The shortbow - what is it good for?

[JohnSnow]

bladesong, i cant wrap my head around your needing to rest on the ground, but i cant say i've had a different experience. So i'll have to get back down to the local archery range and check it out for myself, i know they have some replica bows there.

Maybe he was trying to draw it back across his abdomen?

In all seriousness, it's EASY to shoot straight ahead with a longbow. I'm barely over 6' tall and I can shoot straight at a target within ~40' (depending on the draw weight of the bow). At 20 yards, you have to start taking a SLIGHT angle (unless your bow is extra powerful...proof that mighty bows should get an attack bonus, but I digress).

I have a 6' longbow. When I'm shooting (normally), I shoot in a slight crouch, pressing into the bow to draw, rather than pulling back (less fatiguing on my arms). The string goes to my ear. I shoot dead straight at anything within point blank. It's EASY to hit. On a good day, at 20', I can drop an entire flight (12 arrows) into a 12 inch circle in about a minute. And I'm far from being a world-class or Olympic-level archer.

And in no way does 3' down from my chin hit the ground. On this theory, a gnome could ALMOST shoot a longbow...but he couldn't pull it to full draw.

I normally use a recurve (composite), but I've shot a straight longbow with similar results. Oh, seasoned English yew is a natural material perfectly capable of being used to make a real life "mighty" bow. Just FYI.