[alanesq]

Thanks for the reply

I have managed to get hold of a documentary on the longbow and after studying the people on this who are using a longbow (one of them 160lbs !) I can confirm that I have been doing it completely wrong - the problem is that I have not seen a longbow in real life before getting mine so I am having to learn it all the hard way

I can see now that I have been starting with both arms bent and just using brute force to push the bow and string apart - if I keep my left arm straight to start with it is so much easier and no pain in my shoulder :-)

This is a relief as I was beginning to wonder if I would have to give in with the longbow before I really got started

Thanks again
Alan