Favorite segment at 54:42
Early steppe recurve/composite bow is similar to today fiberglass bows.
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Movie Theater "Archery Its History And Forms"
- Thread starter steve podleski
- Start date
Favorite segment at 54:42
Early steppe recurve/composite bow is similar to today fiberglass bows.
Awesome documentary. Love it. Bowhunter and bow builder here. Learned archery and bow hunted way before going into guns...
BTW, Korea is basically still the epicenter of almost all things archery today. Hoyt and Samick, two of the leading names in modern bow technology, have their factories and engineering departments based in Korea. Samick is actually a Korean company with franchises in China, USA, and the rest of the world. Hoyt is co-owned I believe. Korea/USA. Fiberglass is the modern equivalent of horn, and is the main reason why modern, high tech, and almost fully weatherproof recurve bows made a comeback around 1940 or so. Before fiberglass, the only way you can make a recurve bow impervious to the elements was by making them out of spring steel, bronze, and brass. The main reason why the Mongol invasion of Vietnam failed spectacularly was because the Mongols' traditional sinew, glue, and horn bows unraveled in the Indochina heat and humidity and became useless. Vietnamese bows were made from steel, and Vietnamese sharpshooters killed the ever living fuck out of the Mongols... Chinese bows around the same time were made from steel and brass as well. During the Ming Dynasty, that enabled Chinese troops to go all the way into the grasslands of Transoxiana, crush a Turkish revolt, and then go back to the south, pick up their payrolls in Guangzhou, and then off to Hong Kong and Mindanao to get roaring drunk and impress pretty Pinoy ladies by shooting apples off each others' heads, all with the same standard field kit...
Now if you want something to really fuck with your mind tonight, check out this Hoyt torture test video right here... 1500 dry fire shots are standard proofing for each Hoyt bow before leaving the factory in Korea... This kind of shit would have wrecked any other compound or trad bow on the first attempt, much less 1,500...
BTW, Korea is basically still the epicenter of almost all things archery today. Hoyt and Samick, two of the leading names in modern bow technology, have their factories and engineering departments based in Korea. Samick is actually a Korean company with franchises in China, USA, and the rest of the world. Hoyt is co-owned I believe. Korea/USA. Fiberglass is the modern equivalent of horn, and is the main reason why modern, high tech, and almost fully weatherproof recurve bows made a comeback around 1940 or so. Before fiberglass, the only way you can make a recurve bow impervious to the elements was by making them out of spring steel, bronze, and brass. The main reason why the Mongol invasion of Vietnam failed spectacularly was because the Mongols' traditional sinew, glue, and horn bows unraveled in the Indochina heat and humidity and became useless. Vietnamese bows were made from steel, and Vietnamese sharpshooters killed the ever living fuck out of the Mongols... Chinese bows around the same time were made from steel and brass as well. During the Ming Dynasty, that enabled Chinese troops to go all the way into the grasslands of Transoxiana, crush a Turkish revolt, and then go back to the south, pick up their payrolls in Guangzhou, and then off to Hong Kong and Mindanao to get roaring drunk and impress pretty Pinoy ladies by shooting apples off each others' heads, all with the same standard field kit...
Now if you want something to really fuck with your mind tonight, check out this Hoyt torture test video right here... 1500 dry fire shots are standard proofing for each Hoyt bow before leaving the factory in Korea... This kind of shit would have wrecked any other compound or trad bow on the first attempt, much less 1,500...
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Here is another video on archery except from the Turkish point of view. They take their archery history very seriously, probably more seriously than the English. They make some strange claims of ancestry. There is no doubt that the Turks had great success with mounted archers but they were not the only people with that history. I think the Mongols may object They make no mentions of the Mongols I suspect some rivalry to goes waaaayyyyyy back
They make no mentions of the Mongols I suspect some rivalry to goes waaaayyyyyy back 
Not that particular rig... That one just dryfires and draws, and measures 'em...
I am certain they have a device that does shooting at various ranges though...
This is one rig that vendor Three Rivers Archery in Indiana uses to test FPS and accuracy on all of their trad bows:
Hoyt probably uses a version on steroids, with VR goggles or whatnot to track the arrows in real time as they fly...
On a side note, recurve and reflex bows seem to be the most efficient energy converters in term of sheer arrow speed because of the tremendous tension that even the resting limbs already have stored in there. Longbows and stickbows are less efficient.
My old Primal Gear survival (long) bow at 55lbs draw sends a 500 grain arrow at roughly 164 FPS... My current hunting/SHTF/eco-friendly, green, and silent premises defense setup is a set of Samick bamboo-fiberglass 60lb limbs paired onto a TradTech Titan II riser using the ILF (International Limb Fit) dovetail coupling system. This one produces 205 FPS with the same weight arrow. That is one HUGE difference right there, and can illustrate why East Asian recurve and reflex bows had been historically made in draw weights only around 40-80 pounds for infantry and cavalry use, and still pack such devastating performance at long range. The TradTech-Samick is an extremely straight shooter too once the horizontal limb adjustment bolts are carefully dialed in and lined with the string. In the hands of someone like Lars Andersen, it can probably be used to perform social distancing-approved haircuts, or long range prefrontal lobotomies. The Chinese (Imperial Qing) army had only officially retired the recurve bow from infantry use upon the introduction of the Hanyang Type-88 bolt action rifle in 1888, with 8 round magazine and chambered in a modern smokeless powder cartridge that would be known as the 7.92x57mm. Cavalry and frontier guards continued using the bow well into the 1920s simply because it was a skill that every outdoorsman knew and equipment was plentiful and easily built...
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What is often not taught in regards to spine is that the Archer influences the amount of flex as well as the bow setup. The cleaner the release the less the flex and depending on what stabilizers you have will also change the amount of flex also called deflection AKA spine.
Notice how when Byron shoots his draw elbow is exactly behind the arrow at release. Pull too much draw length that elbows behind the arrow released too short and it's in front of the arrow, elbow high or elbow low changes the release as well... All have any effect on Dynamic spine
Also one thing to consider is spine location versus deflection. Every arrow, for the most part, has a stiff side and a weak side. All arrows should be indexed so the dynamic spine is identical
Just a quick comment on the Korean bows... Very difficult to beat those. And you put one of the Korean bows in the hands of a Korean woman... She will beat you.
Yes said above, not sure if it's done on the same jig but testing has been done regarding accuracy in a mechanical shooter.
What's been found you made find surprising. You can grab a bow from 30 years ago be at recurve, compound and the most technologically advanced boat today... If you know how to tune the bow and you know how to tune the arrow to said Beau Dalal shoot through the same freaking hole. The only thing that's really different is the perceived hand shock, balance Etc.
The above said, certain bows are actually easier to shoot. That doesn't necessarily mean they're more accurate just easier to make I'm more accurate shot. Somebody that's been shooting for 20 years probably won't notice any difference in accuracy. But the guy that's just getting into it we'll probably see a difference.
Look at the difference between the older Bose, caulking compound here, versus parallel or pass parallel limb design. It's a lot easier to shoot the newer bow then it is those older ones. But, that doesn't necessarily mean one bow is actually more accurate than the other.
I will say what is really awesome with today's technology is how much energy you are able to transfer to the Arrow versus the older bows. Don't quote me on exact numbers but you can get by with a 55 lb bow today with what you used to use the 65 to 75 pound about 20 years ago
Need to get back into target archery. Need to get a compound bow that is not too expensive ( <$300?)
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