Archery in the ancient times..

[ironglow]

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   First off..I am not an archer, so I could likely be corrected in some things..

  HJowever, I find this fellow quite interesting.  Tell me if you think he has a point..

  He says, and I think rightly so, that today's archers generally shoot for a stiil position, whereas archers of the past,
  particularly before the age of guns, had a whole world of different challenges.
     
   Especially in war, they had to shoot rapidly, and from different positions..also from chariot or horseback.  Evidently, many of these skills have today, been cast aside as outmoded..and perhaps rightly so.

   Check him out;   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk
   

[ironglow]

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   I served n the army with a Indian fellow, who claimed that the Comanche were the "best light cavalry, the world   has ever seen".

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liHlCRpS70k

   Was he correct?

[billy_56081]

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   I served n the army with a Indian fellow, who claimed that the Comanche were the "best light cavalry, the world   has ever seen".

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liHlCRpS70k

   Was he correct?

Maybe so, but I would bet the Mongols would give them some competition.

[locust]

if the native's would of had compound bow's and graphite arrows they would still own this country
 

[ironglow]

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   I served n the army with a Indian fellow, who claimed that the Comanche were the "best light cavalry, the world   has ever seen".

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liHlCRpS70k

   Was he correct?

Maybe so, but I would bet the Mongols would give them some competition.

  The ancient Parthians gave the Greeks and romans fits..with their recurved, horn laminated bows. The Parthian empire came along as the selucid empire bit the .  located in what is today, northern Iraq..the Parthian empire stood about 500 years..split in half by the dawn of the new millennium...about the time of Jesus' birth.

[BUGEYE]

I don’t know if it was the Romans or not but someone was the equivalent of today’s artillery with a repeating bow with heavy arrows.

[ironglow]

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  I think we discussed that repeating bow here, some time ago.  It seems that it would be like some early automatic rifles, it could shoot arrows out quickly, but reloading was a time consumingproposition, so there was little gain in efficency.
  That Danish guy in th evideo could shoot quite fast..and I wouldn't be surprised that the Comanche or Cheyenne
  for instance, with constant practice, could do near the same.

  I do wonder if our plains Indians had bows trhat came anywhere near the ancient Parthians or even the English long bow, since one original example I saw manybyears agi atthe Ft Kearney museum in Nebraska...didn't look like much more than a weak sapling.  It had pieces of sheet metal fashioned to make arrow heads.

      Of course, I realize it could have just been a poor example...which survived.

  Here's a story of a fellow who according to my studies, may have been part of my own clan history..

https://www.scotclans.com/brave-little-john-macandrew/

   

[Dixie-Dude]

I read somewhere that the average American Indian bows averaged about 30# pull.  Light and fast. 

[billy_56081]

On one of the history shows, they said the English longbowmen showed in their skeletons changes from pulling the heavy bows so much. The Mongols used a composite bow that was short and powerful 

[ironglow]

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   You're right on both counts, Billy.  There was a time when all Englishmen were required by the king, to practice X number of hours per week.  I can't recall how many hours it was, nor how the king kept track on it..  There were archery ranges associated with public places .... churches, inns..pubs etc.
    I wonder if that led to the English penchant for dart games in today's pubs?

   It would be natural for Mongols, as herdsmen, many living in rather treeless areas, to have experimented with, and discovered how to incorporate horn material in their bows.  ...And they practically lived on their horses..