About archery for the Big Shoot and the battle

About archery for the Big Shoot and the battle
Participation to the big shoot and battle for the archers :
Hereafter we will deal with the bows authorized in the Big Shoot and the reenacment
battles. Archers shall be equiped with wooden longbows (French or English historical
designs). Wooden laminated bows are allowed
Historical woods for longbows are: yew, elm and ash. Warbows were made of yew wood,
however others woods are allowed. A good yew bow have quite few sapwood on the back
and a lot of heartwood
Longbows or warbows are normally at least the height of the archer plus a hand. The
coss-section of the bow shall be D type, square or round (see attached drawing). Flat-bows
designs are not recommended because, visually, they are far from the designs of the bows
of the 100 years war. The true historical cross-section correspond to a D where the depth is
longer than the width at the back of the bow. Historicaly, the bow bends along the whole
length including at the handle; that is generally not true for more modern designs.) (drawing
source:http://www.mcbriens.net/greenhollowbowmen/longbow.htm )
Bow nocks may be directly made in the wood or made of horn (see attached picture)
The historic handles of the warbows and longbows have no grip. A mark is made where the
arrow is located; this helps a lot when wielding the bow. Leather grips are however allowed
We suggest that archers get bows fitting their physical abilities and brace height; however,
the following poundage limitations apply. In the Big Shoot, there is no maximum poundage
for the bows. In the reenacment battles, the maximum poundage is 50 lbs using preferably
self-slowing down arrows. If the fletching do not slow down the arrows, we suggest to avoid
poundage above 30 lbs.
Note that a check on the power of bows and crossbows will be done before shooting
The organizer may not be taken responsible in case of any injury resulting from the use of
any bow, light or heavy. There will be no battle reenacment in the Big Shoot. 50 lbs
limitation on the bows applies to all the battles that will take place elsewhere
About the bow strings. Traditionally, they are made of linen or hemp; synthetic string, In
example made with Dacron threads, are allowed provided they are discreet and with a
visual aspect looking like natural material strings.
Knotted strings are better looking in reenacment, however other styles of strings are
allowed provided they are not worn out, too thin, or made in poor material
Archers accessories includes protections. For the fingers, as far as I know, there is no
conclusive evidence of finger protection except this late tab (Coventry 1500). However,
such tabs, considering the poundage of the bows used are very plausible. On paintings, we
sometimes see archers with complete gloves. These accessories however are more rich
people attires than archer's. Partial gloves are not proven until the 16th century.
The following tabs are allowed during the shoots. The bracing technic shall be
mediterranean: index finger above the nock, middle finger and eventually ring finger bellow
the nock
The bow arm may be protected using a modest piece of leather located where the bow
string is when the bow is not braced. This protects the erea where the string vibrates at the
end of a shoot.
There is no need for a larger bracer because the medieval shooting technic more on the
side than in modern shooting
Hereafter is a bracer from late 14th century found in York (Craft, Industry and Everyday Life: Leather and
Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York (The Small Finds)) made using an old shoe and my
bracer made after that artifact. On paintings, bracers are round or squared, eventually with the corners cut,
and they look like the Rose-Mary bracers.
Arrows were usually stored and given to the archers in linen bags, or thus we believe it
was. A lots of speculations were made after the remainings found in the Mary Rose, but
more ancient pictures proves such bags were used in the Middle -Ages. The use of those
bags, with or without arrow-spacer, with or without wicker made frame, is encouraged.
Quivers (leather or wicker) hanged at the hips also existed, but were meant apparently only
for hunting. Paintings often show archers with only a few arrows tucked in the belt;
however, it might certainly have been arrows for quick shooting
Concerning archers in the battles, weapons must be blunted and daggers are strictly
forbidden on the battle fields
If archers wish to fight hand-to-hand, they must wear gambeson, Gauntelets, and helmets.
Other archers won't take part in hand-to-hand fight
Here is a chapter concerning reenactment battle arrows. They are basically made the same as the
arrows of the Big Shoot, except the point heads are replaced by rubber blunt heads. The best blunt
head is the red rubber one hereafter attached and which may be found in Great Britain. Other ribber
blunt heads are acceptable provided they come from an archery store. It is stricly FORBIDDEN to
put blunt heads over a point head! They must be put on the shafts that is not sharp or broken.
When archers shoot bows above 30 lbs, we highly recommend the use of slowing down
fletching. The picture bellow shows 3 types of such fletching. 1: arrow with 3 flu-flu type
feathers; there may be 6 flu-flu feathers. The fletching is approximately 6 inches long when
there is 3 feathers; it may be shorter with 6 flu-flu feathers. 2: arrow with one flu-flu feather
winded around the shaft. However it is the harder fletching to make, it is the most efficient
fletching for slowing down. 3: arrow equiped with medieval type feathers make a spiral
around the shaft. All 3 feathers shall be sufficiently winded in order to slow the arrow down;
if they form only a slight spiral, the effect will be opposite
Arrows will be checked before entering any battle. Each archer shall check them after each
shot.
Fort the Big Shoot :
Sharp arrows can be used.
Goose or swan feathers shall be used and shall be white or grey. White or grey turkey
feathers are also allowed
Nocks are normally cut directly in the shafts. However, separate wooden nocks or plastic
nocks (neutral colour) are allowed. Some archery shops sell wooden shafts with nocks
shaped in them
DIY: Here is a method to make simple nocks without hard wood or horn reinforcement
using a mini-drill or gimlets (drill first tiny holes and make them larger gradually in order not
to damage the shaft), a small saw, a cutter, a small file and/or sand paper. 1: the growth
rings shall make a 45° angle relatively to the hole; it will garantee the solidity of the nock. 2:
drill a hole corresponding to the bow string thickness (for low poundage bows like mine, 40
lbs, a 3mm hole is sufficient). 3: with the saw make carefully a slot. 4: with the cutter
enlarge gradually the slot. 5: finish the nock using the file or folded sand paper and round
the end of the nock in order to make the notching smooth. Caution: notching the arrow shall
not be hard, but avoid a too loose nock also
CHOOSING THE SHAFTS: inspect the straighness of the shafts by making them roll on a
flat surface and check that the growth rings are well aligned in the shafts and that they
deflect very few. The stronger the bow, the larger the shafts. Be carefull to buy shafts or
make them so they have the right spine corresponding to the bow weight minus 5 or 10 lbs
(bows without window need more flexible arrows so they may go around the bow and then
fly straight). Historically, shafts were made of poplar wood at least 1cm wide;
however, low poundage bows won't work properly unless shafts are thinner. Woods used
nowadays are usually cedar and pine woods
The glue used to stick the feathers may be a natural glue (i.e. skin glue) or a modern glue
(wood glue is perfect to stick feathers). 3 feathers are positionned 120° from one another
and one of them is aligned with the nock. There will be a sufficient (but not too large) gap
between the rear of the arrow and the nock so the fingers fits. A thread of ecru or grey linen
is used to tie the fletching until bellow the nock to make it stronger
Couloured whool, a little ribbon or some painting may be used to mark each arrow between
the rear of the feathers and the nock. It will help to recognize ones arrows in the field
among the other arrows
The number of arrows needed for the Big Shoot is 12 arrows
And finally a link in french and english about the attire of
archers :
http://www.webarcherie.com/index.php/topic/33635-vesturedun-archer-medieval-de-1415/
Ceci est une synthèse du travail de présentation et de
recherche effectué par Cécile Lafaurie. Un grand merci à
elle !
This is a summary of the work performed by Cecile Lafaurie.
A big thank you to her!
Published by Google Drive – Report Abuse – Updated automatically every 5 minutes