Author Topic: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.  (Read 22449 times)

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Offline Bushman452

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Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« on: September 18, 2009, 09:55:31 pm »
Considering Mongol archery and those of you who have ever tried making them; I was wondering how many of ya has ever shot a deer before using them.
Rabbit eating, deer killing barbaric savage of the Commonwealth.

Offline El Destructo

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2009, 10:18:14 pm »
I have a handmade Laminated Sinew Backed Hun Bow made by Lajos Kassai ....and I am a firm believer that this Man knows His Bows!! I am going to try mine out this Season...but not with a Thumbring ....at least not yet!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmgeW2hTFow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ3OrJwkxT0&feature=related

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=10028767
« Last Edit: September 18, 2009, 10:29:51 pm by El Destructo »
As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another.Why do you think we invented politics and religion.
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Offline billy

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2009, 10:35:48 pm »
DUDE...that video with LAjos Kassai is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Marietta, Georgia

Offline Pat B

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2009, 12:16:30 am »
Wouldn't want to be a target holder! :o
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Mechslasher

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2009, 09:54:50 am »
check with james parker, "robustus" on this site.
"A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money." 

G. Gordon Liddy

Offline hawkbow

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2009, 12:16:47 am »
kassai rocks .... i have been shooting horseback archery for years.. haven't hit a target yet ;D ;)  Hawk
IT IS BETTER TO LOSE WITH HONOR. THAN TO WIN THROUGH DECEPTION...


Mike "Hawk" Huston

Offline El Destructo

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2009, 04:00:56 am »
kassai rocks .... i have been shooting horseback archery for years.. haven't hit a target yet ;D ;)  Hawk

Thought that You would like that Video Mike....He was and probably still is an Amazing Horse Archer!
As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another.Why do you think we invented politics and religion.
Think HEALTHCARE Is Expensive Now,Wait Till It's FREE
Do Or Do Not,There Is No TRY
2024...We Will Overcome

Offline JBL

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2009, 12:52:33 pm »
Got my first squirel of the season with a Kassai Panther and thumb ring.  So these bows will make meat.  Besides they are just great fun.  Switched over to thumb draw and no longer shoot fingers.  What is really cool about the thumb draw is being able to use both right and left hands.  In fact I took the squirel drawing left handed.

hermitking

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #8 on: December 24, 2009, 01:52:04 am »
I'm a new poster, but thought I should add my two cents of experience.  Back in the 90's I started dabbling in making horn bows.  I made several horn bows from Gemsbok horn and one from water buffalo horn.  All of my attempts were poorly glued together and did not hold up very long.  Back then a guy named Jeffery Shmidt from the University of Wisconsin had made a video and was helping me learn how to craft horn bows.  I told him off my string of failures and, God Bless him, he just mailed me a bow core for free.  All I had to do was sinew back it and cover it with stained rawhide.

It was a 60 inch Tartar(Mongolian) bow.  I was living in Iowa at the time and tried to deer hunt with it the first fall after making the bow.  As I was walking a heavily used deer trail, a buck ran across the trail with two does following hot on his heels. As I raised the bow to shoot the buck was already gone but I drew half draw and let the arrow fly at the last doe.  It was really a random luck shot, no skill involved.  It was probably an irresponsible shot, but even at half draw the arrow killed the doe dead in her tracks.  Just by random luck the arrowhead struck her in the neck bone and broke her neck.  She fell instantly and had about 30 seconds of spasms before expiring. 

It was a close range shot but I was impressed with the force that it hit the deer.  I think it was about a 60 pound pull. 

The three finger draw is really uncomfortable with such a severe angle on the string at full draw.  I tried mastering the thumb draw for years but could never master the method.  With the arrow on the right side of the handle, drawing right handed thumb draw one can not aim properly by sighting down the arrow with the right eye.  For some reason they always shoot far to the right.  Last year I got out my old bows and tried to relearn the method.  After reading an article by a mongol woman who competes in the Nadaam archery tournament I finally figured out the accuracy trick.

Here is how to aim.  Grasping the bow in left hand, thumb draw with the right.  Hold bow vertically, it is important that you do not tilt the bow at an angle.  Draw to an anchor point just like the three finger draw.  To aim, you sight with your left eye past the left side of the handle.  In other words you sight on the side opposite of the arrow.  From there you have to experiment to figure the height of your shot.  One final note about accuracy is that you must have your face turned fully to the target.  Proper posture is neccesary.  If the turn of your head is not consistent then the distance from your line of sight and line of arrow flight changes, affecting trajectory.

It is definitely not an instinctive shooting method, sighting and anchoring is part of the method.

Offline zeNBowyer

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #9 on: December 24, 2009, 02:08:56 am »
Suprised  you  don't think drawing  your  arrow  on  the  opposite  side of  your   bow  wouldn't be   instinctive  shooting,
but  I was  wondering what  the release  feels  like  with the  thumbring-is  it  markedly  better than  3  fingers?  Seems  like  it would  at  least  be  more  comfortable,  without hurting the  fingers  after shooting a  practise  set  of  arrows
"There's  something  immoral  about  abandoning  your  own  judgement"
Cowards always run in  packs
Ishi did not become the arrow, I suspect. The arrow became Ishi.

hermitking

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Re: Hunting with a Mongolian composite bow.
« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2009, 02:45:22 am »
What I mean by it not being instinctive is that there is a definite matching up of two points with the line of the left eye sight, rather that letting her fly by an instinct or intution about where the arrow will go.  When I shoot the thumb draw (right hand draw) I line up my left eye sight with the left side of the handle just on top of the knuckle of the bow hand and then settle that point on the target.  This is for the 25 yard range that I am presently shooting.  It is similar to the Old English method of sightling down the arrow on the left hand side of the bow handle, with a definite anchor point.  In both methods one is sighting much like lining up the sights of a gun.

You asked about the thumb release method...

...better than three finger?  If you are using a short bow with long draw, Yes.  It is less painfull to have the extreem bend of the string angle wrap around a single thumb rather than three fingers.  You can get serious nerve damage on the third finger with three finger draw in extreem string angles.

...More comfortable? If you are using a low poundage it is an easy pull.  But when you get up there around 60 plus poundage the string starts pinching and cutting into the thumb digit if you have no protection.  All of my bows are heavy poundage so I have to use a thumb ring.  I have made a few out of moose antler and a couple out of a thick portion of moose toenail.  The trick is that it must be custom fit to the archer's thumb and it must fit perfect or serious injury to the thumb can occur.  After shooting with a proper thumb ring for about twenty minutes (heavy pull) the thumb will swell up and fill up the space in the ring more tightly.  My thumb actually started growing and getting thicker after shooting this way for about three weeks. the tendon in the thumb gets thicker and the joint gets stronger.  I suspect that the asians had built up the thumb for shooting form childhood days, and had very developed thumb strength.  The added benefit is that it strengthened their wrestling grip.  Even today Mongol wrestlers still do well in international matches.

... other advantages.  Since one loads the arrow from the drawing arm side, one can load arrows incredibly fast.  It reduces the ammount of motion to get the arrow from quiver to bow, and no canting of the bow is needed to flip the arrow over to the left side.  Turks were able to fire 60 arrows a minute this way.  You can also lay on your back and still load and draw your bow(which makes it possible to shoot while prostrate on the ground).

Also when grasping the arrow and string with the thumb lock the arrow is naturally turned towards the bow handle, reducing the problem of the arrow falling off of the handle.

My advise for shooting this way is that one force themselves to shoot this way only.  It is like starting all over again learning to shoot.  If you have shot three finger for years like me then it takes a lot of practice to reprogram muscle memory.