Tatical archery

[greatgoogamooga]

The bodkin was invented to pierce armor, but it still had to go through mail and heavy quilted cotton padding. Short of a headshot through the visor of a knight, most deaths through the armor were caused from blunt trauma. You didn't shoot a knight once, you had to do it repeatedly. In short, the armor worked because it took too much effort.

I started archery and bow making in Nov. of 2008, figuring I can always make those. I'll let you figure out why.

Goog

[japs8944]

If you look at a lot of pictures from the period when bows, such as the English Longbow, were heavily in use a lot of them show archers shooting straight on from shorter distances than was previously beieved. It is not hard to venture that horses were the main target, as they were most of the time very lightly armored.

Goog, I am currently learning bow making, any tips?

[Thaddius Bickerton]

Seems I recall that early Spanish conquistadors switched to quilted cloth armor because it did a better job of protection against indian arrows (S.E. USA) than their metal armors.

[Old Professor]

To comment on a lot of questions raised by other posters: An arrow kills by hemoragic shock (blood loss). The only way an animal would drop in its tracks is if the central nervous systen is hit (spine/brain shot). It is not how powerful (pounds of pull effort) that kills an animal, it is how sharp the arrow head is. Now if you are talking going up against a man wearing body armour, then a more powerful bow aids in penetration of that armour, therefore the 150-200# English Long Bow. The type of broadhead definitly affects penetration while passing throuigh the target. Obviously a target point has very low cutting ability, so broadheads with multiple sharp edges are head of the choice . As Goog mentioned in his post, bodkin points are preferred for an armored target BECAUSE they are of a strong constriction (assuming they are sharp). I have seen too many modern broadheads meant for deer/bear hunting fail because they broke on impact because the blades are too thin. There are some two bladed broadheads, like the Grizzly, mentioned by another poster that are strong enough to penetrate armour. I had some of these when I was preparing for a moose hunt.
Bottom line, IF i could still pull a bow, I would certainly have a bow & arrows as part of my survival/defensive armourment. Arrows are relativly easy to make and arrows shafts and feathers are a lot more available than ammo currently seems to be!

[Batch]

I have shot a deer with a compound bow using Muzzy MX-4 broad heads and pinned its neck to its spine and it was still moving (kicking its left rear leg high in the air while laying on its right side). I shot another arrow through its chest and immediately watched its pupil fully dialate.

Just to illustrate not all spinal shots are immediate killers. My arrow passed completely through the neck and imbedded itself in the deers spine for like 4" effectively pinning its head to its back. And it still could move its hind leg and was very much conscious when I got to it a few minutes later.

Also, if you hit an artery close to where it leaves the heart the blood loss is enough to result in immediate and permanent loss of consciousness. Good mechanism to envision is a sprinkler you place on your roof. Turn the water on and then cut the hose quickly. How long does your sprinkler continue to function when you have completely severed the hose? If you think anything longer than zero, you are wrong. In fact you will actually have a negative pressure as the fluid is drawn back down the now severed hose.

You may want to debate at this point that the animal will still be able to react and run for a short period of time. Animals have a mechanism to deal with a reduced flow of blood to the brain (remember, you now have blood being pulled from the brain via the siphoning effect). They pass out. That is to say that if the blood is not getting to the brain, the brain shuts you down so that you fall over and then it is much easier for blood to be pumped horizontally without having to fight gravity. This is known as syncope and I would probably classify severing the main artery to the brain as cardiac syncope.

I would like to learn more about speed shooting. I have tried various ways of holding the arrows with various recurve and straight bows. All with comical results.

How do they nock the arrow? It takes me longer to nock the arrow normally than it does Lars to shoot three arrows. LOL

[Batch]

Actually, my hose analogy is wrong because of the check valves in the artery that would prevent blood flow from back flowing. But, you would still be unconscious from the low blood pressure.