Anybody wanna tear this video to pieces...

[toomanyknots]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir5GKAQG14g

LOL

[Dharma]

Well...it's like the AK-47 versus M-16 debate, except with bows. 

[bubbles]

Arrow veers off course....sure does, with an improperly spined arrow.
I didn't know when shooting a Yumi you shoot off the other side of the bow. Interesting.

[Fred Arnold]

Agree with the spine issue but you'll notice even the improperly (possibly?) spined arrow with the longbow came as close (possibly?) as the Yumi.

[bubbles]

As close? Accurracy-wise?   Longbow shot was definitely more in the heart area. But with what looked like an over spined arrow.  They just commented in the vid how "the arrow from the Longbow flies to the side" and arrows from a Yumi "shoot straight".  If he had used a softer spine arrow from the longbow, the arrow probably would have flown straight as well.

[Newindian]

That made me realize I'm a bow snob
Hasn't it been some what agreed upon that when comparing designs they all generally preform the same and that high efficiency normally comes down to not over stressing the materials or having excess mass(i.e. Good construction/craftsmanship)
And that it is very difficult to compare any two bows from different cultures because they are often made for different situations

[Carson (CMB)]

I wish they gave the hard numbers on the arrow weights.  Depending on the materials the yumi arrow could have been a lot heavier or a little heavier.  So the yumi bow could have performed a lot better or a little better.   

[Robby101]

Its not so much the equipment alone, as matching that equipment, personnel, tactics to the type of warfare being faced, in order to achieve victory. To the rigid caste system of Japan, the bow was a weapon of the Samuri, in England the bow was a weapon of freemen and they used it to a greater success.
Robin

[Dharma]

Robby nailed it. When you put a reasonably accurate, powerful weapon with a high rate of fire into the hands of everyone, you'll have greater success overall than an equivalent or slightly better weapon in the hands of a few. I recall reading that the French nobility was very disappointed to learn they were being wiped out by yeomen and commoners at Crecy, Poiters, and Agincourt. The speed of manufacture is also higher for the English longbow than the Japanese longbow, from what I understand. While the French hired Genoese mercenaries armed with crossbows, they didn't use their missile troops to advantage and the crossbow lacked the effectiveness of the longbow in rate of fire.

[Pat B]

I wouldn't want to be standing down range from either. 

[bow101]

I am a newbie to all this archery stuff, but as far all the stuff I have read from long time experts in the field I beg to differ in their accuracy claims with the Yumi.

[mullet]

I did and you were there.

[Pat B]

Yes you did Eddie. You'll have to come back for an encore. 

[TacticalFate]

I'm guessing the yumi has a longer drawlength, therefore it'd obviously store more power than the longbow just based on that alone