I finally found a reference in Drake's letters to the yew bow that is the subject of this post. It came up when Jim Hamm was working on the Bowyer's Bible series and asked Harry Drake about the longest shot made using an all-wood bow.
Harry wrote "I told him I thought I held this record with a bow made of Ulrich yew pulling 69 lb at 23" (length of arrows used, no overdraw) at NAA Nationwide Mail Shoot....1945. One of the witnesses was Frank Eicholtz. So far as I know this is the best distance ever obtained with an all-wood bow....541 yds."
No other specifics are given. I don't know if it was a self bow or laminated wood bow. I'll keep looking to see if something else pops up.
Back in that time, they used to do these mail-in flight shoots for fun. It would be held over a fixed period of time, and the results would be mailed into the National Archery Association main office, tallied, and published. Records were kept for mail in shoots for awhile, but later dropped due to heated arguments over the quality control of these shoots. I feel 541 yards is possible from a 69 lb all-wood bow, using all natural materials for the arrows and strings. Harry probably used a linen string. The arrows may have had plastic vanes, but probably not much different than we use in our current primitive divisions otherwise.
Alan
