From: shawn@ut-emx.uucp (Shawn Boyd)
Newsgroups: alt.archery
Subject: Re: Long distance record
Date: 28 Jul 92 01:02:15 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas

In article <1992Jul22.234107.22139@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca> 
akarpowicz@mta.ca writes:
>In article <RIGG.92Jul22095842@osnome.che.wisc.edu>, 
>rigg@osnome.che.wisc.edu (Tim Rigg) writes:
>>In article <1992Jul22.003403.25314@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca> 
>>akarpowicz@mta.ca (Adam Karpowicz) writes:
>>   Does anyone know what is the recent record in long distance shooting?
>>   What was the type/construction of the bow used?
>>
>>Amazing.  I was just browsing through a Guiness Book of World Records
>>this weekend and noticed this record.  The maximum distance is
>>something like 2300 yards using a "footbow". They had a picture of
>>this fellow on his back with a bow held in his feet.  He was pulling
>>the string back with both hands.  It didn't look like something you
>>could take to your deer stand..
>
>Wow!!!
>
>How about a "hand" bow?
>
>Adam

 Well, shucks... I don't have the latest record here.  In 1982 Alan Webster
 from England I believe, beat the past record of 1227 yards, 11 inches with a 
 shot of 1231 yards, 1 foot and 10 inches.  I am sure this record has been 
 bested since then.  
 
 Enthusiasts of this persuasion in archery call this Flight Shooting.  
 Accuracy is not the goal.  Purely distance.  There are two basic categories 
 dileneated by the type of bow ("normal" target bows, and specially
 designed, "flight bows.")  These categories are further broken into sub-
 categories defined by draw weight.  These rules are approximately the same 
 under both GNAS (Grand National Archer's Society) and FITA (Federacion In-
 ternacional de Tir l' Arc) regulations.  [Forgive any misspellings in my
 expansion of "FITA" -- I'm very poor at French.]

 It has been pointed out (often by British and French archers) that US Flight
 Shooters have a distinct advantage in that they choose to shoot "for record"
 at Ivanpah Lake in California.  The elevation is 3,000 feet there, and as 
 golfers will tell you, things fly further at higher altitudes.  I suppose 
 that's true, although I really wouldn't know.  I'm jes' a li'l ole hunter 
 fum down hyere in Texas.

 The origins of the sport are disputed, but one event which took place in 
 1797 is legendary.  The Turkish Sultan, Selim, an avid and accomplished 
 archer, reputedly used a compound bow to cast an arrow 1400 "gez" (a gez 
 normally measured at 24-1/2 inches) which translates to over 972 yards.  He
 was reported to have accomplished this incredible feat using a Turkish 
 composite bow -- a mechanism who's construction was celebrated in an excellent
 article last Summer in Scientific American -- see: "the-issue-with-the-bow-on-
 the-cover."  The event was witnessed and reported by the British Ambassador of 
 the time, Sir Robert Ainslie, to the President of the Royal Society, Sir 
 Joseph Banks.  They were undoubtedly impressed.  The long famed English longbow
 was badly bested by the composite design, and this demonstration proved that 
 without a doubt.
 
 There is a good deal written about the sport, and I have only enjoyed it 
 vicariously through what I find in the literature.  Just trying to hunt with 
 a bow takes most of my practice time.

 Shawn