Warbow versus Longbow

Got a new bow from Fairbow, in the Netherlands, as a replacement for a previous bow which, unfortunately, failed. Beautiful bow, hickory with a yew belly. It's a true warbow, tillered to 77lbs@32". In practice, I am finding that it is 75lbs@28" and 80lbs@30", which is my preferred draw length. At the moment, I am only drawing to 28" and I expect it will take several months before I can comfortably draw 30".

Got a nice sequence of 12 arrows at practice yesterday with the new bow. Only shooting at 10 metres, but this would give me an average score of 25 for 3 arrows.

The day before I was practicing with a different, lighter, longbow I bought from traditionalbowshop.com in Hungary. A nice bow, tillered to 62lbs@28", but in practice I am pulling it at 73lbs@30". The comparison between the two is interesting. With the warbow I got 10% really accurate shots touching the inner circle, with the longbow only 7%. However, with the warbow I went wide (outside an 8) 33% of the tIme, whilst with the longbow it was only 18%!

l think that the extra strength of the warbow helps accuracy when I get right, but also makes it more likely that I will strain and get it wrong! It will take time for my muscles to adjust!

Encouraging - my first medal!

Yesterday I took part in a 3D shoot organised by Lough Cuan Bowmen. I was shooting a longbow for the first time in competition. We had good weather and an excellent venue (apart from some mud). A very enjoyable day.

Unlike during the previous competition, I felt relaxed and confident and this showed in the result. I attained a respectable score of 277 and did not lose or break any arrows! The score was sufficient to get me my first gold medal!

I would not claim that this represents something that extraordinary, but it represents a significant personal improvement! I do find that I am much happier shooting a longbow and I much prefer it to my previous horsebow.