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Author Topic: Documentary about the Mongols  (Read 3122 times)

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Offline bambule

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Documentary about the Mongols
« on: January 27, 2012, 04:56:20 am »
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Niedersachsen, Germany

Henrik

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2012, 05:46:08 am »
wow 20 bows/year at 6 months per bow. and three people make a living this way? makes me think I pay way to much for groceries here in Denmark

But cool documantary, and very cool bows
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Offline bambule

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2012, 05:51:41 am »
Yeah, they also say that the mongol archers were able to hit a target from a horse back 300 meters away - I don't believe that...
But nevertheless, a fine docu...
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Niedersachsen, Germany

Henrik

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2012, 06:17:10 am »
Looking at the footage it looks like the arrows barely penetrate a hung skin at 40-50 meters. but then again the camera can play tricks on the eyes.
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Offline bambule

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2012, 08:21:32 am »
it about 80 mtrs. It's the traditional mongolian archery event - you can see all the people around the target - don't panic  :laugh:
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Niedersachsen, Germany

Offline toomanyknots

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2012, 10:50:37 am »
Thanks, that was a cool watch. Like 20 seconds in to the second video, that bow jumps right out of that guys hands!  ;D
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"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
 the part that has too much is reduced,
 the part that has too little is increased."

- Tao Te Ching, 77, A new translation by Victor H. Mair

Offline dwardo

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2012, 02:15:27 pm »
One of the horseman shoots the wrong side of the bow for the hand. Interesting, just wish it was in english.
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Offline Slackbunny

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2012, 03:06:10 pm »
Quote from: bambule on January 27, 2012, 05:51:41 am
Yeah, they also say that the mongol archers were able to hit a target from a horse back 300 meters away - I don't believe that...
But nevertheless, a fine docu...

I bet the true figure is 300ft. That would be reasonable. A lot of facts and figures get tossed around when doing historical research, and I bet that somewhere along the line there was a miscommunication or a typo or something.

A famous example of a similar miscommunication is when the Mars Climate orbiter burned up in Mar's atmosphere due to coming in too low too fast. The problem was that the people who wrote the navigation software were not from America (British I think), and they assumed that NASA would want the software written with Enlish units, and not metric, so that is what they did. Problem was the Americans assumed that the software would be in metric, so they used metric units, leading to the loss of the spacecraft. It was a multi-million dollar miscommunication, made by some very intelligent people.

Point is, these kinds of mistakes happen, and fairly regularly at that. But even 300ft is a good friggin shot, especially from horseback.... mongols were horse-archers right?
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Offline Ringeck85

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2012, 03:18:10 pm »
This looks awesome!  I'll have to practice my deutsch :laugh:
I am understanding some of it though, that's good.

As for the range, an inscription claims that one of Genghis Khan's relatives shot a target at around 500 meters, though that was likely on foot.  I'll have to look for that source though. I see no reason why 300 meters wouldn't be a reasonable maximum range for what horse archers could do, though sadly I don't think we have anyone today who can do that.  Too few practitioners use Mongolian replicas of a high enough draw weight to achieve that range (I believe their draw weight was comparable to english warbows: they range from about 90-150 lbs.; this was their "heavy bow" though for long range or armor penetration; they likely had a lighter one for more rapid "kassai-style" shooting)

I think 300 meters was saying what those horse archers were capable of back then, not what the practitioners were doing now, which is probably more like 300 feet.

I believe at the Mongolian Nadaam (wrestling, horse racing, and archery) festival, there are three ranges: 75 meters, 90 meters (about 300 feet), and 120 meters I think, though I could have those ranges wrong, 90 might be the maximum range.  That's for foot archery only though, and using a "padded tipped" arrow to knock one of those little rolled up things on the ground down.
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"It is how we choose what we do, and how we approach it, that determines whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling a work of art."
-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

(Ren', in Wytheville, VA)

Offline Slackbunny

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Re: Documentary about the Mongols
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2012, 03:25:23 pm »
I dunno man, 300 meters is a loooong shot, for any bow. I have no information to back it up, but my intuition is saying that either somebody made a mistake, or the mongols liked to exaggerate the expertise of their archers.

It could also have just been rumour born out of fear of the mongols enemies, common enough throughout history.

But I guess it could be possible under the right circumstances, especially given that the horses velocity will add velocity to the arrow, but I doubt that was a shot made very often.

Maybe they got lucky once while, after all if you shoot enough arrows, chances are you are going to eventually hit something.
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