Harry Drake record yew bow

[avcase]

Here's some more info from Drake's letters:

Drake wrote: "Took up archery in 1938. In 1940 made my first shots over 400 yards. Self recurves Osage (short stubby recurves) self made. 75 lbs. Finally reached 482 with it. Accurately measured."

Alan

[Badger]

  That was great Allen, that is what I feel we should be shooting with 70# bows. I wonder how many practice arrows he would shoot in a year?

[redhawk55]

Thanx Alan, I guess "stubby" means sharp recurves?
Any info on the arrows?
Michael

[avcase]

I hope these distances are inspiring. They are certainly realistic. Harry favored Douglas fir for his wood arrows over port Orford cedar. Length was 23" for the Osage self bow.  The fletched may have been acetate, but horn works just as well.   

String was probably linen.

Alan

[avcase]

In 1993, Harry Drake was obsessed with perfecting the Turkish flight bow and had a personal goal of for himself to reach 600 yards with a 50-lb primitive bow.  It was a rare unrealized goal for him, but will surely be worth celebrating when someone does manage to rise to the challenge. I would like to establish a special trophy and recognition for the first to do this. Anyone up for it?

Drake was around 80 years old at the time, so that should give most of us some time. Hahaha!

Alan

[PatM]

How about an award for 600 with any weight of primitive bow? Harry might have been dreaming a bit with the 50 pound 600 yard bow.

[Badger]

  Harrry was not out of line with that goal. It is a bit lofty but not unrealistic. A perfect shot at about 300 fps could get you 300 yards. We can get the 300 fps right now from 50lb bows and very light arrows. I would imagine a turkish bow with a 28" or longer draw using a short arrow could easily attain the needed speed.

[PatM]

I thought horn bows didn't work in low weights?

[redhawk55]

A hornbow will never match 300f/s at max.50lbs.
Oh Harry youŽll make me sleepless nights when challenging us with that 600yards at max. 50lbs!
These are really inspiring distances, IŽm up for it!
Michael

[sumpitan]

Thanks for the Drake quotes, Avcase!

This type of mail-in flight shooting would of course not fly (heh), as far as the record books are concerned, then as now. In any given sport, there is private practice and then there are the sanctioned tournaments. This gives even more weight to the achievements of Homer Prouty, who shot a distance of 478 yards with a 76# Oregon yew recurve, in August 1933, at the 53rd Annual Tournament of the National Archery Association in St Louis, Missouri. He won all four of the hand bow classes using similar-style yew recurves, with a shortest winning shot of 344 yards, using a 46-pound bow in the 50# class.  All this at a very early date, right on the heels of the first papers published by Hickman, Nagler, Klopsteg et al.

In 1939, Ken Wilhelm shot a public, well-witnessed, County Surveyor-measured, yet non-Tournament distance of 579 yards using a hand bow. No details on the bow, but given the date I'm pretty sure no bow bellies in plastic etc. there. A sinew backing is possible, to give room for Drake's all-wood shot of some 39 yards less, six years later.

Tuukka

[avcase]

Tuuuka,
For awhile, a separate set of records were kept for the mail-in tournaments, but that was dropped after the records for the mail-in tournaments started to far exceed the official tournament records. It also led to endless arguments about methods of measurement or accusations of exaggerations.  Drake wrote about how he would lose to some of the east coast competitors by a hundred yards or more, but then easily beat the same shooters by the same margin at a national tournament.

That's good info on Homer Prouty. Where did you find these results?

Alan

[Badger]

  I was just speaking to David Hayes about the records of past flight shoots. He has the results of every shoot since the 1950's I wuld love to go through those old records.

[avcase]

Steve,
Lynn has Ike's old results and record books. We ought to see if we can find a little time to digitally archive it and make it available through the flight web site.  I have some scattered results and records lists going back through the mid-1960's that I could scan already.  It is probably 100 pages of material. The hard part is finding specific documentation on the equipment used.

Alan

[Badger]

  Allen, I wouldn't mind retyping it all or scanning it if it is in good condition.

[redhawk55]

Would appreciate it very much if you could find some time to have a closer look at those papers.
The figures could give us a closer idea of what is possible.
Michael