Shooting Traditional Firearms and Weapons > Shooting the Bow
My new English Longbow
Stormrider51:
Anyone interested in the classic English Longbow? I am and I thought I'd give a little introduction to the one I just bought. The ELB is typically about as tall is its owner. Mine is 72" which makes it an inch or so taller than me. The limbs are slender and almost as thick from front to back as they are wide. The limb tips should be made of horn. Draw weight for an English warbow could run to 150 lbs. Mine is a bit lighter, 44 lbs at a 28" draw length. That's more than enough to drive a sharp broadhead-tipped arrow completely through a deer if the archer does his or her part. The bow is very light in weight and easy to carry all day in the woods. Here's the one I just received.
When it arrived I strung it up and went out back for a short shooting session. I normally buy arrow shafts in the appropriate spine and then tune the arrows to the bow. In this case I had to grab a few arrows I'd made for another bow. Tailored arrows would have to come later. As it turned out, I didn't need to worry. The arrow in the target is the first one I shot from the bow and it hit close to the center from 20 yards. Arrow flight was good. I really can't complain. I'm not, and never will be, an archer in the class of Ron LeClair so for me to nail one in there with my first shot from a new bow speaks well of the bow. After I took the photos I pulled the arrow and repeated the shot several more times with all arrows landing in or near the black center dot. Yep, the bow is a shooter.
The guy who made the bow lives up in Washington state. He made my bow from osage orange (bois d'arc) backed with hickory. He does others from different combinations of woods including the classic yew. Prices currently start at $129.99 which is a steal in this day and age. PM me if you want his email address. I highly recommend his work.
Storm
Fletcher:
I have long been a student of Medieval archery and love the English longbow.
I am also a member of SCA and have a good market there for my English stye bows and arrows.
Like the native style self bows, they take a bit to learn compared to the shelf and riser style of modern bows -
but indeed a joy to shoot when you get the hang of it.
I make longbows from Hickory and various laminates. I also make them from Pacific Yew, which is a great bow wood,
but not quite as good as the original Mediterranean Yew that the English used and eventually transplanted to the island nation.
As far as I know it is nearly impossible to get a stave of that any longer.
I also make a Faux Yew which is a Hickory backing on a Red Oak belly. It makes a decent bow for much less cost than a true Yew
with a fairly authentic look.
I do like your horn tips, I use the same style often. PM me the maker of your bow - I think I know him and do quite a lot of business with him.
rickevans:
Love those simple long bows.
Longhunter:
That is a beauty Storm, true classic English Longbow. It sounds like you really got a good deal price wise, custom bows of any kind today almost require a bank loan... :lol:
Here's a couple pictures from back in the days of old..
Stormrider51:
Thanks guys. The more I shoot the bow the better I like it. There are a couple of things I forgot to point out for newcomers to these types of bows and by these types I mean all-wood. Unlike fiberglass backed bows where the glass does most of the work, an all-wood bow will "take a set" or "follow the string" if left strung all the time. In other words a wooden bow that starts off straight will develop a slightly curved shape. This lowers the performance of the bow. It happens because the wood fibers on the back (side away from the shooter) stretch and those on the belly compress. The bow is going to do that anyway but to a much lesser degree than if left strung for days or weeks on end. A bow that shows some set when first unstrung will often gradually straighten back out over the next few hours. This is all normal. Just remember to string the bow when you leave camp to hunt and then unstring it when you get back.
The other thing I wanted to mention is price. As Ron noted, I got a good deal on this bow. I've made a few bows. Most were "flatbows" where the limbs are much wider than they are thick and have mostly a rectangular shape. With experience I reached the point where I could do most of the tillering for a flatbow on a belt sander. (Tillering is the process of getting the limbs to bend evenly.) I'd get them close on the sander and then fine tune the limbs using scrapers and sand paper. The belt sander greatly sped up the process. I made only one English Longbow. The narrow but thick limbs must form a D shape that I found impossible to maintain on a belt sander. All shaping and tillering for that bow was done using hand tools. Where I could knock out a flatbow in a few hours the ELB took a couple of days. My hat is off to bowyers who make ELBs. It's no wonder they tend to be expensive.
Storm
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