Plains Arrow Length???

[elijahjmhutchinson]

Hey y'all, this is my first post and I have recently been interested in some of the short plains bows I've seen. A number of these are self bows measuring only 42 inches in length. I imagine their draw lengths are pretty short. The arrows shown with them in photos look super short with long fletchings. How long are the arrows typically used with such short bows and how long are historical examples? Thanks in advance for your input!

[Jakesnyder]

They were 22-24" long and the fletchings on them were long and very skinny. People say short bows are only good for short range but they probably havent read "nine years among the indians". There was a white boy captured by Apache indians and ended up becoming an Apache warrior. He accounts being able to hit a bent in half baseball cap regularly at 30 yards. And said he even did it once at 150 yards! Weather its exaggerated or not, to each there own!

[bassman]

 The brace height of their bows were typically very low. Hence short arrows .No nock point ,or arrow shelf on their bows can make them difficult to shoot accurately not for them ,but for me. I am most comfy with a 48 inch bow braced at 5 inches with a nock point, and arrow shelf shooting three under, but that would not qualify as a Plains native bow. I  do have replica's that I shoot once in a while as short as 36 inches long with 3 inches of brace with pinch finger method. My accuracy is poor at 15 yards let alone 30 yds,or more. They were amazing people.

[Pat B]

I'm moving this to "ARROWS" for more visibility.

[elijahjmhutchinson]

Thanks for moving this! I apologize for misplacing it.