Woodlands.co.uk

Archery, powerful bows and arrows

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http://www.woodlands.co.uk Woodlands archery, powerful bows and arrows. Long bows made from yew were used during the Hundred Years War. Neil Eddiford from Wolfshead Bowmen describes the properties that made yew suitable for the long bow, and how often English yew wasn't used at all. Other woods used for bows were ash and wych elm. He also looks at the arrows with fletchlings of goose feather, a bodkin point or a needle bodkin. These are serious weapons for medieval warfare, and Neil describes the range and penetration power these arrows could have.

Wolfshead Bowmen are a re-enactment group and Woodlands TV met up with them at the Weald Wood Fair at Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum.


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Discussion

@sploofmonkey There would of course be injuries and many deaths, but the volleys of 1000's being deployed were always aimed at 45 degrees and designed to hit random targets at 300 yard. The chance of longbowman being able to see a specific target at that distance is a huge ask and to hit it would be blind luck. At that range the armoured men would have to get an arrow in an unlucky spot like the eye slit of a visor (difficult unless the armoured man is dumb enough to look up at the arrows coming down) or perhaps richoceting from a shield under the helm or into the eye visor. or hitting a horse in an an armoured body part causing the horse to throw the rider or fall on the rider, and so on.   

Charlie The Turtle

April 19, 2016

@Charlie The Turtle Battle tactics are not just lobbing random arrows at the enemy.  Spying, reconnaisance, decoys, stealth tactics, 
minor and major calvary/infantry attacks, etc.  

sploofmonkey

April 19, 2016

@sploofmonkey Yes, but the topic is "Archery, powerful bows and arrows" so only the Longbow is relevant here ….. and with high power longbows all that can be done in battle is firing 1000's of arrows at the same time and let them hit random things like people, the ground. the armour on people, the corpses on the dead killed by previous arrows, horses and so on.  

Charlie The Turtle

April 19, 2016

@Charlie The Turtle Your argument is purely linear.

sploofmonkey

April 20, 2016

"We teach youngsters to shoot responsibly and safely because they are so dangerous." Why then does not that apply to firearms ? The British totally disintegrate on responsible firearm use and ownership.

mpkunz6336

April 21, 2016

<3 Archery

Ludwig H

April 24, 2016

+Carlos Herrera Where the fuck are you getting your info……

Tubahide

April 27, 2016

+Charlie The Turtle …….. Have you ever shot a longbow with a 120 lb pull? ever see what kind of damage that can do? Your main points are that 1. longbows are weak, they are in fact insanely powerful. They wouldnt of been used so much otherwise. 2. armor stops the arrows and its because people are fat. Wtf are you on about. no, not EVERY arrow fired will penetrate armor. But you're damn wrong if you think that they didn't. Again, 120 lbs of pressure over a 1×1 cm area with a metal point is gonna get the job done. Sure it may not kill, but it'll penetrate just fine. AND 3. crossbows weren't meant for long range. You do realize the Chi Dynasty fired bolts over half a mile at the enemy with deadly accuracy and power. Sure its a different era and different armor, but the armor was still thick and strong. Go look it up. Educate yourself. Arrows are known to have a terminal velocity of around 140mph, and even if we take that down by around a third to 100 mph they will still be impacting with a huge amount of force. There is a reason the French cut off the fingers of Englishmen they captured. SO they could never fire a longbow again. Not because it disrupted their lines, but because it killed everyone from a peasant in mail and leather, to noble knights in the finest armor money could buy. The reason they fired in such large volleys is because these were not marksmen firing these bows. Simply peasants. SO please, you can have allllll the information you want (some of which is entirely wrong) but if you have never actually fired a longbow ( i say longbow because compounds suck ass) over 100 lbs. please take into account that experience is more valuable. as in THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT. Sorry if i seemed ill tempered, i have to go teach like 100 Kids about the 100 years war right now and most are annoying. Have a good day.

Tubahide

April 27, 2016

Magna12 tell the guy from three rivers he's full of shit.the ship is called Mary rose.NOT Queen Mary. WTF.

Michael mason

April 27, 2016

@Brady Ramirez  I own a 7 foot (I am 6' 4") 100Ibs self-yew warbow and I cannot draw it back fully. However experts I know, including the Master Bowyer who made my Warbow and others who can draw back my bow and their more powerful ones corroborate what I said. Before I had my Warbow made I did shitloads of research with Professor Anne Curry, the worlds foremost expert on the 100 years war. She gave me all the information I could ever need. In fact I doubt you could find in one book all the knowledge I have about the Warbow. 

But you carry on trying to lecture me about a 120Ibs "longbow", geeez. O_o

Charlie The Turtle

April 30, 2016