Mark Stretton 200lb Guinness World Record blog

[WillS]

I'm sure many of you guys have seen this by now, but for those who haven't, or for future reference, here's a blog written about Mark Strettons Guinness World Record attempt, shooting a 200lb bow.  Covers everything from diet and exercise to the bow used and the details of the record itself, and some of it is written by Mark himself. 

http://markstretton.blogspot.co.uk

[Del the cat]

Excellent!
The training regime and exercises are V interesting.
But the pictures of his breakfast just made me hungry
Del
(As a point of pedantry... the delay between shots would have been to his chagrin, not that of the crowd... 
Gotta learn to speak proper, innit?)

[WillS]

Nah, you don't gotta learn to do nuffin proper when you shoots a whopper like what he does.

[HoorayHorace]

200lb of bow? Wow! 

I take it that this was not standard for longbows during the medieval age?

Is 100lb not heavy then? I can get 80lb back to 30.

[WillS]

The lightest bows on the Mary Rose (and therefore potentially throughout the medieval period) are currently estimated to be around 110-120lbs.  The average weight is around 150lbs, with bows up to 200lb thought to have been on board.

There are a few perfect replicas of the biggest bows found that would have a draw weight of 196lbs, so 100lbs is considerably light in relation.

If you look at the arrows found, and various heads found throughout history, most are half inch in diameter.  To get a half inch arrow to travel around 220yards (medieval bowshot, give or take 20yards) you need something in the range of 110lbs.  And that's the absolute minimum.

[HoorayHorace]

@Will

What can you shoot comfortably, and what is your max one shot draw?

Yeah about the arrows, I have got a Flint tipped birch shaft that weighs a good 1500 grains. Try shooting that out of a 70lb flatbow.

Flys like a Civil War Mortar round!

[WillS]

110 or 115 on a good day.  Not doing half as much as I should be.  I prefer making them!

[HoorayHorace]

Must have taken many years to get to that though.

Been shooting for years. My Hill bow pulls 83 at 31 inch, and that is my max.

[WillS]

I've not really focused on it though.  I wish I had been, as I may be further on by now. 

It does help to make your own - the moment you need a step up you just make a quick training bow that comes in at whatever weight you need.  They don't even have to be any good in terms of set, cast, appearance etc, as they're just a weight training exercise that focuses the exact muscles.

My New Year's Resolution is to train harder.  I'd like to be up to 130lb at some point this year.  With nowhere to shoot it makes it tricky, of course...

Maybe the secret is venison.  I need to get some venison.

[Del the cat]

Must have taken many years to get to that though.

Been shooting for years. My Hill bow pulls 83 at 31 inch, and that is my max.

I'm over 60, never done much shooting and it only took me a couple of weeks training to get up to 100#
At my age the strength isn't the problem it's the joints and tendons which is why it was so interesting to read Mark Stretton's training regime.
If you can draw 70 at 28" I reckon with a little  training and the right technique 100# is achievable. After that it's keeping up the work. I dropped off very rapidly once I'd shot the 100# and I'm very cautious about overstraining myself now.
I think 90# at about 31" is a sensible limit of me.
If you are drawing fairly straight, then a technique change will easily gain you an extra 10#. It's about the leverage coming over and down rather than brute force straight (target style) draw. If the right elbow travels in an arc it can travel say 10" to get an extra 3" of draw beyond the 28"...  that's a leverage of over 3:1. So draw to the forehead then arc downwards... a bit like the Japanese do with their Yumis, but much more dynamically of course (they take an age to do each movement).
Anyhow plenty of videos on youtube to watch... just got to sort the wheat from the chaff (and ignore the jumping about (although others may insist it makes sense ))
Del
BTW I'm pretty average build 5'10" about 12 stone. Not short limbed.

[WillS]

As a side note Del, there was a fascinating thread on a different forum about the rolling loose (or "jumping about" to give it the technical term )

Turns out it actually adds a fair old amount to the cast.  Michael (Blacksmith77k on here) posted a vid of static and rolling loose with the distances achieved and the rolling loose gave a large chunk extra.

It seems to all be about timing - if you leap about at the wrong moment, all you're doing is leaping about.  If you can time it to perfection and put the jump into the release as the arrow leaves the bow, you gain a lot.  Trouble of course is getting that timing...!

[HoorayHorace]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0-2KLuAH4GY


This guy pulls 170 and makes it looks easy. Doesn't seem to pull to the forehead, or "jump about"


Just seems to stand still and draw normally.

[Tree_Ninja]

I thought I read somewhere that the purpose of the horn nocks was   
To allow the archer to "push" the bow down into the ground while simultaneously drawing the bow. The pushing with the braced arm allowed easier drawing(almost like floor tillering).

Or did I mis-interpret things?

[Del the cat]

I thought I read somewhere that the purpose of the horn nocks was   
To allow the archer to "push" the bow down into the ground while simultaneously drawing the bow. The pushing with the braced arm allowed easier drawing(almost like floor tillering).

Or did I mis-interpret things?

That would probably be because there is a lot of nonsense both written and spoken about warbows.
You have to remember we weren't there and some of these half baked theories do more harm than good.
Del

[HoorayHorace]

I thought I read somewhere that the purpose of the horn nocks was   
To allow the archer to "push" the bow down into the ground while simultaneously drawing the bow. The pushing with the braced arm allowed easier drawing(almost like floor tillering).

Or did I mis-interpret things?

I did read that English archer "pressed their body into the horns of the bow", whatever that means.