By Dr Dieter Noli

Almost every archer has at one time or another considered using a really powerful bow. Apart from the purely macho appeal of raw power, there is also the fact that a more powerful bow enables a heavier arrow to be shot faster at a flatter trajectory. This in turn translates to deeper penetration and greater accuracy. However, there are also some disadvantages attached to the use of powerful bows.

Firstly, too strong a bow will have you straining so much that you will struggle to see the target. Secondly, your muscles will quiver so badly that everything will shake, which will make aiming rather difficult. Thirdly, you will tire rapidly and will consequently be rather eager to get the shot off, regardless of where exactly the arrow is pointing at the time. As you aim, your drawing arm will inadvertently creep forward, shortening the draw. And don't believe your problems are over once you open your aching fingers and release the arrow. The effort of overcoming the force of the bow may well have caused you to rotate your forearm into the path of the string. At best, this could result in a spoiled shot owing to the deflected string. At worst, you could end up shaving off a substantial amount of skin from the inside of your arm.

There is also the arrow to consider. A bad shot from a weak bow will impale itself somewhere nearby where you can find it. You recover it, wipe it clean, inspect it for damage and try again. Once you have missed your backstop (preferably a big cardboard box filled with cotton rags) with a powerful bow, however, you will probably not be using that arrow for further shooting. If it hits anything soft, such as a flowerbed, it will penetrate to the point where it will never be found. If it hits anything hard, such as a tree, it will destroy itself. One shot, one arrow. This can become very expensive. If it does not hit anything or if it only hits a glancing blow at something, it can end up anywhere – and it will end up there with authority, creating substantial safety issues.

When I decided to use a powerful bow, it was a matter of research. I was, quite simply, trying to disprove the theory that the Bushmen used small, comparatively weak bows because they were small, comparatively weak people. My theory was that given enough practice, anybody could use a powerful bow. As I only weighed 58 kg, I considered myself a suitable guinea pig.
I started off with a 25 lb (11,4 kg) target bow at the University archery club, using it for about half an hour. The next day I could not even brush my teeth, let alone do anything strenuous with my right arm. But I persisted. I borrowed the bow and practised every day in the garden, shooting into a cardboard box stuffed with crumpled newspaper.
As I did not want my body to end up lopsided, I took to drawing the bow on the left – but not shooting it – for every arrow I shot on the right. The cut-out was, after all, on the wrong side for left-handed shooting, or so I thought at the time. Eventually I graduated to a 32 lb (14,5 kg) Hoyt Scout, spending about an hour each day perforating the box at a range of some six metres. So far, so good. I then progressed to a 50 lb (22,7 kg) takedown recurve. That was when the problems began.
At first everything seemed fine as arrow after arrow went into the box day after day. Then I noticed that my right wrist was beginning to play up from the recoil of the bow. This may surprise you. Recoil is, after all, generally associated with guns, not bows. When the limbs snap forward as the string is released, however, the handle jerks sharply back into the hand. While this action is not all that noticeable with a weak bow, there is no mistaking it in a strong bow. Eventually it became positively painful to shoot even one arrow.

I modified my training to merely drawing the bow with an arrow in place, rather than shooting it. I started off with three sets of two repetitions each, gradually increasing the number of repetitions. Rather than rest in between sets, I alternated between doing sets on the left and right. I also made a point of using the thumb-based “Mongolian release” on the left-hand side. My reasoning – correctly, as it turned out – was that this would eventually enable me to shoot right-handed bows both right and left. The three-fingered Mediterranean draw, when used on the right, rolls the bowstring to the left on release, as does the thumb (locked by the index finger) when the Mongolian release is used on the left. Under these conditions, both releases need to have the arrow cut-out on the left-hand side of the bow. With the Mediterranean release my fingers were protected by a leather tab. With the Mongolian release I used a leather thumb-ring with a “tongue” to cover the pad of my thumb.

As soon as my right wrist had recovered, I started shooting the bow again, but never more than half a dozen shots a day. I encountered no further problems with my wrist. Eventually I was quite comfortable doing three sets of 15 repetitions each, both on the left and right, so I upped the stakes by investing in a 70 lb (31,8 kg) Howatt Hunter recurve. This created a new problem – I could not string the bow.

