who are new to the subject.

[Sir William]

well hopefully it wont snap in 2!, even if it does the website said if it breaks they will replace free of charge! i can pull a 50 pound back pretty easily, i have a 45-50 compound bow, but I wanted to go traditional

A compound bow with a draw weight of 50lbs is going to be a good bit easier than a simple longbow. The compound bow has a levering system which aids in the draw- you'll not have that luxury in a longbow.

Bent over rows with dumbbells and weighted pullups will help with drawing.  Imagine you're half hanging off of a ledge with a 50lb weight attached to your arm- pull and release, pull and release and you're mimicking the movement of drawing and releasing an arrow.  Longbowmen of the medieval age are purported to have had as much as 200lbs of pressure when drawing an English yew longbow (conservative estimates put it at ~150lbs for the average longbow) - like pulling up a full grown man from that ledge with one arm, each time you draw the bow.  I cannot, as of yet, do that.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, longbow archers from the time, using bows in the weight range of 150 to 200lbs, typically had to practice for about 2 hours a day to keep up their strength and accuracy. Skeletons recovered from the Mary Rose, a ship that sank with a compliment of archers on it, shows that many of the archers had fused bones in their backs, from all that longbow usage.

If you're going to shoot casually, 50 lbs sounds great. At 150 lbs and more, you need to be serious about being an archer.

[Sir William]

You'll look like something out of Muscle Beach, according to the studies on those archer skeletons...the fused bones they found were that way to facilitate the large muscle mass required to be able to pull a bow of that power 10-12 times a minute.  I've heard of some who practice this profession and they're not small men.  Its like an entire body workout from what I've read.

[Thorsteinn]

 

[Sir Edward]

Here are parts 2 & 3 of the show, and it's in part 3 that they mention the Mary Rose wreck: