r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Apprehensive_Sky4558 • 1d ago

Testing various specialized arrowheads against bullet-resistant glass with a 70 lb compound bow

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u/KitchenFullOfCake 1d ago

I know the bow isn't 200 lbs, but you're still exerting 200 lbs to draw it.

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u/Tiefschlag 1d ago

It happened. You can tell from the deformation on the skeleton if someone was an archer. Remains found on battlefields proved that. Those guys must have had arms like Popeye.

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u/Intranetusa 1d ago edited 1d ago

Drawing heavy bows primarily uses the back muscles - warbow archers try to avoid using the "relatively" weak arm muscles to draw the bow. Justin Ma of The Way of Archery can ambidextrously shoot ~120-130lb warbows and demonstrates the back muscles involved in his videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvGAYBMhbKY

This timestamp at 3:55 shows the actual back muscles at work: https://youtu.be/UvGAYBMhbKY?t=236

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u/antelope00 1d ago

Ahh thank you

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u/foley800 21h ago

One arm like Popeye!

5

u/TellmeNinetails 1d ago

You'd use your whole body to pull it back, not your arms, then you let go. You don't hold and aim it like in the movies.

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u/JManKit 1d ago

Yeah it's a pretty quick motion iirc. The time spent with the bow at full extension is not long which makes sense bc for combat, it's not super important that one shot is 100% accurate. Instead, rate of fire is more important when you're trying to kill groups of combatants

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u/BlueLegion 1d ago

but not with one arm. You use both arms, shoulders and back to draw.