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Supraman83 t1_ixt98vl wrote

Reply to comment by MummyPanda in ELI5: How are archers “efficient” in combat? by Environmental_Point3

Isn't the draw weight on a longbow like 270lbs,

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Fat_IRL t1_ixtt5tu wrote

I'm just a random dude reading this and have absolutely zero expertise other than fucking around with a compound bow once, but I'll just say, anecdotally, there is no fucking way in hell the draw weight of a longbow was that high. I just googled a bit and the highest I could find was a chinese Qing Dynasty bow that was supposedly 150 pounds max.

You'd need to be like a professional strongman (think The Mountain) to draw a 270 pound bow, and even then I doubt they could do it more than a dozen times.

I'm 6 foot 4 and weigh about 300 pounds, I'm large. Ive been a brickworker and an iron worker. So I feel like I'm not weak. Two of me could not draw a 270 pound bow, with both hands.

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SideWinderSyd t1_ixty8ra wrote

In ELI5 terms, does a draw weight of 50 lbs mean I need to be able to lift up a 50 lbs bag of sand with one hand?

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Fat_IRL t1_ixu4oej wrote

No. Not in the way you're probably thinking. Drawing a bow (correctly) is almost all in the back muscles. Or really they ARE muscles that control your arm, but they are located in your back. In theory. But unless you're an Olympian or have impeccable technique or something like that, your arm is gonna be involved.

Kinda like how a pull-up isn't an arm exercise, it's really your back muscles moving your arms.

If you're using a modern bow and don't know what you're doing, it's gonna be difficult now matter how strong you are, or what the weight is. 50 pound draw and your first time? Its gonna suck. But 12 year olds can hand a 50 pound draw on aodrrnn bow if they know what they're doing.

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SideWinderSyd t1_ixuxds3 wrote

Thanks for the insight - TIL!

Drawing a bow sounds pretty impressive! And now I realise why I wasn't able to do pull-ups as a kid.

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StatusBattle9300 t1_ixws4g7 wrote

Professional archer here; no 12 year old can pull a 50lb draw, especially any recurve or longbow format. Re. compound bows, maybe if they were abnormally strong they could get to the let off point just once where the cams drop the weight down to 8lbs, but I doubt it. They’d have to pull 50lbs many inches to get there. Most 12 year olds will start on 14-18lb bows and by the time they’re full adults age they’d be pulling 54lbs ish if they were really fit, had great technique and a decent enough amount of muscle. I shoot every day and pull 56lbs, by the end of sessions I’m absolutely shattered.

Apart from that nitpick, really good explanation of the muscle use.

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Supraman83 t1_ixtz3j5 wrote

I looked it up I had the 270 right but it's 270 newton's which is about a 90 pound draw weight

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Fat_IRL t1_ixu3x4w wrote

90 pounds seems pretty much around (even sometimes low) what I saw referenced in my 2 mins of googling. So yeah.I cannot imagine how fucking strong you gotta be to do that even. 70 pounds is rough to me, muscular wise...but then I got like a lil trigger apparatus that connects to my wrist so I don't have to use my actual fingers.

Just think about how much pressure is gonna be on their fingers. with a cord of fabric of some type putting 90 pounds of pressure on your fingers as you draw the string back. That's hell. What badasses.

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