Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Did any of you watch Mythbusters last night? They were attempting to catch an arrow with a mechanical hand. Put the hand 6 ft away from the bow (was trying to figure out manufacturer) and couldn't catch it with normal hand reflexes so said the myth was busted. They said the arrow speed was 179 mph (262.5 fps) and the man's reflexes I believe were 35/1000 of a second (35 ms) to close. That's very fast reflexes. However, it is not reaction time just time to close his hand. Obviously, you would have to take into account how fast his brain sees the object, determines to close his hand, then actually closes hand.

At 35 msthey could place the hand 9.2 ft away and the hand would be able to catch the arrow even at that speed. 262.5 fpsX 35ms=9.2 ft

They called the myth busted because the hand couldn't catch at 6 ft.

At the distance they used the hand barely missed closing on the fletching end of the arrow.

A person would need at least 26 ft min to catch an arrow. 100 ms is avery fast reaction time.

What's everyone's thoughts?

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I saw that episode. Very interesting. Personally, with my arrows, I don't want my best friend to catch them, I wanta double lung shot on a buck.

But, all in all, I loved how they set up the experiment. Who has a bionic hand like that? I wish I did.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Our house does not miss a Mythbusters. I think they missed it on this one as well. I thought 6 feet was an unrealistic distance to perform the test. After all, IF a guy was shooting at you, and your defense was to catch the arrow in flight, he would be standing a lot farther from you than 6 feet! By the time the guy knocked the arrow and started drawing the bow, a Ninja would have him cut up in pieces at 6'!
Wasn't he shooting a trad bow? That's pretty fast for a trad!
I bet they get a lot of emails on this one and will visit this subject againat a later date. They do that quite a bit.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

It seemed pretty simple to build. I may have to build one to try.

Now I just saw a commercial for Criminal Minds were guys with bows are hunting people in a park.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

The distance was way too close for the experiment. As soon as I saw the distance I knew that there was no way the hand would catch it. I may write them myself and tell them to redo at 9 or 10 ft and see the results.

They were using a compound with a cut out riser on it. It was a cool experiment.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

It doesn't sound to me like they took into account that a person can see the person firing the bow and could see their muscles,or fingers move and start to react BEFORE the arrow actually started to move.

That being said,I would doubt that someone could catch an arrow at 6 feet but I did see someone catch an arrow on the old show That's Incredible when I was a youngin.[:-]They were further than 6' and the bow was slower than 265 fps.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I remember that TFOX, the guy would catch the arrow and do a 360 degree spin, He wasn't no spring chicken either. I see you are on the shooting staff too, did they send you a hat this year. All I got was the shirt, last year we got both.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

They defintiely did not use reaction time. It was purely based on how quick a person can close their hand. I do remember the episode where the guy catches arrows.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

i seen it..and my first instinct as well was move the hand farther way...at that range as soon as i saw someone drawing a bow id be running and jumping and hiding and trying not to get shot at lol. not sure why they didnt simply move the hand farther away. and like dave said...i dont think they used reaction time at all...just the speed the fastest human can close their hand..

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

mauser, that's funny about running and hiding. That would be my first reaction too.

I'm glad others agree with me on this. Sometimes I think they set tests up to fail. If they would ahve set it up at the range the guy aught the arrow on That's incredible the hand would have caught the arrow even at 262 fps.


I compare what they did on that experiment with using a throwing machine to throw a football or baseball to someone standing 6 ft away. There is no way they are catching it at that range and the baseball is only going 95 mph or so. There just isn't enough time to react.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I thought they hand starting to close before the arrow was fired, from what i saw the hand was moving before the arrow tip got to it. that means no matter how far away it is it can't close fast enough.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I don't watch mythbusters cause it seems like they always have too many gaps in thier "science".

I think there was an episode of Chris Angel where he swatted or caught an arrow. It was back a distance though I'm not sure exactly how far.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Ya I watched it, and there are a few people out there who can catch an arrow in there hands like that, seen it when I was little and I was impressed!!

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Not a very fair test. Ninja's didn't catch them at 6 feet and the bows of that time were not nearly that fast.

I have seen people catch arrows, break them in the air and deflect them with a kick before. So I know for a fact it can be done. But not at close ranges with a modern compound bow. This was with a long bow and at like 10 or 15 yards away. Which is more along the lines of what a ninja would be doing, if not farther.

Mythbusters is a cool show, but I sometimes question some of the things they do. They are not really scientists so many of their experiments are flawed.

Paul

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I mainly watch the show to see how they mess stuff up. Usually their tests involving weapons are flawed. They are special effects gurus that have run out of FX stuff to do.

Very Fast reaction time to grasp something is around 100ms. Therefore, a person would need about 26.5 ft (Just shy of 9 yds) to even have a chance at catching the arrow. More than likely though is that you would probably need double that or even triple to have a chance.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I didn't get a shirt last year but I did get a hat and the year beforeI got both.This year I haven't gotten a bow and really don't know if the shop owner has a hat for me or not.I have 2 so I am not worried about it.Especially since I am not competing anymore and have no intentions of buying a new bow.So I may not really be considered staff anymore.[:-]

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Ninja with a compound bow! Give me a break. Try slow long bow.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I watch mythbusters often and I like Adam and Jamie, I think they proform the experiments well. But theother guys I'm not impressed with thier scientific process. The archery "myths" they do, I belive they are not qualified in the science of archery. They need to hire experts (like they did with the follow up on the Robin Hood experiment). They often have experts from theSan Fran police dept. when they do gun myths.

I also beliveit is very possible to robin hood an arrow from nock to tip.
You may need a 90 pound bow and stiff arrows but science is never "busted" it allways leaves room for more tests and more possiblities.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I catch them w/ my teeth at 5 yds no trouble at all. Jamie and Adam are alright but i prefer the gal can't recall her name right know but she seems intelligent and sexy what a deadly combination

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Keri is her name. The redhead.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

well first off........ i wouldent be trying to catch a arrow out of the air, but some one has to make money some how! :D

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Thats the name of the show....the shows that ive seen the experimentswere bias and seriously flawed in some way(ive only seen maybee3 whole episodes....they did do a good job for what it waswith the airliner and seing if a person would get sucked out if a window broke)

those guys probably play paddycake with eachother when the cameras arent rolling...i guess maybee i dont like the show from what ive seen...

old skool ninjas didnt have compounds they had longbows or horse bows... andid bet that if a ninja is within 6 feet of you, your probably already dead and you just dont know it yet!!!!

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

I started watching that episode and ended up falling asleep before they did the test with it. This show is meant to be entertaining I don't know about you guys, but if it was all scientific I probably wouldn't be watching it.

RE: Mythbusters Ninja Arrow catch
 

Last Wednesday, I had a turkey get out of the way of an arrow.At 22 yards, looking right at me, the bird did not appear to recognize the threat until it was slightly more than 1/2 way there. He was able to dodge to the left about six inches right before the arrow would have impacted the center of his chest. I roughly figured the time it took him to react was 1/8 of a second. Arrow speed was 249 fps.