Traditional English Longbow

[jvs9932]

Hey gents,

I will be traveling to the UK soon and will have an opportunity to shoot some "traditional English longbows" made by Jack Pinson of Living Longbows (https://livinglongbows.com/) while I'm there. I've never shot a bow that's not center-shot and am curious what you guys think of them. How does the grip hand change (if at all)? Anything in particular I should be on the lookout for?

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance!
John

[Ron LaClair]

Be prepared to step back in time to the days of Robin Hood.

My bow was made by Don Adams from Oregon. Made from Oregon Yew, 72" 75#@ 28" 


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[McDave]

It's hard to shoot instinctively with an olde English longbow when you're used to shooting a bow cut past center.  For a RH shooter, you instinctively hit left of the mark. In order to hit the mark, you either have to spend a lot of time reprogramming your brain, or you have to aim down the arrow. If you aim down the arrow, you will have to move your bow hand to the right to get it to line up, and then you will hit closer to the mark.  Probably not as good as you would like, because everything feels strange, but quicker than waiting for the computer to reprogram.

[jvs9932]

I am actually a gap shooter. Is gapping hard to do with a traditional English longbow?

[jvs9932]

Great pix Ron!

[McDave]

I am actually a gap shooter. Is gapping hard to do with a traditional English longbow?

It's like aiming down the arrow. Just be aware that you will still feel strange as you hold your bow arm more to the right than you're used to, in order to get the point of the arrow under the target. Even when you gap shoot, there's still a lot of instinctive feeling that you'll have to overcome.

[tippit]

When I shot a bear with one of my English bows, I spent a month shooting only that bow.  It is hard to go back and forth between an arrow shelf cut bow and one that isn't (for me anyway).  As said above, I had to concentrate on moving my arrow point of aim way to the right.

[Steve Clandinin]

What everyone has said above is so true. You have to learn to shoot the arrow , not the bow. On my Ravenbeak my brace height was to low, increasing it about 3/8" and canting the bow to about 2:00 really helped.The more I shoot it,the more I want to shoot it, I'm really enjoying it.

[Pat B]

Arrows for "shoot around bows", off the knuckle, need to be lighter spine. My selfbows usually use arrows of about 10# lighter spine. These bows are different from bows with shelves and center shot bows. Practicing with the bow exclusively will help you get used to the difference.

[jvs9932]

Thanks gents! I look forward to trying it out!