for the past 4 decades when most americans think of bow hunting... they think of someone up in a tree stand
using a compound bow..... . but thanks to hollywood and recent historical movies featuring longbows, many
people have taken up traditonal archery.... mostly with a modern recurve.. .but some are trying their hand
with the time honored longbow.... or american flatbow which is sometimes called a longbow.... and they are
also hunting with them... some of those hunters are having a remarkable and rewarding success..
... but whether it;s a recurve... flatbow... or historic and certified to proper dimensions longbow.. the principles
for shooting a bow in the classic and instinctive style are the same... the video below shows kevin hicks, the only
other person i know of in my dads age group, who shoots a longbow in the same poundage range that he does...
and the style he uses in this video is exactly the same as my dad taught me.... and the same style i teach to my
archery students... . and though all but one of our bows are made of african hardwoods rather than yew, the way
we care for them is the same also.... the arrows though are amost identical to the ones my dad taught me to make
and that we both use... with various weights and spine strengths depending on how heavy the draw weight of the
bow is... .. and the draw length of the archer is......
. was alerted to this video by a friend in japan... who thought it was a member of my family... ...and wanted to know when he grew a goatee...???? ...the family
member in question saw it and said "why didn;t she ask when i got fat?".... had to admit otherwise the resemblance was close.... must be the effect of heavy war bows
and the principle of form.. (and body shape)... following function....
. ..(edit... though the person she thought it was does wear blue jeans all the time... he would never wear a t-shirt like that...with pictures or writing on it... ................. ...... a long sleeve safari style shirt.. buttoned up and tucked in ..is his usual style... . even on the archery range.. except for the rare occasions he wears a dark red t-shirt with the sleeves removed.... .)
and shown below is he real person she mistakenly thought was in the video....
. you actually can.... we don;t hunt birds in the air ourselves but we know people who do..... ..they make their own bird arrows by drilling 2 holes.. each big enough to thread 2 strands of weed eater line through.. 1/4 inch apart... perpendicular to each other, in the distal end of an arrow shaft.... then thread the lines through the holes in clover leaf pattern... ..once they have the lines spread to the size pattern they want they seal the end of the shaft with hot glue around the wire holes and then when that is cooled off they pack a build up of wax around that part of the shaft to give the end of the arrow some weight ..... ..... .... the idea is to snare the wings of the bird in flight and bring it down.... but sometimes they say it will also kill a bird..... generally each arrow prepared that way is good for bringing down one bird then it has to be reworked and rewaxed...... ..
(i never shot at birds.... but i made a couple of arrows like this once thinking we might shoot down a drone that was hovering around us at the range one day... ...but older wiser people with cooler heads convinced me it was a bad idea)........ ..
of course if you didn;t want to go that much trouble of making our own bird arrows.... you can also buy bird snare type arrow points made of metal... ..... ..they are kinda pricey for each... ....and only come in one size.... ... but according to our friends they work.... .........
Check out the deal on Snaro Screw-In Bird Point at 3Rivers Archery Supply
www.3riversarchery.com
but this is the quarry we usually hunt on this island.. . very lean and very tasty.. .makes excellent
kalua pig-n-cabbage... we have them slow cooked in an emu..this one weighed just short of 200 pounds....
.... pretty big by oahu standards...
..
i have never shot a gun of any kind.... unless a red ryder counts.... ...i have seen gun hunters on video though.... even if it was possible under the circumstances i don;t think it;s for me.... ...too loud, for one.. ..but sometimes a gun has to be carried along anyway for safety..... .depending on where we are and what we are hunting....
