Quote:
Originally Posted by Whitehart  I was told that in Medieval times goose feathers were used as the turkeys were still in America and that there are only two feathers on goose long enough to make an 8" feather (as on the BLBS standard war arrow today) that's a lot of geese required for a campaign  I have asked the question why 8" and the only reply so far is that it looks good |
That's a good point. Goose feathers were indeed used, though I believe swan and (probably quite rarely) peacock were used as well. Arrows were ordered at least in their hundreds of thousands, if not millions for the large campaigns, so like you say, that's a lot of geese! But I still don't think it's inconceivable that the majority of medieval arrows did have particularly large fletchings, in excess of 7". I believe there is evidence for this, (don't quote me on this as I'm not 100%!
) possibly from arrows that were on board the Mary Rose when she sank, traces of the verdigris that covered the bindings could I suppose give a decent idea of the fletching length.
It has also been proven that very heavy arrows with very large fletchings can indeed be send huge distances, the pickwick pepperpots along with the finsbury mark regularly hold roving mark shoots, that warbow archers often attend. There is also a special flight shoot (mostly held by the pickwick pepperpots I believe), called the John Holder Challenge, in which a special heavy war arrow is shot for distance, the pickwick's website appears to be down at the moment, but the specs of the arrow are as follows...
1) The bow used must be the bow that has been shot throughout the day, so whatever bow you start the day with is the bow that you shoot this mark with, You cannot ....change your bow at lunchtime or at any other time during the day for a fresh one.
2) You can only shoot this mark if you have shot your bow properly throughout the day, NO Short drawing, just so you can save the bow for later.
3) The Arrow spec is as follows:
The Shaft must be a minimum of 12mm in diameter, made of an indigenous European wood.
The shaft can be Bobtailed (Even taper from nock to head) but not Barrelled.
The shaft cannot be footed with a different wood; however a repaired shaft is ok as long as it has been repaired with wood of the same type as the shaft.
The Nock must be of a self nock type and strengthened with horn.
The Head must be of forged steel and have an outside diameter of no less than 12mm.
The fletchings must be a minimum of 8.5" long and no less than 3/4" high at the back edge, these are to be cut in the medieval pattern and all the trailing edge of the fletch must be left as nature intended.
Binding of the fletch is optional.
The overall weight of this arrow must be no less than 74.5grams.
The length of the arrow must be no shorter than 31.5" between nock and start of the head
I think you'll agree that's a pretty big arrow! However a good few warbow archers regularly use that sort of arrow and achieve very long distances. Simon Stanley, widely regarded as one of the best warbow archers around shoots this sort of arrow around 270 yards. I'd say large fletchings are pretty much a necessity with a heavy head, especially a swallow-tail or similar, for the arrow to fly satisfactorily.