Longbows??????
 

Hello everyone! I have been shooting recures all my life and feel that now I would like a longbow. My question is do long bow need to be "long" to be smooth and precise. I see in many of the bowyers web sites that they offer longbows not very "long". A short longbow, if it shot nice, would be a nice addition to the collection. I have a 27" draw length any opinions on the length I should be looking for.

RE: Longbows??????
 

At 27" draw? NO. I think you'd do fine with a longbow that's 58-60" long. I've found with my 32" draw that I can shoot pretty well with a 64" longbow, but 66" is better. 66" is just two inches longer than double my draw length. A friend of mine has a 25" draw and shoots great with a 56" longbow. The bow is short enough that he can put enough strain on the limbs to get good performance. With longer bows, he never was able to get very good arrow speed.

RE: Longbows??????
 

Athur is right.
The English have tables about lenght of bows.
I have kept my eyes and ears open when those 'bowyers' starting to talk about this, but to be honest......i have never seen a old english longbow shooting with a reasonable speed.
It's really true....seen 60 pound bows shooting hardly 30 yrds...

I shoot a 55 sky hoyt longbow...
Very nice shooting bow....
Never let me down.

RE: Longbows??????
 

I have a 29" draw and shoot longbows from 62" to 66". I love my 62" Selway Lil Magnums. Easy to shoot. I tried a 58" but had some finger pinch. I think you'd do fine with the right short bow.

RE: Longbows??????
 

I too have a 27" draw. I shoot a 62" Crusader. Very nice shooting bow, no stack or pinch.

RE: Longbows??????
 

I suspect twice your draw length is a good minimum guideline for a straight bow, probably one of the few rules of thumb that actually works most of the time.

RE: Longbows??????
 

It depends on your personal preferences, and the type bow you are shooting, and the bowyer. Most of today's "high performance" longbows, especially the shorter ones, would be more accurately described as flatbows.

I draw 30.5", and in the longbow I like best I can shoot the 64" with no stack at all, but I prefer the 66"--it just feels better and is easier to shoot to me. Going as short as possible will give you more speed in a given design, but won't be as forgiving.

With the bows I am most familiar with (mild deflex/reflex ), I'd think a 60-62" longbow would be a good combination of speed and forgiveness, or a 58-60" flatbow.

Chad

RE: Longbows??????
 

MAN!!! Some of you guys have some serious long draws ! heck iam 6'2" and have a 28.5" draw,, wow!! but iam a beleiver in stay on the long side of any bow you want to buy, jmho;)

RE: Longbows??????
 

One the interesting things I've observed over the years is that draw length apparently has little correlation to stature. One of my colleagues, whose head I could readily see over in a crowd, had wrists my fingertips can barely reach when standing shoulder to shoulder. I kidded him frequently on whether or not his knuckles would drag on the ground when he walked.

We became aware of this anomaly when he was trying to teach me to spin a PR24 police baton without clobbering myself in the ribs and it wasn't working. Neither one of us could believe, in view of his short stature compared to me, that his arms were so significantly longer that he excelled with the PR24 baton while I could barely manage it and finally carried a straight baton instead. But it was true.

RE: Longbows??????
 

I have shot longbows for many years and just about every brand. You will find out that a longbow that is 66 to 70 inch long will pull easier than a 58 to 64 inch longbow but they are slower in cast. I use to shoot a 90 pound Howard Hill 70 inches long and it's arrow speed was 170 feet per second with a 650 grain arrow. Because of old age and neck and back trouble I had to go down to a lighter poundage. I now have a Longbowbow from Wildfork Archery that is 64 inches long and 62@26 and a Morrison takedown 64 inches long and 70@26. I got 175 feet per second with the Wildfork longbow and 172 feet persond with the Morrison. Much easier to pull and faster. If your draw is over 27 inches look for a 66 inch bow this will handle nice for you. You can shoot a shorter bow but to get the most out of the bow the tables would reccomend a 66 inch if over 27 inch. Poundage is another question only shoot what you feel comfortable with. Remember Longbows do not have the cast that most recurves do and they are longer so shooting position is more important. Canting the bow will allow you to shoot from about any position with practice. Check out Wildfork Archery Van makes a Longbow that is very fast and gracefully crafted.

RE: Longbows??????
 

Check out www.shrewbows.com Ron has some thoughts on the short longbow.His bows are hard to get.Wes martin makes one called a mosshorn.Sweet shooter.You can get it 56 to 60 inches.A lot of the newer r/d short bows shoot well at short draw lengths.

CB

RE: Longbows??????
 

I'll raise you LBR, I think a lot of these modern longbows could more accurately be called recurves:). I'm not saying a bad thing about them, I like recurves, but it explains the miracle of the short bow, 60-62" isn't short in a recurve, it's midling.

RE: Longbows??????
 

I hear ya Ossage! Actually I have seen several "longbows" that, when unstrung, I would have sworn were recurves--all the super-short versions. As my favorite bowyer says, "Everything is a trade-off". Can't deny the laws of physics (unless you are a bumblebee), so something has to give somewhere. The 62" version of my favorite bow does have moderate deflex/reflex, but still maintains the look of a longbow--strung or unstrung. A little curved, but obviously not a recurve.

Like you said, it's not a bad thing--I figure I would shoot a recurve if all I had to choose from were straight limbed longbows--just don't get along with them all that well.

Chad