. there are few of us in traditional archery who like to call ourselves "primitive archers"....
others hear that and wonder what it means... and thinking we must be out there hunting
dressed in loin cloths and animal skins... ...but in truth it simply means we have acquired
the ability to take natural materials available to us in the wild... .make our own hunting
implements out of them.... and then hunt and subdue game large enough and in quantity
sufficient enough to assure our survival ..... ..... and it generally starts with skills shown
in the video below........ . and then goes far beyond......
but i should mention... i do not make all the arrows i use in the manner shown... i make most
using modern hand tools .. a few modern materials.. and sometimes even a few modern power
tools...but they are all still made by hand and not turned competely over to machines.... being
a primitive archer simply means i have the skills to make them in "cave-dweller" fashion if those
modern tools and supplies are unavailable.... and it also means i practice those skills now and
then as they are perishable if they are not kept up with.......
there are 2 different people in history that the Robin Hood legend was based on..
one was an english not-quite nobleman who owned land... was commander of
of yeoman (commoner) archers from a town on his property.... and who fought
in the crusades, only to be betrayed and murdered on the orders of richard the
lionheart shortly after his return to england.... ..the second actual person was
an all around hoodlum associated with a band of cuttthroats mentioned in the
video below.... .. but when howard pyle wrote his famous novels about robin
hood and his merry men... (which sparked the legends people talk about today)
he combined the 2 people creating a totally fictional story that has very little
real history in it... and in fact turned much of what really happened backwards..
this video tells a history of gangs and organized crime in medieval england that
gave birth to the second of those 2 robin hood inspiratonists.... (is that a real word?)
.
.
i have modern examples of all the arrowhead types he shows here... (with the exception
of the horse arrowhead and the incendiary).... the most dangerous type i have that he
shows, is what he refers to as the large broadhead.... i have 3 of those.. but have never
shot them.. .we refer to them as the zombie killers..... very shiny.... and very heavy...
...what he teaches here about incendiary arrows, are things i never knew about before...
which made me happy to see that apparently, once again, hollywood got it wrong...
.
the meanest arrowheads in my own inventory... made by schmesier.... we call it the zombie killer.....
... we don;t hunt birds here with bow and arrow.. ..but i do get asked about it from time to time.... ..and though i wouldn;t
mind hunting wild turkeys for the purpose of collecting wing feathers... (best fletching feathers known in north america) ..
we have never made a trip to the mainland to do it yet... .
however.... the history of different cultures hunting birds with bow and arrows goes way back... all the way back to ancient
egypt... as is depictred in this copy of an egyptian wall painting showing an archer..(probably tutankhamun).. hunting birds
with a bow and arrows....there are many versions of this scene always showing the archer resting comfortably on an
ottoman while his female companion sits on the ground and hands him arrows...
and i don;t know the story or cultural history behind this painting.... but i can say it resembles what i know of native american
methods of hunting birds with bow and arrow.... .... this archer is using a blunt style arrow arrow very similar to the kind used
by many different native cultures.. including the one i am descended from.... and his manner of holding the bow string with
2 fingers and thumb similar to native american methods too... ... different from the 3 fingered english longbow method i use...
will sand bags designed to keep you safe from bullets... ........ also protect you from arrows?....
or..... will an arrow pass through a sand bag that is capable of stopping bullets?.... even
capable of stopping high velocity high energy military rounds?...... .... a few years ago
myth busters did a program showing that when shot into water... higher energy bullets
break up faster than low energy rounds... ..the low energy rounds actually penetrate the
water deeper......the reason for that is.. water...being a fluid... hits back at an object with
the same force as it is being hit... .... but what about sand?.... does it also have the
characteristics of a fluid?.... and if so.... what would defeat it on a battlefield where an
enemy force was protected behind a wall of sand bags?...
this video is kind of a long, but it;s well worth watching.... the results of the tests they
did might surprise you.....i have been an archer and bow hunter for years.... but i never
shot an arrow at a sand bag before... and i didn;t know... this video surprised me.....
. wind resistance.... the place where we practice most often now is on the windward tip
of an island.. ..... and so we are always having to deal with wind coming at us one way or
another.... usually quartering into us from about 10 to 25 degrees head on, but some -
times from the side at a straight 90 degrees.... seldom ever from behind... but in those
few occasions when we did have a wind advantage from 180 degrees back we learned
a lot about arrow flight.. that no doubt had a major influence at the battle of towton...
i am not a big fan of tods "lock down" longbow as there is much more to what makes
arrows shot from a true longbow authorative than simply the speed at which they leave
the string.... ..but as he says..since he can;t draw back a 160 pound longbow this will
have to be the best we can get.... .and besides.... right now he is the only one doing any-
thing even close to this in a true scienctific manner... and putting it on video....
