The Armour Archive

I've never done any combat archery, but I have a few questions that've been bugging me:
I read through the SCA's CA rules, and they seem to state that your arrows can be no more than 28".
So what do you do if you have a natural draw length longer than that? When I shoot, I need at least a 32" shaft to keep from pulling my arrow clean off the arrow rest (I have LONG arms) and if I switch from a chin anchor point to one at the side of my mouth, even a 32" can be too short. So how on Earth do people deal with this? Do tall people just have to stick with crossbows? I simply have trouble imagining how I could fire a 28" arrow.
On the same note of awkwardnesses which I don't understand the solution to: What do combat archers in helms use for an anchor point? Do you attach something to the face of your helm that you can touch, or just... not have any consistency at all?
Sorry if these questions have obvious answers, but as a casual target archer, the idea of trying to shoot little tiny arrows while wearing a helm seems very strange to me.

You would probably draw to your chin, or chest, or some other standard point. If you are in much armor, you likely won't be able to draw it as far back anyway.

Draw to the point where the base of the ca tip touches the front of the bow.

Hi!

I'm in line with Alcyoneus here. For CA I draw to the bottom centre of my helm (cellata w/ bargrill). This is a) approx. 28" in distance and b) works pretty well. Oh, I'm using a 30lbs fibreglass bow (one of those black youth bows) w/ fibreglass arrows, 160psi siloflex ABDs and UHMW blunts.

Cheers,
William

as for accuracy its mostly a matter of pratice.
taller indaviduals usualy take a parcial draw.
relize most CA takes place at 30 yards or less.
beond that its mostly aiming at groups in the shoot and pray method
expecialy with golftubes

You are right, it is hard to find a consistent anchor point. I have a full face helm and tend to move a lot while trying to fire, this makes an anchor point hard to stay with.

At Gulf War most of your targets are 10 to 15 feet away. You will do a lot of instinctive shooting instead of the ol take my time and set my anchor point style of shooting. You are limited to a 28 inch draw length as that is the only way to ensure that all archers are using the correct length arrows. If for instance you have a 32 inch draw and I happen to pick up one of your arrows after inspection and I normally draw only 28 inches I can now over draw my bow by 4 inches, and you know what that will do to the poundage rating. So in the name of safety all arrows are 28 inch max draw.

This of course does leave open the crossbow option if you would prefer, or you can just force yourself to learn to draw the 28 inch arrow. It might not be as difficult as you think, between the blunt blocking a further draw and all the armour you might find it is pretty easy to stop where you need to.

Try an Indian style draw. That is where you draw to your chest just under the arm. (CAUTION THIS ACTION WILL NOT WORK WITH BAGGY SLEAVES, LARGE ARM ARMOUR, AND SHIELDS.) This is what I do and it has had fairly pleasing effects. Also when your on the field there are very few times that you actually have time to stop and aim like in target. Just think " O enemy, distence good, must kill." This is how you will get most of your kills.

Edward

As an fyi.. Tessa has an anchor point that is out in space. She doesn't touch anything with anything to measure it, she just knows where to pull to and where the arrow will go when she does. (Those who know her know WHY she does it that way.. ) This is, I'll admit, more than slightly unorthodoxed, but it works for her. It also took her many years of going to practice after practice to develop consistency.

By the way, when she shoots at the target range, she can easily pull to 31 inches. She's just developed her "combat draw" much like I developed my offside snap. Practice.

Malcolm

jenseny wrote:I've never done any combat archery, but I have a few questions that've been bugging me:
I read through the SCA's CA rules, and they seem to state that your arrows can be no more than 28".
So what do you do if you have a natural draw length longer than that? ...snipped.

The easy answer is to switch to crossbows for combat. Keeps everything consistent.

$.02

Madok

what kingdom are you from?

Society standards allow up to a 33" length for golf tube arrows.

Siloflex, fiiberglass and wooden shafts are limited to 28".

So if you are in a kingdom that allows golf tubes and allows the longer length, that may an option for you.

My draw is 31" and is largely due to shooting golf tube arrows for so many years My anchor point developed from when I used to wear a freon can helm. I would draw to the bottom the helm, then drop my hand a bit further to in front of my chest (if you were looking at me, it's about it the middle of my chest). Over the years, this changed to a straight draw to my chest, still about 2" in front of my chest (so yes in the mid-air).

If you do this consistently and with lots of practise, it works the same as any anchor point. I do not recommend drawing to the bottom of your helm, since some of them can cut your bowstring. Depending on your armor, you may not want to draw to your armor either, if there's anything to cut or snag your bowstring. You can draw to the bottom of your helm, using your thumb to give/measure about a 1" away from the edge (at least until you get used to it). Let me know if you want to explain what I mean by that.

Since you are a guy, you could draw to the middle of your chest (act lkike you are drawing to your ear, then drop your hand straight down until you hit your chest). If I shot from my chest, especially in the midst of moving/running.. often with my body partly turned, I ended up hitting areas that I didn't want to.. so my draw ended up where it is.

I don't think about it at all. I also shoot instinctively.. If you plant your feet to shoot with a handbow, you will be killed. My best recommendation is to practice shooting, with your helm on and whatever gauntlets you want to use, pick a target. Then start walking a line back and forth, shooting at that target. You can walk slowly, but never completly stop. If you can do that with no problems, use a handbow. If you can't or if it misses up your aim, use a crossbow.

If you are in a kingdom with a 28" length for all arrows, don't give up. Just pick a design that doesn't have a tapered blunt. Something like UHMW or a classic Baldar blunt. The blunt is large enough that it will catch on the front of your bow, if you try to pull it back too far. It will really aggravate you at first (trust me, it aggravated me when we first switched to fiberglass shafts), but if you can stick it out and get as much practise as you can.. within a month you should have most of it. You will occassionally still try to pull back too far, but catching the blunt will startle you a bit. Within 6 months or so (assuming you are shooting multiple times a month), you should be fine.

I could show you faster and better than I could by trying to describe it. So let me know if you need me to give more details on anything.

Good luck.. Hopefully, we will see you on the field soon.



Tessa the Huntress
tessathehuntress@earthlink.net