davepjr71

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?

MDBUCKHUNTER

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.

davepjr71

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.

game4lunch

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.

davepjr71

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.

TFOX

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.

Randini

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.

davepjr71

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.

mauser06

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..

davepjr71

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.