.
a good discussion with kevin hicks on comparing what we know about the bows of
agincourt with the longbows found on the mary rose....... .
.
and this archer shown below is shooting an accurate reproduction of a mary rose longbow.... some of which
were found to have a draw weight of 200 pounds.. .. .....with a bow that heavy accurately determining and
matching arrow spine was impossible.... so england supplied it;s archers with a generic all purpose, but
super tough and capable arrow made of ash..... probably 3/8 diameter... and at least 36 inches long....
he makes it look easy.... but he is holding back 160 pounds of force with 3 fingers on one hand.... . impressive....
it was about this time of year.... or actually a few weeks just before this time.
over a decade ago... that we went bowhunting for elk in washington state... ...
the weather was miserably cold.... it was snowing every day.... and there was
deep snow on the ground everywhere.... ...not at all unlike the scenery at the
beginning of this video down below.... ..i had a huge canada goose parka as well
as eskimo style winter boots... .and many other pieces of winter clothing... and
i wore all of them every time i went out of the cabin for any reason....
i hated the weather... but i loved seeing the wildlife and the primitive north woods..
i even loved hearing the wolves howl at night once i learned they could not get into
the cabin where we stayed.... .and we got an elk.... . but the thing i loved best about
that trip... and the only time i could stop shivering... was at night sleeping in front of
the fireplace in the cabin.... .... and i did literally sleep right in front of it..... ....
i think i mentioned before that the whole.. "nock!.. draw!.. loose!"..command you see in so many movies and television is totally fiction... nowhere in the historical records does it show any commanders of archers ever gave those commands.... for one it just doesn;t work to try to draw and shoot a heavy warbow that way... and secondly - archers didn;t need commands... they were perfectly aware of who on a battlefield needed to be shot... and when it was time to shoot them....
so.... .it could be that i simply missed another example of where combat archery was portrayed correctly.... ...but in all the productions of both television and hollywood that i personally have seen.. this is the only episode, of the only series ever,.. that showed instinctive combat archery being taught the correct way....
sadly... all other episodes in this same award winning hbo production got it wrong.... and
from what i was told, they got it wrong on purpose.... ...not because they didn;t know any
better.... but because the wrong way shown in so many movies and tv, is what audiences
have to come to expect... and... due to it;s dramatic effect... actually prefer to see....
but anyway.... here it is shown taught correctly to arya, after she does it wrong, although not horribly wrong, or ineffective... the first time...... ....
caution and warning.... some of the language in the following video may be offensive to some viewers... .... but just so you know.... it didn;t bother me.... and i;m known for being easily offended...... .
so... ..when i first saw this video with a picture of tod holding a longbow and talking
about dover castle for 2 days a year.. i got really excited.. coz i thought for a moment
he was offering some kind of contest to pick 2 of his suscribers for a chance to spend 2
days at dover castle with him... and i was ready to fill out my application.... . but no...
he was just bragging about how he gets to spend 2 days a year there by himself.....
but anyway...... it;s still an awesome video and i almost put it in the thread about ancient
rome because he points out the roman lighthouse on the dover castle grounds, which was the
very first stone structure on that property.... ..i will mention however... the reason he thinks
medieval castle archers could not have shot a longbow from the battlements is simply because
he doesn;t know how to use a longbow.... he;s a crossbow guy... which is only slightly better
than being a compound bow guy... which puts any adolescent boy playing marbles with a
slingshot in his back pocket ,miles ahead of them both.....
but anyway.... it;s a true english longbow in a real english castle... i couldn;t not post it.....
,
,
how maile works against both blunt and sharpened weapons... (including arrows).....
and what is required to make it more effective..... i actually have all the various medieval
arrow heads..(broadheads and bodkins)... he shows in this video... and i even have them
mounted on arrows... i don;t hunt with them though... i just use them to show off with
at the archery range....
.
how accurate were medieval longbows?.... well... in the hands of a skilled archer..
more accurate than many realize... and more accurate than some want to admit..
.) 
.. 
.. (including arrows)...
..