Manchu Bows.
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2023 10:00 am
I was contemplating making a Manchu bow in a lighter poundage suitable for an old bloke like me.
Making a shortened version to lighten the overall limb mass had crossed my mind but after reading the following article I decided not to proceed. The following link can explain the reason why far better than I.
http://www.manchuarchery.org/bows
Below is an extract from the above link.
Poundage and speed;
Lt. Col. W.F. Paterson, who had a working example of an antique Manchu bow, was rather impressed by this bow design. He wrote:
βThe force-draw curve is superior to any modern composite and the stored energy, for a given maximum effort, is probably the highest of any bow that has ever been in general use."
A well-made 60 pound Manchu bow of all traditional materials will not outperform a well-made 60 pound English longbow.
The Yongzheng emperor stated that from 80 pounds and up is enough for the military, so when Wen Chieh offered to make a bow for me I ordered that poundage.
It was only when we tested this bow that the facts and figures started to impress again. At 82 pounds its draw weight started to outperform the disadvantage of the weight of its ears, results were impressive. The 82# Manchu bow, made by Wen Chieh, outperformed a well-made 128# yew longbow, shooting the same 1230 grains (80g) military weight arrow a stunning 190fps against 170fps for the longbow.
This is exactly the reason why the Manchu bow used to have a bad reputation: People were testing low draw-weights that were too low and found no significant advantage in poundage pulled versus arrow velocity to justify its complex construction. The design really is made for war and hunting, to do damage with heavy arrows. They may not be the fastest bow, but no other bow design can launch an arrow that heavy, that fast. There is another catch though, the high initial draw weight of Manchu bows makes them considerably harder to pull than a longbow of the same draw-weight, but at full draw they feel similar again.
Two old films showing the bow in use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXLnlRqoiMI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX9eGIs8Rvc
Alibow weigh their Manchu bows at 35β not 28β and recommend an arrow weight at least 16 gpp or more.
It would appear that the optimal draw length for the archer is about 35β the reason being mentioned in the link.
Daryl
Making a shortened version to lighten the overall limb mass had crossed my mind but after reading the following article I decided not to proceed. The following link can explain the reason why far better than I.
http://www.manchuarchery.org/bows
Below is an extract from the above link.
Poundage and speed;
Lt. Col. W.F. Paterson, who had a working example of an antique Manchu bow, was rather impressed by this bow design. He wrote:
βThe force-draw curve is superior to any modern composite and the stored energy, for a given maximum effort, is probably the highest of any bow that has ever been in general use."
A well-made 60 pound Manchu bow of all traditional materials will not outperform a well-made 60 pound English longbow.
The Yongzheng emperor stated that from 80 pounds and up is enough for the military, so when Wen Chieh offered to make a bow for me I ordered that poundage.
It was only when we tested this bow that the facts and figures started to impress again. At 82 pounds its draw weight started to outperform the disadvantage of the weight of its ears, results were impressive. The 82# Manchu bow, made by Wen Chieh, outperformed a well-made 128# yew longbow, shooting the same 1230 grains (80g) military weight arrow a stunning 190fps against 170fps for the longbow.
This is exactly the reason why the Manchu bow used to have a bad reputation: People were testing low draw-weights that were too low and found no significant advantage in poundage pulled versus arrow velocity to justify its complex construction. The design really is made for war and hunting, to do damage with heavy arrows. They may not be the fastest bow, but no other bow design can launch an arrow that heavy, that fast. There is another catch though, the high initial draw weight of Manchu bows makes them considerably harder to pull than a longbow of the same draw-weight, but at full draw they feel similar again.
Two old films showing the bow in use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXLnlRqoiMI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX9eGIs8Rvc
Alibow weigh their Manchu bows at 35β not 28β and recommend an arrow weight at least 16 gpp or more.
It would appear that the optimal draw length for the archer is about 35β the reason being mentioned in the link.
Daryl