Starting with Saxton Pope who made exact copies of an English longbow recovered from the war ship "The Mary Rose", and then through many great hunting archers who followed, hunting bows of heavier weights than you describe were normal and ran a common theme tracing back to their traditional archery roots. This debate was openly discussed in publications by both target archers and hunting archers going back many generations. I for one have hunted with 65pound longbows going back for decades based upon the writings and teachings of the original old time hunting archers who got this thing going in our country, such as Pope. I for one think 65pounds is near middle of the road for my hunting longbows and I think there is enough written documentation by the fathers of traditional hunting archery to support this. It is abundantly clear by the written record that many who took the path of target archery reached different destinations than those who took the path of hunting archery. One destination does not negate the other. Where this path lead some in 1968 does not negate the path rediscovered by Pope with his recreation of the Mary Rose bow. It does not negate the path taken by Young, Imler, Bear, Hill, or the many other legends in archery. People were not in agreement then and are not in agreement now, but the facts exist:
"Of all the bows of the days when archery was in flower, only two
remain. These are unfinished staves found in the ship _Mary Rose_, sunk
off the coast of Albion in 1545. This vessel having been raised from
the bottom of the ocean in 1841, the staves were recovered and are now
in the Tower of London. They are six feet, four and three-quarters
inches long, one and one-half inches across the handle, one and one-
quarter inches thick, and proportionately large throughout. The
dimensions are recorded in Badminton. Of course, they never have been
tested for strength, but it has been estimated at 100 pounds.
Determined to duplicate these old bows, I selected a very fine grained
stave of seasoned yew and made an exact duplicate, according to the
recorded measurements.
This bow, when drawn the standard arrow length of twenty-eight inches,
weighed sixty-five pounds and shot a light flight arrow two hundred and
twenty-five yards."
-Saxton Pope
"The following is a partial list of those weighed and shot. They are, of
course, all genuine bows and represent the strongest.
Weight Distance Shot
Alaskan....................... 80 pounds 180 yards
Apache........................ 28 " 120 "
Blackfoot..................... 45 " 145 "
Cheyenne...................... 65 " 156 "
Cree.......................... 38 " 150 "
Esquimaux..................... 80 " 200 "
Hupa.......................... 40 " 148 "
Luiseno....................... 48 " 125 "
Navajo........................ 45 " 150 "
Mojave........................ 40 " 110 "
Osage......................... 40 " 92 "
Sioux......................... 45 " 165 "
Tomawata...................... 40 " 148 "
Yurok......................... 30 " 140 "
Yukon......................... 60 " 125 "
Yaki.......................... 70 " 210 "
Yana.......................... 48 " 205 "
The list of foreign bows is as follows:
Weight Distance Shot
Paraguay...................... 60 pounds 170 yards
Polynesian.................... 49 " 172 "
Nigrito....................... 56 " 176 "
Andaman Islands................45 " 142 "
Japanese.......................48 " 175 "
Africa.........................54 " 107 "
Tartar.........................98 " 175 "
South American.................50 " 98 "
Igorrote.......................26 " 100 "
Solomon Islands................56 " 148 "
English target bow (imported)..48 " 220 "
English yew flight bow.........65 " 300 "
Old English hunting bow........75 " 250 "
- Saxton Pope
"Our hunting bows are from five feet six
inches to five feet eight inches in length. The weight of a hunting bow
should be from fifty to eighty pounds. One should start shooting with a
bow not over fifty pounds, and preferably under that. At the end of a
season's shooting he can command a bow of sixty pounds if he is a
strong man. Our average bows pull seventy-five pounds. Though it is
possible for some of us to shoot an eighty-five pound bow, such a
weapon is not under proper control for constant use."
-Saxton Pope
USE HEAVY BOWS by Tom Imler, Jr.
published in Ye Sylvan Archer 1942:
http://members.tripod.com/~tmuss/shotfrompast/imler.htm Hunting Arrows by Fred Bear
published in Ye Sylvan Archer 1943:
http://members.tripod.com/~tmuss/shotfrompast/bear.htm Art Young:
Young made all of his equipment: Osage longbows pulling 75 to 85 pounds, heavy birch arrows with homemade broadheads, and handtooled leather accessories.
http://members.tripod.com/~tmuss/shotfrompast/young.html
Topic: Average draw weight, 1968 compare 2008 (Read 1313 times)
