How to shoot a medieval Longbow - English Heritage

[amielizadean]

I saw Kevin Hicks at a Nation Trust doing an archery day, Really nice guy.

[miles305678]

Thats a nice longbow you got there, can I has it : D anyway nice shooting, and nice area to, wish I could get into archery, but how do you in the U.S.A.? like nowhere sells real bows, only stupid compound, and then where do you shoot it? Not in your back yard thats for sure!

[Bidmartinlo]

A very nice bow!

[jcfbell3001]

that guy is sick with that bow...like he's not even working hard to draw it...

[podman27]

is there a problem with accuracy with the long bow since the string actualy gose down the center of the bow and thus the arrow rests at a bit of an angle?

[milotist]

i would like to try that

[TotemSaint]

Very well done and enjoyable. I would love to see you do an hour on this :)

[Deralict55]

great video, really interesting historical info.

[2strokelover1]

that is the most perfect yew longbow i have ever seen

[dimilica1]

i didn't had any problem of making longbow,but I can not fasten the top without falling

[davidcampisi]

its called the English longbow yet it was the welsh that invented it,

[Chokula99]

Excellent

[Chokula99]

Excellence

[umarpm]

awesome weapon though the turkish bows were just as powerful and could used from horse back and had a slower rate of fire. the steel cross bow was more powerful but lacked the same range and was a lot slower to reload. though required a lot less training. the strength of fire arms was that they did not reqire the level of training that either the turkish recurve or the long bow someone could effectivly use one with a few hours of training. and production was a lot faster.

[OneWingedGuardian]

=D you are pretty amazing just firing as soon as you pull the string back impressive haha

[svolugz300]

from the age of seven

for two hours after church every sunday

i think he's about 50 years old

2 x 52 x 50 = 5200 hours of thraining for this guy

he's a longbow gorilla

[TYKKETYKKE]

He's good. Shooting instinctively from that distance takes skill.

[katanaswordmaster]

its all about knowing your bow, i can shoot instinctively too with my bow(s) but it has been a while ive shot my bow(s).

[SquidwardGotPwned]

He's good yeah,but shooting instinctive comes to some people more so than points of aim and stuff. Works for me anyway, but I have a deer hunter, not a longbow.

[BlackJackStrikesBack]

Yes he is. I can't imagine how many hours he's used that thing... pretty cool

[TothvariMilan]

Very nice shooting, and that longbow is badass.

[XiaoNoodles]

TEMPLAR!!!!

[dragonslayer387]

That is not a Templar cross......That is the cross of st.Gorge the patron saint of England

[Brian626]

wow this guy is good !

[macassans]

not one arrow ht the bullseye,poor shooter

[SquidwardGotPwned]

It's not called a bullseye, I assume you've never held a bow in your life.

[versionintegrale]

are all english longbows made from yew?

[MookieMoogle]

A good majority of the longbows would be made from yew. Yew is the wood of choice for any longbow making; the bows are constructed so that the heartwood of yew is on the inside of the bow while the sapwood is on the outside. This takes advantage of the natural properties of yew wood since the heartwood resists compression while the sapwood resists stretching.

[createwithnate]

the best were, and the best were often over 6 feet tall and took some of the strongest men in England to draw the chord to its fullest pace.

[EdikShepherd]

He's the great great great great great great grandson of Nicholas Hook!

(Anyone who knows what I'm talking about gets muffins for eternity)

[AzunaiSmyth]

The English Longbow is notorious, Ive shot through a target with a broadhead arrow

With the same poundage as they had in the middle ages

I wouldnt be surprised if it went half inside a tree

If you look at paintings of the archers arms, Notice the pulling arm overbears them, Such power and strength needed, yet when it's law and you practise 3 hours a day, They could shoot an arrow over 2 1/2 football fields, maybe a minimum!

[donepearce]

Don't ever offer to arm-wrestle this chap.

[pspfan68]

i am amazing at archery i have been good at it since i was 9 i once shot my brother(not real arrow they where suction cup arrows) from 1 end of a field when i was at the other( imagine an average sized english field then you get the picture of how far i was) i hit him in the leg

[chelleevonnefarnan]

a brilliant illustraition of how it ought to be done!