In the end I resorted to an old Saracen party trick, which called for putting a second nock a hand’s breadth beneath each one that was to take the bowstring. As I did not want to cut into the limb of my bow, I placed a 3 mm thick and 20 mm wide “collar” of layered masking tape beneath each nock. I then fixed a loop of thick cord to either end of a girth taken off a saddle, passed the girth behind my lower back, put the end of each limb through one of the loops and put my feet either side of the grip. I straightened my legs, easily bending the bow while leaving my arms free to attach the string, also passing it through the loops. Once the string was in place, I bent my legs again, allowing the bowstring to take up the tension, thus enabling the loops to be removed from the masking tape “shoulders”.

Once I had the 70 lb Howatt Hunter under control, I upgraded to a 90 lb (40,9 kg) Howatt Hunter recurve. Eventually I was shooting it both left and right. What’s more, it was rated 90 lbs at 28 inches (711 mm), whereas I was pulling the arrow back 30 inches (762 mm), all the way to the lobe of my ear. At that point the draw weight was 100 lbs (45 kg), or 78 per cent of my body weight. Developing the required strength had taken me five years. Strangely, there was not much in the way of muscle bulk by the time

I was done. Okay, so my forearms, shoulders and back muscles did not exactly look weak if I took off my shirt, but nobody ever accused me of being a bodybuilder.

The technique I developed for drawing heavy bows was to start by holding the bow arm towards the target with the top of the bow hand at eyebrow level, grasp the string and relentlessly draw the arrow back to the eyebrow while holding the elbow of the drawing arm high. As the draw is completed, the drawing hand drops down to the lobe of the ear, while the bow hand drops to eye level. If you are going to shoot, pause briefly and release. If you are doing sets and reps, pause briefly, then slowly let the string go forward again, essentially reversing the drawing motion.

As far as bow performance is concerned, I discovered that – certainly with recurves – you eventually reach a point of diminishing returns for your efforts of using increasingly more powerful bows. The 70 lb Howatt Hunter, when drawn to 28 inches, delivered 58,8 joules of energy by means of its arrow. The 90 lb Howatt Hunter, when drawn 30 inches to 100 lbs, delivered 80 joules of energy. In other words, increasing the draw weight by 42 per cent and the draw length by seven per cent only increased the delivered energy by 36 per cent. Clearly, a bow becomes less efficient as you crank up the power.

I last shot the 90 lb bow some 14 years ago, and stopped shooting the 70 lb bow soon afterwards, mostly because my finger joints were beginning to give me trouble. Initially I thought that all that was needed was some rest, but this was not the case. Whenever I picked up a bow, the joint trouble returned within a matter of days, even with the comparatively weak 32 lb Hoyt Scout. The conclusion was unavoidable: using the powerful bows permanently damaged the ligaments of my fingers. Not that there is any permanent discomfort. I just cannot use a bow any more.

Do I have any regrets? I do not. I was conducting research, and found the answers I was looking for. As the German adventurer Otto Lilienthal said as he lay mortally injured in the wreckage of the world’s first hang-glider: “Sacrifices must be made!” I am, however, most certainly in a position to give a word of advice in connection with the use of powerful bows: If the idea appeals to you, by all means use a powerful bow, but don’t overdo it. Try various bows to determine the most you can draw and hold for a second or two, then settle for something 30 per cent weaker. You will shoot more arrows, more accurately, for much longer. And you will be a better archer for it. Besides, you don’t want to end up having to hold your arrow with your teeth.

Having sounded these dire warnings, I must point out the existence of my favourite artefact in the South African Museum. It is a Hadza poisoned arrow from Tanzania, with a weight of 68,5 g, a total length of 846 mm, a 680 mm wooden main shaft, 102 mm wooden fore shaft, and a 64 mm long and 43 mm wide iron broadhead. The detachable wooden fore shaft was usually poisoned with Strophanthus eminii Adenium sp. The wooden bows of the negroid Hadza were about 1 829 mm long, had a draw weight of about 45 kg, and were used to hunt everything from guinea fowl and hyena to lion and giraffe in rocky savannah terrain, the usual hunting range being about 22 m. It follows that it is not impossible to use a really powerful bow. One must just be aware of the disadvantages, and realistically take one’s own build into consideration.