Probably a stupid question about draw length

[Frodolf]

I recently read Jim Hamm's "Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans" and Maurice Thompson's "The Witchery of Archery". In both these classics the authors write about draw length, but they often write about the length of the arrow shaft instead, especially Thomson, implying that draw length equals the length of the shaft. To me, draw length (as measured from the back of the bow to the string) is different from the length of the shaft. The length of the shaft has to accommodate the self nock, the arrow head, and the index finger's thickness on the bow hand, meaning the shaft's length has to be at the very least 29" for a 28" draw length.

Since I've learned all I know about bow making and archery completely on my own, reading these books made me wonder if I had somehow misunderstood what draw length actually is. Have I?

Back to feeling like a noob... 

[Mac43560]

For me it's arrow length equals drawlength plus an inch.  I've seen arrow length equal to DL in stuff like flight bows.  But more often I've seen Arrow length = DL = trip to the hospital with mangled hand.

[Dustinhill]

My limited understanding is that arrow length is often dependent on many factors. (For example, stiffness, weight (of the arrow), brace height) I've attached a picture I found in another thread here that shows some Native American arrows that are definitely longer than the draw length. This helped the arrow to bend around the bow because many of their bows had very low brace heights. I'm not saying any of this is the absolute truth, only what I've learned. Hope that helps.

[DC]

Back of the bow to the bottom of the nock.

[Mac43560]

I agree Dustin.  Even today, many tribes go for longer arrows depending on prey, mainly for added penetration and ease of recovery.

[loon]

Gao Ying style is to draw to the arrowhead for a constant drawlength. I think I'd need something similar even with 3 finger to corner of mouth, the corner of mouth isn't that solid of an anchor and the head can move etc.  I guess you'd need some sort of rather thick wrapping or something on the shaft if not drawing to the head..

[Pat B]

I draw 26" and make my arrows 30".
 Frodolf, those guys my have used different draw lengths depending on what they were shooting at. Maurice Thompson was a plume hunter so a bird on the ground may have had one draw length and a bird in a tree another.

[bradsmith2010]

if you start to make Native style bows with shorter draw,, you will see that to get an arrow to fly or the right spine,, leaving them long is a solution,,the tips were sometimes bird points, so not much weight up front,  the shaft being longer would help get the right spine,,,  I usually cut my arrows to shoot well out of the bow based on how they fly,, the length is secondary,, shorter to make them stiffer and longer to make them weaker,,

[Frodolf]

Thanks, guys! It sounds like I'm getting this whole thing right after all! So I guess when Thompson is writing about shooting 28" shafts and draw them "to the head" he may actually have a draw length of about 27" or thereabout. 

Pat, that may be true, though the only thing Thompson is writing about in this regard is that he drew the arrow "to the head" – sounds like Gao ying-style loon is talking about (thanks for the tip, Loon! I'm going to give it a try.) Thompson stresses that the archer should draw the bow the same length no matter the distance shot. With that said, he used different bows, some as heavy as 80 pounds (yikes!), sometimes shooting at birds in flight, so effective draw length probably varied a bit.

[Pappy]

What DC said, I have no regards to arrow length, just cut them to what ever length it takes to make the fly true.
 Pappy