[MrRomantic23]

love it!

[XVLaHireXV]

good shots!!

[aleejacopo]

damm he's good

[toothANDclaw13]

kool.

[caibarien71]

the hell with Church ! lets practice all sunday.....

[jimmystalker]

this guy shoots faster than i do in oblivion or dark messiah or mount and blade.......HAXX!!!!!

[TheAssasinDesportan]

This Bow is so awesome

[ccburgett]

i love this guy

[LotusDragon09]

I prefer a two finger draw, myself. Im much more accurate pulling back with only two fingers, plus with the slighly sharper string angle, thats slightly higher energy going into the arrow.

[JaguarOFcomedy]

the machine gun of the medieval age!*5* for this video.

[Xerob95]

These bows have an awsome power,

i own a hungarian composite bow.. im quite good actuly

[GoldenPeaceTree]

I WANT ONE OF THOSE! It makes the little bow I made look like a cute little toy.

[milotful]

wow nice bow and nice shooter xD

[metabog]

That barbed arrowhead pretty much sais "Ouch". I can't imagine having to take that out of someone's body.

[walter0bz]

survival plan for post-oil collapse -

bicycle + longbow

[TYKKETYKKE]

He's a great shot. But he would have to be a lot stronger to have the same accuracy and consistency with a bow of warbow poundage (90lbs and up).

[barksdalep14]

where can i get a longbow like this one?

[whowantsabighug]

this guy + mike loades = unstopable medieval fighting machine!!!

[duffinsmert]

i am thinking about purchasing a solid hickory english longbow i want to know what is a good weight for begginers i was thinkiing 35lbs i am pretty strong so i can pull that back.also with longbows can you use any kind of arrows like carbon fiber arrows or what

[hobbs312]

hey is a bamboo long bow good or is it weak?

[kaching9999]

this guy is so coooool he came to my school lol and demonstrated armour ect

[MannyAlex2]

your one lucky son of a bitch

[aGuy]

He's an excellent shot!

[survivalkid2452]

ye  but no robin hood sadly

[Raksaht]

Instinctive shooting seems so much more appealing than using sights. It puts the art into archery. Nice video and nice commentary as well... love your back yard too! LOL

[MegaLiopleurodon]

Yep, that's my style too ! People always try to realize, how I shot. Some even believe, I'm not aiming at all (which is obviously pure nonsense), because it looks so quick and effortless !

Put the arrow onto the bow - raise the bow - and off within a second !

[pippofilippo1]

Fantastic!

The Longbow it's really the archery's nobility

[mrsparkleo1]

ha mandatory to shoot 2 hours after church on sunday, im down for that

[FinalFreek]

yeah but youe body changes your chest bone opens up and helas again giving you a much bigger chest. many longbowmen became slighty disfigured becuase of all the training they do. Also notice his eyes are always squwinting that's again soemthing that all longbowmen had it's becuase of the training of locking onto the target and staying focuesed,

[anbriones]

i have the same longbow but its black and harder to pull so its stronger then that one

[laycaris]

What poundage does your bow shoot? He's been shooting for years and is used to the draw weight of a heavy bow, which is why it looks so effortless.

[laycaris]

What do you mean it's harder to pull than his bow? What info are you basing that observation on? How does the color make a difference?

[AverageJoeCinema]

kevin hicks has the privelage to wield a wide range of weapons

[arcoarcher]

that is awesome!

[pugilistica]

Where did he get his bow from, and what draw weight is it?

[616saligia616]

B-E-Autiful!

[carson1482]

now thats a long bow

[managarm1349]

quite skillful, very nice sir

[APman101]

nice job but didn't get a bullseye

[BerserkViking666]

wish i could fire my bow that accurate at and fast

[tizzltop]

Does anybody know how many pounds the archers in the army draw, back in the 15th century?

[mangerlentement]

wow he is so good !

[Hwaigon]

i dont understand how can he be so accurate when using the method of " fixing himself on a target" a shoot like a blind man when fixing on a target. Arrow helps me to shoot.

