bow length

[sleek]

Pearl, just to present an argument, im going to mention modern compounds and how short they are. Its very easy to be accurate with them, even without sites. They are very short, and the release makes the difference. Even withought thise stabalizers folks put on.

Of course, in the archery you cite, releases arent needed because of the bow size. And maybe they go long for that very reason, long bows arent finiky about their release.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

I'll also counter that best archers long bow theory with Korea. It's arguable that the Koreans are consistently some of the best archers on the planet and they use short bows, but that also backs up Sleeks theory since they shoot thumb ring release (as one should be doing with that 44" Turkish bow, lol).

[PEARL DRUMS]

The Koreans dominate, with 62" plus recurve bows. You can Google all you want to know about the best archers in the world. Tons of info available to look through.

[bradsmith2010]

this is from a book called Native American Bows,, a friend gave it to me,, it has wonderful insight about shooting and Native bows,,,in my earlier response, I stated,,, I have a little better accuracy with my long bow but feel that my short bows are in fact accruate as well,,I guess defining accurate would be the issue with that statement,,

[loon]

something something Turkish archers, saw pictures of very tiny groups shot out of a short turkish bow, and generally mostly Western archers being the most famous ones and longer bows are the most used in Western archery. I wonder how accurate kukgung/gungdo archers can get... but I think people with longer bows would always have an edge on accuracy. Probably not in flight archery though

[jayman448]

With the last few  comments the same thing keeps arising to me.. short bows are good but better with a thumb or pinch draw. With mediteranian id still be better off with a longer bow i think.  I love the debates that get going on this site xD

[bradsmith2010]

well it depends on the application,, do you want to shoot a quarter at full gallop.. or hit the target at 100 yards,, or something in between,,, your options seem diverse,, its up to you now,,

[jayman448]

the answer to that question is yes XD

[sleek]

the answer to that question is yes XD

Then, get a short bow, the only bow that will do both, at the same time

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

This is why the only European archery that interests me is the English Warbow, I look at archery more from a martial art perspective, which is what attracts me to saracen/asian archery with short bows and also warbow with longbows.

[bradsmith2010]

you have to figure that any bow that was used in war, ,was probably effective,, same with the Native bows,,
they were using the different length bows for a reason,, or how they perfromed in a given situation,,war or hunting,, we dont have videos or much documentation of guys shooting 1000's of years ago, I have a feeling they were pretty good shots with the bows they chose to shoot in war,, that might have been a longer eastern style war bow,, or a short horse bow,,but alot of knowledge was lost back then and we speculate alot about how it really was,,

[BowEd]

There's a lot of footage about Howard Hills feats of accuracy.Even shooting for Robin Hood movies.
BTW a person can shoot a quarter with a long bow close range.Howard shot aspirins out of the air.

[bradsmith2010]

I know that Ed, I threw asprin for Bryon Ferguson for some exibitions,, I saw it close up,, he was shooting a long bow too,, that arrow wizzing by from a 70# long bows was somthing to behold,, whew,,

[DC]

You mean it was the archer hitting the aspirin?? And I thought the talent was throwing the aspirin up so the arrow would hit it.

[bradsmith2010]

that's right thats what I meant to say,, I threw the asprin in front of the arrow, it was tricky,, but I did it,,