Middle Earth Ranger Forum

that is the other reason i find this one to my liking, it is a little bit shorter than some of the other ranger bows if seen.

I was thinking of getting one of these

http://www.crowshead.com/ranger-bow/

ya the crows head one is on my radar so to speak. if only i had the money for one of each right now.

My only issue with the Crow's Head bows is that they seem to be flat-bows instead of the d-cross-section the other site offered. Not that there's anything wrong with a flat-bow, I just feel like a rounder cross-section looks more "fantasy" appropriate, personally. But to each their own.

Rifter wrote:I think everyone has their own styles. I prefer a longbow but want a smaller one such as Aragorn carried as I use the sword more. Some like recurve bows too.

Of course, in the books, Aragorn didn't use a bow. I don't recall too much description of the bows used by the Ithilien Rangers (or Elves and Hobbits for that matter). I'd assume that Tolkien would be thinking of archetypical English longbows.

Has there been discussion of Aragorn's bow from the movie? I missed that. Are there any pictures of it online? That would be interesting.

Aragorn's film bow is TINY. Full draw isn't possible with a real one...even his, which I don't doubt was injection-molded rubber, just barely allowed full draw, and it still looked awkward. Very much a hunting-specific bow.

The Ihilien Rangers' bows are described as we would expect English Longbows of the warring variety. Nothing's said about bows in the north apart from their presence with the grey company...'armed with spear and bow and sword', so to speak.

We had a nice discussion about the difference in usefulness of warbows vs. hunting bows in a recent topic, over HERE.

See that's why I want a small one too for one due to the costume kit I'm making but I'm far better with a sword then bow and I hate carrying it everywhere. But I do own a longbow for those times when that's what I want to focus on

Rifter wrote:See that's why I want a small one too for one due to the costume kit I'm making but I'm far better with a sword then bow and I hate carrying it everywhere. But I do own a longbow for those times when that's what I want to focus on

That mis why I asked Justin at GIBows to make me a carriage bow.
I sent him a couple pics (old and modern) and he quoted me a decent price.
As it was his first time, there were glitches.
He made it in Pennsylvania so the epoxy failed in Arizona. Not a problem, just use a different epoxy.
And the heat here caused the brass & Stainless to expand and contract at arate different from Pennsylvania so I had to do a bit of dsanding & filing to make it fit properly.

Then I made a bow-bag with two pouches and handles.
The bow breaks down into two parts, slips into the bag and is tied to my quiver to keep out-of-the-way.

I'm going to save up for the Faux Yew longbow from Rudder. It looks more like the classic, even with horn tips.
http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=RBL037

I've heard good things about Rudderbows, but I don't have any personal experience with them. I would wholeheartedly recommend the guy who made my own English longbow if he was still around on eBay or Etsy, but he seems to have closed his shop there. Which is a real shame, because he did seriously beautiful work.

That rudder is a nice item too

Rifter wrote:That rudder is a nice item too

My hickory longbow is made by Rudder bows and I love it. It has a riser cut into it so it doesn't have that sexy look of a real bow lol, but it shoots very nicely. It doesn't have the worlds best grip but I'm gonna get a leather wrapping to put around it.

I got a question, though. Many of these "longbows" that are sold, have a 29" draw, and come with the proviso to not draw the bow past 29". For someone like me, at 6' 2", this does not come to an anchor point. So that's not really what is traditionally called a longbow. It certainly doesn't bring up the image of a Welsh longbowman drawing his clothyard shaft to his ear.

Such a bow should probably called a stickbow or a primitive bow, shouldn't it?

That may in part be explaned by the fact that you would be a giant in those times as most fully grown men rarely topped 5"10". Draw legnth may have been a bit less on average. However I am sure that men of that day and age that were tall and longarmed also had the skill in bowmaking to produce a set that would compliment the sizable archer.

Kortoso wrote:I got a question, though. Many of these "longbows" that are sold, have a 29" draw, and come with the proviso to not draw the bow past 29". For someone like me, at 6' 2", this does not come to an anchor point. So that's not really what is traditionally called a longbow. It certainly doesn't bring up the image of a Welsh longbowman drawing his clothyard shaft to his ear.

Such a bow should probably called a stickbow or a primitive bow, shouldn't it?

My longbow comes with a guarantee that it can safely be pulled to 31"