[joshmosh79]

love the bow. its nice to see target shooting with a traditional longbow rather than the modern competition ones.

[eoran2]

not verry religious is it? 2hr practice after church lol

May england prevail!!!

[jimmerly]

It seems from my bit of experience that even a slight recurve (deflex) in a bow reduces the shock to the shoulder. A compass bow, especially above about 50#, seems to have quite a kick. A 60# full recurve bow has none. Does this observation fit wtih your experience? It seems to me the straight longbows I see on YouTube that are 100# plus must be pretty hard on the shoulder. Do you have any comment on this? Thanks. I would love to shoot more compass longbow, but, the jolt is a bit of a problem.

[bonedaddyo]

would love too have an instructor like that.

[STFUwretch]

Great vid, what skill. He makes it seem effortless.

[chooechooe]

it isnt that hard

[hatstalker]

yea it looks effortless but when i shot my friends longbow today my shoulders seized up after!

they have like 100-200 lb strings

[valueoftruth]

THAT'S HEAVY!!! Start with 25-30 and work your way up!

[BlackPanteraSociety]

Yeah real killer this masterpiece is

[SgtExplosion]

I just bought a longbow, its about 56" tall and it has a 26" max draw length. Im about a 25 inch draw length, and it only has 30 pounds. I shoot at 2 bails of straw stacked on top of each other with a paper target, and sometimes my arrows shoot straight through it. Then I think " Holy crap, this thing could kill someone." When I become 16 Ill prolly get a english longbow..... longbows FTW!

[bowman445]

loved the video i want one of those bows

[Octavius0]

This fellow should make more videos like this.

[mrguitarjoe]

this guys absolutely right. i used to shoot barebow (recurve with no sights) and when u train long enough u just have to sort of thinbk the arrow to the target u dont aim xD

[Mo0nBugGy1]

Excuse my stupidity, i know that arrows cant pierce thik armour but why did they get rid of it and used the musket?. Bows can be fired so quickly, is it because or accuracy or range?...please i have no clue.

[TYKKETYKKE]

Training a longbow archer is a long process. As he states, most trained from the age of 7. Now, you can learn to use a musket in a week. It may be slower and more sturdy, but you can train many, many more soldiers in a short time to use a musket, rather than to use a longbow.

[Panzerschrek1945]

You have a good question, even at the time of muskets long bows were truly a superior weapon because of their ability to be fired quickly and their accuracy and effective range. However warfare has significant psychological afflictions and it was far more intimidating to use a weapon that was going BOOM BOOM instead of bows that make almost no sound. That is the truth

[EGCblackknight]

what was one major factor to the adoption of muskets was that to make the armour proof against musket balls it became cumbersome and heavy severly hampering movement. Also the learning curve for muskets is very short, a few days versus years of practice with a bow.

[MackerelSkyLtd]

In fact, depending on the range and the type of arrow used (Bodkin, for example) arrows could very well pierce a good amount of plate if they hit squarely enough. After the introduction of the Longbow, armor had to develop to regain the superiority.

By the time you are armored heavily enough to avoid risk from archers, you can hardly walk, so the archers would shoot your horse from under you instead.

The musket was an inferior weapon in most regards until about 1815. But it was easily trained.

[Zajuts149]

it costs too much to raise and maintain a force of military trained archers. It is much easier to learn the musket drill efficiently, and muskets don't wear themselves or the user out as much as a bow.

[mrguitarjoe]

Because it took so long to train an archer. It took perhaps as much as ten years for an archer to become proficient, and they had to train every week. To train someone to use a musket took much less time.

[Fiercefighter2]

on another video it showed an arrow from a longbow pierce a sheet of metal (typical armour thickness) plus like 5 inches of ballistic gel, pretty deadly weapon.

[Ohyewildthong]

They didn't get rid of them as such, Bows were still being used in world war I. I think about 50 men were using them as weapons.

[dekarjigg]

Well, you have to take into account the velocity at which the arrow is fired. Some of the times also, marksmen would also aim for points on the armor that were less protective, such as metal links. Muskets and rifles started being used because they had a farther range than a bow and arrow.

