What are your opinions on the different methods of competition for horse archery in the world?
Do any of you believe that there should be a newer competition requiring more than just speed of the draw but of accuracy over longer distances?
The Hungarian style encourages lower draw weights, in my opinion, and draws the sport from strength and accuracy, to more of encouraging techniques at speed shooting.
The Korean style requires a bit less quickness of draw and more realistic if you should compare it to how a horsearcher would actually shoot in warfare.
But the purpose of the composite bow was greater efficiency at a higher draw weight in a more compact structure--being suitable for horseback.
At lower draw weights, composite bows lose their edge over other kinds of bows.
So shouldn't a competition that encourages utilizing the true power of stronger bows at longer distances rather than shorter distances with greater volume. I am not suggesting a sniper-horseback competition, but one that makes use of the advantages that a horsebow offers.
The competition would encourage the true use that composites were made for as opposed to short-distance horseback competitions we do nowadays which in actuality don't require a set that allows for great precision over distance, but rather just simple stability.
Gokmen
Very good thoughts, I agree and am working on this.
Unfortunately there is many problems.
You would not get 3 people together which could draw original drawweights on horseback so you could not have a competition.
I worked my way up so I can shoot 90lbs on horseback but who else is out there?
To make use/demonstrate the full potential of a hornbow you could either create a discipline with long distances like 20-50 meters or even distances like 100m where you have to shoot rather at an area similar to the clout shooting of the longbow archers.
Alternatively you could shoot at shorter distance e.g. 10-25m and the target could be some kind of armour to pierce.
These things were the real idea of horseback archery, shooting Kassai style with 28lbs and all the adjusted things defeats the purpose.
There is another problem though, who has a proper hornbow? I am a Turkish archery fanatic for more than 10 years and I still dont have a hornbow. I am waiting a few years now for my Saluki 90lbs hornbow.
The real problem is that with higher drawweights in modern material bows e.g. 90lbs, the limbs get so thick and heavy, that in the end the limbs become too slow to cast the arrow forward, so a low poundage 50lbs bow might be faster than a 90lbs bow.
Grozer's biocomposite Turkish short bow is kind of a compromise. I have a 82lbs one, it is still very fast. But there is no point in ordering a 100lbs one. I would say it would brake anyway.
So please let's brainstorm further how to make steps in this direction..
Gokmen
Storm
It will be hard to find 100m ranges for this kind of tournaments, at least on the short term. Although in my oppinion, this would be the best solution for archers and spectators. The archer could attack the target head on, and at 50m away he could turn back while still shooting. I would like to see something like this.
The other possibility would be to somehow add points for hitting the target harder. Right now there are a few circles on the targets. We could leave the center as it is, and gradually add "armour" on the outside circles. Arrows bouncing off will not count. In this way, lighter bows will demand "sniper" skills, while stronger bows will allow for some error.
The arrows could also have a lower weight limit, like 500 grains or so.
daryush
Personally I like the idea of using very low weight bows, highly padded arrows, and a kind of "cirit" like game involving teams.
Probably rather unsafe though!
Also using proper weight bows for games like Mogu. Rather than dragging a target along on a horse we could have motorised targets that can run either in front of or behind you in a variety of positions.
Just throwing some thoughts out there!
Uli
You would not get 3 people together which could draw original drawweights on horseback so you could not have a competition.
probably many can draw it but not ride - and other way round.
The real problem is that with higher drawweights in modern material bows e.g. 90lbs, the limbs get so thick and heavy, that in the end the limbs become too slow to cast the arrow forward, so a low poundage 50lbs bow might be faster than a 90lbs bow.
maybe. a notable exception is laminated korean traditional bows !
mongolianarcher
You all are exactly saying my thoughts!!!!
@Gokmen, now and in the future I plan on furthering interest in Turkish archery since it is one of the few places that have at least attempted to revive/continue their amazing archery tradition. And I don't have a hornbow, as you have pointed out, but the design of the lesser modern-material asian bows are a bit heavy as youve pointed out that are of Hungarian make. I have a Lukas Novotny Crimean Tatar and a Mongolian Hybrid bows which are of a WHOLE other breed.
I agree that perhaps an armoured target would greatly add finesse to the tournament.
@Storm: Good idea, in line with this consider: A light bow would have to aim for the head, and beneath the shoulders to make the arrow stick, and the stronger bows would be able to make use of their power to make killing blows.-This all would make the art of archery more martial, and to me more entertaining since we are utilizing the weapon side of bows.
@Daryush, I think that a motorised target is also a good idea. I guess it would be almost like a mechanical target, "a rabbit", along the ground. It would be like skeet/trap shooting for archery, except on the ground.
And I wouldn't be afraid to use cheap low poundage bows to do horse archery battles with blunt tips, it would be like SCA which they do essentially the same with swords, shields, bows, etc.
Basically the ideas of either an armoured target at around 50m which would bring out the needed finesse of light-poundaged bows for almost "snipe-shooting", and the strength of the heavy-poundaged bows; and the idea of a rabbit/mechanical moving target would bring out more of the finesse of horsearchery than does, to me, the current Hungarian archery course.
I will say a very controversial but true paradox: Hungarians helped revive horsearchery, but it has damaged it too. It is a soft-version of the true thing: commercialized, and for the masses, necessitating only badly-made low-poundage bows, and pushing for focus only on how many arrows you can toss at a target, which I guarantee you would be a minor anxiety of a real-deal horsearcher back in the old days.
--This is why I started this thread, I've been wondering if somehow we can fix this problem :)
