Archive for Archers Rest Archers rest is a new place for archers of all kinds to come and have a natter about anything archery or anything else, please feel free to browse the forums and join in the fun, go on sign up today, you know you want to :-)          Archers Rest Forum Index -> Historical Archery nick1346 English Warbows Hi All, As you can probably see from my website my interest is in the old English Warbow, its strengths and it failings.....and beer Are there any other people out there shooting similar, or does anyone have any questions you'd like to ask? Great forum Nick segolden Heh, bunch of those on here, bro. TimS and Robin Hood among others, and I'm hoping to pick one up fairly soon. Feel free to contribute whatever you know. nick1346 Oh don't tempt me, I'm like an old woman talking about the war! So do you blokes pratice 'shooting in the bow'? segolden Since I don't have the opportunity as yet, hopefully someone will contribute more, nick. We await their replies. fred war bows Nick I make and sell longbows cannot hit the side of a barn with one.I make medieval arrows use ash poc oak and any wood asked use Hector Cole heads.There is a lot of c**p talked about longbows but if you have not got it Buy THE GREAT WARBOW By Robert Hardy-Matthew Strickland this is a must.Which Medieval clan are you in.I may be at Tewkesbury this year. Fred nick1346 Hi Fred, I'm going to make my first bow soon, a laminated warbow under the instruction of Steve Stratton. Steve thinks I should be able to a 125lber out of it so I'll be happy Have you got any pictures of your bows and arras? The great warbow is a good book indeed always close to hand when writing for my website. I don't know if I'll be at Tewsbury but I shall be at HErstmonceux, we may even be doing a demonstration there! Cheers Nick segolden Just out of curiosity, nick, how long have you been at this, and how long did it take to be able to pull that poundage? nick1346 Oh I've been shooting about 4 ish years. I started with a 48lb bow and it took a year to work up to a 100lb bow. I'm now comfortable with 120lb for all day shooting. The thing is most people think you have to be some kind of body building loon to able to shoot heavy bows. In our experience big muscles don't work, its about two things, tendonal strength and good technique. The method of shooting in the bow is very open and contary to most myths about warbows is not harmfull to your back. When shooting in the 'traditional' manner the load of the bow is spread over too few muscle groups, when you get into the bow you spread that across your back, chest, arms, the whole body comes into play and it feels alive! Told you I bang on a bit! madhatter Is it correct that you wheel your balls round in a barrow. nick1346 Funnily enough, yes. fred 8 Mouths ago I made a selfyew 130POUNDS For a customer it took 2 to tiller it. The bloke came to collect it he strung it and tried it like it was a 20 bow Fred madhatter I assume you called him Sir? fred I did not call him KONG FRED nick1346 Nice one Fred! Who was that, you can always pm me. And honestly Madhatter it aint no macho thing, just technique. Archery is about fun not one upmanship. madhatter Unfortunately [or fortunately] I will never be able to pull a bow of that draw weight. No matter if I had got the technique correct. nick1346 No one has to do anything, all forms of archery are legitimate (so long as it's safe and legal). I shoot my bows because thats what I enjoy, a target compound shooter enjoys his sport, and I wouldn't criticise his technique or encourage him to take up mine. You do whats right for you and right for the type of archery you do. Now I shoot three stlyes of shooting, roving mark, distance shooting (with heavy arrows not much flight) and field. My bows and style allow me to do all three. madhatter So long as your happy doing what you like...that's fair enough for me. I cant stand people who will criticise what others like to do. I used to get people telling me that I should not be shooting a 32lb recurve and shooting H/T......they were advised to go away **** *** that was what I enjoyed, in fact I still have the bow and every time I use it, I have a smile on my face. [there again some say I am simple] fred nick1346 wrote: Nice one Fred! Who was that, you can always pm me. And honestly Madhatter it aint no macho thing, just technique. Archery is about fun not one upmanship. Sorry Nick I never give imformation about customers I tell people what I have sold but customers names are private. Nick I hope you do not think I am being funny but it the way I do business. Fred nick1346 fred wrote: nick1346 wrote: Nice one Fred! Who was that, you can always pm me. And honestly Madhatter it aint no macho thing, just technique. Archery is about fun not one upmanship. Sorry Nick I never give imformation about customers I tell people what I have sold but customers names are private. Nick I hope you do not think I am being funny but it the way I do business. Fred No worries Fred, in fact I thought that as soon as I posted it, a case of me as usual not thinking things through! nick1346 madhatter wrote: So long as your happy doing what you like...that's fair enough for me. I cant stand people who will criticise what others like to do. I used to get people telling me that I should not be shooting a 32lb recurve and shooting H/T......they were advised to go away **** *** that was what I enjoyed, in fact I still have the bow and every time I use it, I have a smile on my face. [there again some say I am simple] It is annoying isn't it! I used to get a lot of stick at our local club, but now people have realised that I'm not that bad And just for the record I'll happily shoot with anyone, (so long as it isn't long winded target archery, just not my bag!) fred war bow If you can shoot it safe shoot it watch your shoulders. Fred segolden Didn't somebody do a study of a Medieval yeoman's bone structure a while back? Seem to remember they found interesting deformations and structural adaptations in this guy's skeletal structure, caused by a lifetime of pulling heavy bows. Might be interesting to find out what effects it produces. madhatter I couldn't get along with my Longbow, to much pain around my neck. nick1346 segolden wrote: Didn't somebody do a study of a Medieval yeoman's bone structure a while back? Seem to remember they found interesting deformations and structural adaptations in this guy's skeletal structure, caused by a lifetime of pulling heavy bows. Might be interesting to find out what effects it produces. Its the same as someone who climbs a ladder everyday, he'll get really big calf muscles and if where to do it from being a child he'd develop thick dense leg bones! Excercise the the body at it will adapt! From my own experience it has affect my over all body structure, just made me a bit stronger, if I trained everyday then I would expect some changes. But then I'm 35 so I suppose my bones have stopped developing! A friend of mine had a problem with his shoulder last year which was caused from a motorbike accident, when visiting the physio he expected to be told 'stop pulling pulling warbows its dangerous!'. But the physio actually thought it was a good thing to be doing! Although I think its a case of staying within or close to your limits, bodies are easily damaged, especially if you try to run before you can walk. It was known in the middle ages that longtime veteran archers where proud of their caloused hands and asymetrical body frame, they wore it as a badge of honour if you like. I would love to talk to a specialist one of these days about it all, very interesting. Glennan_Carnie segolden wrote: Didn't somebody do a study of a Medieval yeoman's bone structure a while back? Seem to remember they found interesting deformations and structural adaptations in this guy's skeletal structure, caused by a lifetime of pulling heavy bows. Might be interesting to find out what effects it produces. Interesting that so many people (present company excepted) seem to equate 'structural deformation' with 'crippled'. Just about any activity done to an extreme will cause deformation of your skeletal structure. It certainly does in tennis players - but no-one considers top-class tennis players to be crippled! Even sitting on the sofa watching TV will deform your skeleton. You'll probably find that the mere act of shooting in a bow will deform your structure to a certain extent. It's just more noticable on the MR archers 1) Because they're dead and we can see their skeletons 2) They started so young and shot such heavy (by today's standards) bows segolden Heh, I doubt if anybody who got into a spat with a Yeoman of that era would've called him crippled, at least after he was dragged off black, blue and bloodied. Darned if I would today, either, as I have enough dental work to be done as it is!        Archers Rest Forum Index -> Historical Archery Page 1 of 1