[RyanRyzzo]

Four months late, but... here goes:

1) Steel got better, even the Longbow(no bow) couldn't pierce newer armour. (main reason)

2) Bowmen need a lot more training.

3) Psychological warfare. Bangy noise is much scarier.

[Shadenuat]

Maybe cause ye don't need to fire a musket 2 hours from years seven after church at sundays to actually hit the target..

[monkeyah]

armor was developed to protect soldiers from arrows sepcificaly. an arrows strength is limited to the materials and strentgh of the archer, so eventualy guns became a better option, but i guess when guns were first invented they were a worst option because of the slow rate of fire

[lockbreak12]

they found the body of a medieval archer his right arm had thick bones some of his bones had warped from pulling the bow for so long

[Fiercefighter2]

thats pretty cool

[TYKKETYKKE]

This clip is a pleasure to watch.

[ReaperManth]

wow great shot

[javasurvivor]

i lov that longbow where are u? england?

its yew right?

[FinalFreek]

yeah it's yew. kevin hicks is based in birningham in the west midlands in england. you can see where he's doing his shows through his site the histroy squad,

[swiftarrow01]

he says what its made of in the video, i think he said it was Yew at 0:25

[FinalFreek]

yes the sap and heart of the yew tree.

[robodoboman]

all english long bows are made of yew

[PedroLoyola]

damn he can aim..

[TYKKETYKKE]

This clip is awesome.

[blaisejones]

isn't he supposed to pull back to his ear?

[FinalFreek]

only for acurate and carefully aimed shots it's back to the cheek for rapid inacurate shooting.

[javasurvivor]

some people do.

but other people dont do that because of either uncomfortable or just not wanting to do it. lol

[Brucy6666]

im sure it doesn't matter when ur that good with an old, standard medievil longbow :O

[abdula31]

Yes and no, for a maximum drawlength he should maybe, but i think it could be a bit less accurate. It can be personal because you get used to it.

[TYKKETYKKE]

Longbow archers usually don't do pull back to their ear :)

[mountedarcher]

not laminated longbow archers, but tradtional longbow archers draw to the ear:)

[joet66]

i found tht in this film tht he didnt really emphasise the strength needed to pull the longbow. Possibly he has been doing it for some time, but in medieval archers would have used their whole bodies to draw it back, nd over times they developed phenomanal strength

[Gh0str1d3r1973]

As a matter of fact... there are several archers, including myself that draw 100 - 150 lbs LAMINATED warbows.. to the EAR.

32" draw-length

[MrVoiceofreason123]

Drawing to the ear will give the arrow more power for sure, but its usually not the easiest anchor point to reproduce. I would do it, but my draw length is already 31" to the corner of my mouth, to the ear would be like 36 - 37 ". Never been able to find arrows that long. It's cool that you can do that though.

[solomonkain]

Very casual style! Love it

[teddybear1111111]

good groopings mate love to see you put up a pass muster shoot

[blaisejones]

who is this guy?  he's awesome!

[JohnTheRipper2]

jesus christ that's nice shooting! i bet that's a warbow.

[CelticReject]

WOW I wish this an hour long programme!!!

[Acornoa]

so he doesn't look at his arrow? just the target?

[foxtrot45]

Wow, this is a really good video. I really liked his desciption of instinctive shooting and how easily he demonstrated it. I takes alot of time and effort to be that accurate with an English Longbow.

[tjsbzc]

good shoot, daddy!

[futtethedog]

He doesnt draw all the way back to the ear.....

[goth0c]

why did bows die durring the 17th centy when muskets took over? bows are more accurate and faster shooting

[abdula31]

Haha now that's some nice shooting. Don't see that on the olympics.

[FinalFreek]

no becuase he just aims in the general direction of the butt (the target) becuase he isn't trying to score points. meanwhile in the olympics they have to have a bow complete with sites so they can get a prisese shot. with a longbow like that you just knock up then snap shoot.

[parallax7d]

that's epic and very scary.

[KnightOfTheWolves]

He has an interesting style, there are a few people who are very good at just naturally aiming it almost as if you can see its trajectory before you shoot it.

[foxtrot45]

Its called Instinctive shooting.

