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<blockquote data-quote="Ashtagon" data-source="post: 5924091" data-attributes="member: 72335">These numbers seem suspect to me.I can certainly believe that 350m is about the limit of the useful range of a longbow when it's considered as one man aiming at a single standard target. However, I have some difficulty believing that someone lying down on the ground to use a footbow would be able to reliably hit a specific man-sized target at a range of 1850m, which is the criterion that should be used if we are comparing like with like.According to <a href="http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/flight.html" target="_blank">World Record archer, Barry Groves, article on Flight Archery - the Pursuit of Perfection</a>, the distance record with a conventional (ie not compound, although it does not specify if composite recurve or self) is 1222m.<a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/" target="_blank">http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/</a> has some nice formulae in the trajectory section that are relevant. Assuming an initial arrow speed of 75 m/s (246 fps, slightly below that of modern construction self bows), we get the following theoretical ranges:* 1020 m at 45° angle (optimal for range)* 884 m at 30° angleDoing a reverse-calculation, to have a maximum theoretical range of 350m, the launch velocity would have to be no greater than 58.57 m/s (192 fps), which is significantly below the velocity of even the slowest arrows that have actually been measured.<a href="http://backcountrybowhunting.com/articles/calc/" target="_blank">Backcountry Bowhunting - Archery Calculator</a> has a nice calculator for determining expected arrow speed.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ashtagon, post: 5924091, member: 72335"] These numbers seem suspect to me. I can certainly believe that 350m is about the limit of the useful range of a longbow when it's considered as one man aiming at a single standard target. However, I have some difficulty believing that someone lying down on the ground to use a footbow would be able to reliably hit a specific man-sized target at a range of 1850m, which is the criterion that should be used if we are comparing like with like. According to [url=http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/flight.html]World Record archer, Barry Groves, article on Flight Archery - the Pursuit of Perfection[/url], the distance record with a conventional (ie not compound, although it does not specify if composite recurve or self) is 1222m. [url]http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/[/url] has some nice formulae in the trajectory section that are relevant. Assuming an initial arrow speed of 75 m/s (246 fps, slightly below that of modern construction self bows), we get the following theoretical ranges: * 1020 m at 45° angle (optimal for range) * 884 m at 30° angle Doing a reverse-calculation, to have a maximum theoretical range of 350m, the launch velocity would have to be no greater than 58.57 m/s (192 fps), which is significantly below the velocity of even the slowest arrows that have actually been measured. [url=http://backcountrybowhunting.com/articles/calc/]Backcountry Bowhunting - Archery Calculator[/url] has a nice calculator for determining expected arrow speed. [/QUOTE]

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