Adam Karpowicz - Closing in on the Half Mile

[avcase]

I don't know I you have seen this news yet, but Adam Karpowicz has been conducting a number of flight shooting experiments with his horn bows using a shooting machine.  Up until now, most of his test shots landed at a distance of 500-600m, but just recently he was able to send an arrow a distance of 790 yards!  This is truly amazing, regardless of how the arrow was shot. Adam is quickly approaching the holy grail of flight performance.

The bow he used is 120lb at 27 inches. Arrow is split cane bamboo, 208 grains, and 24.5" long. The string is Dacron, but I imagine a good linen string or even a silk string would improve performance even more.

Here's another interesting fact. The place where Adam runs his tests is several feet below sea level.

Alan

[Badger]

  This is exciting Allen!! Looking forward to more reports. The arrow probably came out of the bow at close to 350 fps.

[mikekeswick]

790yds.....wow...now that is fuel for the fire!
 Fantastic achievement. I'd love to see the equipment used with all the details. It would be so cool to see a bow shooting that far.

[Del the cat]

Presumably he waits until the tide is out
Del

[DC]

What would a machine do that he can't? I understand that a machine will be more consistent but but what is the reason that he can't occasionally hit distances like this?

[DC]

I went on Google Earth and did a 790 yd circle around my house. Wow! That's a long way!

[Badger]

  DC, the machine was just used because Adam cannot draw that kind of weight, an archer can outshoot the machine for distance once he tunes himself to the bow. I believe Allen case built the arrow for this shot. Many of the new records have been set using Allens arrows. Without a good arrow no bow will score well.

[DC]

That is very cool. My surname is also Case. No relation that I know of but it's cool to know that I'm even extremely remotely connected.

[avcase]

I would love to have credit for the arrows, but Adam built the arrows used for this most recent test.  I hope to learn a thing or two from Adam's testing since we haven't seen this long distances with all natural material arrows for at least a couple hundred years. 

FYI: Adam's arrows are fletched with thin rawhide.

Alan

[Badger]

   Adam and yourself are both pioneers in rediscovering this lost art from.

[mikekeswick]

Now that I've tried parchment for fletching - there is no turning back to feathers

[PatM]

Wouldn't the footbows  that shot over 800 yards less than a hundred years ago have used natural arrows?

[loon]

He uploaded this pic of the bow and arrow. The bow is 42in ntn

[crooketarrow]

  Gives you horn bowyers something to shoot for.

[Aaron H]

Very cool, thanks for the picture loon