[dukcaboose]

i like how he only hits the perimeter of the center circle target..but it looks as if he's doing it on purpose...lol

[FinalFreek]

you should see him when he brings out his dummy and fires arows at that becuase they hit all over the place. if you want to see him in any events look for the ... bowman (the ... is filled in depending on where he his for example if he was at bolsover castle in chesterfeild in the east midlands then he would be the bolsover bowman)

[thericky1]

i used to have a kids bow, i'd train 2-3 hours every day and it wouldn't porpoise or anything, then it broke :(. The new bow i got keeps porpoising and fishtailing. And now seeing this awesome longbow makes me want to make one.

[Alchrat]

I have a trouble with my longbow. It either goes to the left or to the right when I release, depending on which side I rest my arrow. I think there are no arrow rests on longbows. How do I...?

[Octavius0]

Another excellent video from the man here.

Cheers!

[jedimilan]

is the longbow only made from the yew tree????

[TheArabist]

No, you can make a longbow from other trees, but Yew is a natural for it. The prized Yew bow staves didn't actually come from England, but from Europe...

[StandTogetherForever]

Imagine how much further the British army could have expanded during the 1700's if it was still mandatory to train with a longbow, a longbowman is far more deadly than infantry man with a musket, the drawback however is the training...

[loveryoda]

how powerful is the long bow? can it penertrate wood shield? i know its fire power is 180lb, which is 40 lb more than asian composite bow.

[JohnTheRipper2]

are you kidding me? you can't fire a 180 lb bow! i think the heaviest is the 140 lb.

[joness105639]

he can reload and fire faster than a i've seen it done with a brown bess musket. What was the advantage of the musket?

[treaclebolly]

He has developed a very natural style, but I note he only draws to the cheek, not the ear. Accuracy is much harder when drawing to your full power. Nevertheless, an inspiring archer. What practice he must have done! (Brummie accent's somehow ok too...)

[bedfordpreneur]

Does anyone know where I can buy a left handed bow?

[okamigau]

no such thing as a right or left handed bow if your thinking longbow, just shoot it normally from the other side of your body ie: holding with your right hand, drawing with your left. hope that helps

[Maverick5588]

ur kidding right? they are interchangeable. most are anyways like these.

[jedimilan]

maybe he thinks about the modern metal or whatever they're made of. none of the new ones are good or as pretty as the old ones.

[wiqingwizard]

The authentic longbows from that era doesn't have arrow-rests, and you're letting the arrow rest on the forefinger on the hand which holds the bow.

[hironastaaa]

most sportsbows aint interchangable but longbows like this are. if you buy a bow made of wood and stuff you should have made one for you so you can choose the guy to make a lefthanded one.

[Supertomiman]

bows are symetrical

[Supertomiman]

longbows are symmetrical

[magemager0]

there arent any left/right handed longbows, but composite are, because the sights and etc. are on different sides

[mig15fan]

I think only diference is arrow rest postion isnt it?

[ToraJutsu01]

nice vid but if the broad head cant be pulled out, how did he get it out of the target?:P im joking, im an archer, just seems funny:P

[jaboae2]

dude your awesome! ^__^

[Friends752]

wow nice, i like long bows they can get up to 147# my dad had a cross bow that was 150#

[beatle96]

there is no fun in cross bows though

[orckiller91]

wonder how many pounds hes pulling

[amerrycanpie]

I think toughest arbalests were like 3000 lb actually. Will take you like a minute of playing with pulley before you can fire :D

[archer1819]

longbows are awsome i wish i had a better bow!

[Titanium267]

Wow, he is an skilled longbowman! Sometimes I wish I had an longbow like that :)

[FinalFreek]

oh Belive me mate he's been training for years hence how he can draw back the string. also the bow he's got a is a proper longbow as they would of used a agincourt. i think he said when i was there it's a 100 pound draw back weight and that powerful.

[yaventil]

COOL we got a legolas here.

i shoot a legolas bow and we shoot on little balloons at 20 meter ore so.

and i hit them almost every shot.

[EnigmaHood]

Those things are hard to shoot. Requires a lot of skill and training.

[kenshin715]

First!