Old School Archery

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CPseudonym

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Warrior archery was a lost art once black powder weapons became mainstream. Many of the ancient manuscripts survive describing the feats of these men but the claims have been largely written off as folklore and wishful thinking by modern archers. This gentleman spent over a decade studying and practicing these old methods and has confirmed their authenticity and effectiveness.

 
Cool!
 
Wow! Just wondering How many 'takes' did he do before some of those incredible results? I'm guessing it's hundreds of hours condensed into a few minutes.

I've done a few years archery with conventional recurve bows, 'robin hoods' do happen from time to time but it's sheer dumb luck; as for hitting an incoming arrow with your own shot: ballony!

Interesting idea holding the arrows in your draw hand like the Japanese Kyudo style: but the arrow will keep on falling off the rest unless you pull with your thumb like they did in ancient Persia and Mongolia.

More Hollywood than Sheerwood!
 
Craig, I have a recurve bow in the back of the wardrobe. Sadly, the indoor range I used to go to closed when their public liability insurance co got ridiculous over the insurance premiums. I sort of put it away then, and concentrated on the boat. But when it sells, (thinking positively here), I might well feel inclined to dust it off. I'll have to join a new range club.

I did a lot of this stuff as a kid on the farm. We made our own bows and arrows, and fletched them by raiding the henhouse - literally - and for hunting, inserted a nail in the pointy end. They were pretty lethal.

Interestingly, back then, before I had proper archery gear and lessons, I also found it most natural to put the arrow round the right side of the bow, using the left (bow hand) thumb as the arrow rest, like those pictures of Oriental and Asian archers. You don't need to hold it with the drawing thumb either side actually Rusty, so holding the spare arrows in the draw hand does work quite well. You draw back with the 1st, 2nd & 3rd fingers, never the thumb.

I was pretty accurate back then, too. Found it much harder later as an adult to get the hang of using a sight. I notice that guy in the video does not use a sight, it's just instinct developed over hours and hours of practice.
 
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Peter you are not the first person to tell me that. I too as a boy with a toy recurve bow naturally fired off the right side of the bow. It was only later in life when an archery instructor told me what I was doing wrong that I started firing from the left side of the bow. It's also two eyed aiming technique as single eye aiming is only practical in slow speed modern archery. Here's another earlier video of Lahrs in action.


Rusty I'm absolutely certain there is editing involved in all videos and no where does it say a certain amount of luck is not involved. Splitting an arrow in two is a great example of that however it in no way diminishes the fact of what we see. The above video show 3 arrows shot in .6 second from a falling archer, no cheap way to edit that in IMO. And lest anyone claim CGI it hardly seems practical to use that kind of post production effects on an amateur YouTube video.
 
CPseudonym said:
Peter you are not the first person to tell me that. I too as a boy with a toy recurve bow naturally fired off the right side of the bow. It was only later in life when an archery instructor told me what I was doing wrong that I started firing from the left side of the bow. It's also two eyed aiming technique as single eye aiming is only practical in slow speed modern archery. Here's another earlier video of Lahrs in action.



Rusty I'm absolutely certain there is editing involved in all videos and no where does it say a certain amount of luck is not involved. Splitting an arrow in two is a great example of that however it in no way diminishes the fact of what we see. The above video show 3 arrows shot in .6 second from a falling archer, no cheap way to edit that in IMO. And lest anyone claim CGI it hardly seems practical to use that kind of post production effects on an amateur YouTube video.
Click to expand...

He seems to be using a very light weight bow; looking at the limbs I'm guessing about 25-30 lbs. I used to shoot a 42lbs recurve, and I believe long bows have to be even heavier to get good cast and distance: min 50lbs?

There's no doubt that he can shoot lots of arrows very quickly, but I noticed that the stated 69mtrs??? (70mtrs is the standard range) the target was made from paper and the arrows appeared to be falling into the target rather than hitting it with any force.

In fairness I suppose that it would be impossible to make a full draw at the speed he was illustrating: hence the light bow and short draw.

It's some years since I shot a bow, and eventually I found all the equipment was getting far too complex; you have to carry a large bag of accessories everywhere you go for the standard recurve bow.

.....and all the variables and adjustments, mind boggling!

I've taken up darts instead, it's a lot simpler.
There's only two sorts: fat ones and thin ones.
Long stems and short ones.
Pro quality darts: £10
Equipment fits in your pocket, and you throw the arrows at the target instead of using a bow. :socool:
 
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[B said:
Rustybarge;301789]

I've taken up darts instead, it's a lot simpler.
There's only two sorts: fat ones and thin ones.
Long stems and short ones.
Pro quality darts: £10
Equipment fits in your pocket, and you throw the arrows at the target instead of using a bow. :socool:
Click to expand...
[/B]

Plus it requires the requisite couple of pints each game.
 
Actually, Craig, without really realising it at the time, I rubbed shoulders, (kind of) with a world champion archer, called Jim Burton, who just happened to live next door to my cousin's grandmother, in li'l ol' Gisborne, NZ, where I grew up. Because of where he lived, and we knew him so well, we sort of took it with a grain of salt he was a world champion.

Even when one day we went to a shoot because my aunt and uncle had taken it up, and my auntie Jean was having trouble hitting the target, let alone getting a score. Jim was there, (apparently he started the club), saw what was happening, and he wandered over. He stood about twenty feet to her right and about ten feet forward of where she was standing, and just quietly advised her ok Jean, draw back to your cheek, aim at the target,..ok…up a bit..no…that's a bit much..down a bit…that's it…steady…release…bullseye..! Repeated several times in succession. Not kidding. She was chuffed. I was impressed, as was everyone else there that day. But he was so matter-of-fact and modest, you know - no biggie, sort of attitude.

That did get my attention. But it's only since I have done it myself, I realise how skilled that was. Then I started to see if he was really who people said he was - he was indeed - have a gecko at this link. He was a bit of a deadeye Dick, and with rifle as well.

Burton, William John – Biography – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
 
jimbob said:
kinda goes with The older i get The better I was :)
Click to expand...

Fishing tales.....:whistling:

The most amazing thing about darts is how difficult it is and how simple the concept is; it's very Zen. I've been practising for a couple of years and I can't consistently hit the 20 section after all this time.

There are no 'correct' techniques in darts like there are in Golf and tennis. The only statement about technique I can make after looking at the pro's is this: all pros lean forward a bit when throwing, so that they get an automatic 'follow through'; so if you do this it's one thing you don't have to think about.

So I suppose darts is a bit like bare bow archery, just a simple wooden bow and arrow without all the crazy gadgets: aim and shoot without a sight using your own instinct.

Anyone tried a fishing bow and arrow?
 
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