Speed Shooting, Weapon Drawing, and Transitioning

[Willrett]

WOW I like I like. More pics soon I hope.

[hesinraca]

I know this is old, but I figure no one will mind.

Have you ever considered mongolian thumb draw? I use a three-point back quiver that hold the arrows directly behind my neck and slightly towards my draw hand. I used to shoot mediteranian (8 years actually) and now I shoot thumb ring because of the mounted archery practice, and you know, bringing the arrow to the same side of the bow as your draw hand really cuts down the time. That combined with not watching yourself nock the arrow will help a ton. I think I am shooting around 3 seconds/arrow with a 5" average diameter to my groupings. I also found that if I look away from the target a few feet so that I can still watch it in my periferal vision and then turn my eyes directly to my intended target about half a second before I release, my intuitive aiming is heightened for some bizarre reason and my groupings tighten.

Any updates on speed shooting techniques? If you can find some videos, Lukas Novotny is a pretty fast shooter, and Holm Neumman, despite being 74ish, shoots faster then I do with better aim and all while he is talking to you about some random archery topic and looking at you between shots. It's almost inhuman.

[Greg]

For starters, I never look down anymore when shooting. It's made a major improvement in my speed.

When I get a horsebow (I'm still looking for one with the shape I want that's still short enough...few people seem to make decent bows with set-back handles that are around 48") I'm going to work on shooting from the drawing side, but my current bow is a modern horsebow knockoff, and it has a shelf, so I'm kinda forced to use that. I'm at about 3 seconds per round even with the need to whip the arrow over the bow, though (although I'll admit my accuracy is somewhat lacking...I certainly can't do 5" groups at 3 seconds per round) so I feel like I'm at a good place.

Any chance we could get a vid of you shooting, hesinraca?

While we're at it...you know of any makers who do bows cheaper than saluki that have 48" models with set-back handles? Seems like most everyone's significantly over 48, and I can't stand longer bows. I can deal with stuff up to about 52-54, but I just can't maneuver with the longer stuff. I know, I'm being excessively picky, but that's just kinda how I am about my bows.

[Pwyll]

I'm not that familiar with these bows, but I think Kassai is good. Some eastern European and horse bows here. I know some people who do Mongol shooting and they like his bows.

http://www.eastern-archery.com/

I remember shooting one, and was impressed with the easy draw. But I'll confess, I'm a longbow bigot. I know, not the best bow for creeping around in the brush, but I'm old and set in my ways.

[Greg]

Thanks for the vote of confidence in Kassai. I've never really heard much about them; just Grozer and Saluki (the latter for obvious reasons). I'm leaning towards a Kassai Magyar "Bear". Been looking at it for awhile, but didn't know if Kassai was a McBowmaker, or the real deal.

[hesinraca]

Ok, take this with the knowledge that this is my opinion based on using one for a short time and based on the opinions of some very experienced shooters that really put their bows to the test by using them all the time, on horses, in the sun, etc. This doesn't mean it will hold true in every case, or that it isn't still an opinion.

Kassai is an actual bowyer, and in fact, despite not having the best track record for being a nice guy, is probably one of, if not the best horseback archer alive today, right up there with the Korean Masters that run the international competition in Sokjou. He used to make all his own bows that he sold. Now, I've seen a grozer last at least 3-4 years well enough, but on a few counts Kassai's bows have cracked/de laminated within 2. This was before his recent(I think a year or so ago) decision to have his bows produced more in-mass by people other then himself. He doesn't have a factory, but he doesn't, to my knowledge, actually make many of the bows sold anymore. I've also found that this new line is using even lesser quality materials, and this is going to hamper durability and quality of shot, and I have shot one of the newer ones (the bear actually) and it was a decent bow, fairly light for its size. Granted, after being loaned a Saluki horn bow to play with for a weekend, nothing shoots that amazingly, but I think you could do better for the same price.

With that in mind, a lot of people still buy Kassai and they seam to work great with care. Maybe us mounted archery people are too harsh on our gear;)


On the other hand I was going to suggest that website that was posted, eastern-archery. If not for a purchase, there is such a huge range of bows on there that you can find exactly what era and type of bow you want and narrow your search more. I wish I had more reviews for you, but as far as I know on that site Grozer is top, followed by Toth, and probably Kovacs and after that I couldn't tell you. If you want an opinion on the rest of those makers, and possibly some good suggestions for comparable bows, I will do a post on atarn.net and we'll see what the fanatics have to say.

[hesinraca]

Oh, also, I will try and get a video at some point but I don't have a camera with a stand of any sort, so I'll have to wait til I get a camera man/woman. I'll try and get a few videos of Katie and Holm shooting at the SCA event next weekend too.