Below you will see some pictures from the shoot, also a picture from 2 flight arrows, one tarzi has, one sem endam. The sem endam's flight was very good, very straight and fast. Cem also made a copy of his own historical flight arrow, this one had a perfect flight as well. This time I didnt use a typical mushamma but used the cloth I use to wax my arrows. I could 'sculpt' it better around the grip and in my palm. Cem has prepared a new puta bow, he measured it a week before and it was more than 100 lbs at 28''. He also had another bow at around 75lbs. Note that these arent flight bows.
We made similar experiences as last year. Correct arrows are very important. We have seen that 3 arrows out of 8 go straight without the slightest visible fishtailing, other arrows' flight were not stable. Also sometimes I didnt raise the arrow/bow high enough it seems. Also on some shots I didnt pull the arrow far enough in the siper. What I did though was this 'English longbow style' pushing the bow forward while shooting. I am not sure if it helps that much or if it is historically correct in the Ottoman style of flight shooting. I couldnt find any sources for this in the literature. (more information on the Turkish overdraw ''siper'')
Cem strung the strong bow a week beforehand and when I arrived it lost already power. I guess the hot weather contributed to that as well. In the end the strong bow was only about 75 pounds. Regarding the distance we could not exceed 310m even with the siper. Still it was very valuable for both of us, as I could shoot hornbows with siper and flight arrows and Cem could see the performance and characteristics of his bows when used.
Gokmen Altinkulp
gokmenaltinkulp@gmail.com
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Cem Donmez's workshop
Hornbow with 'tepelik' getting ready to be strung
Turkish flight arrows replica
Checking the position of the overdraw with the Turkish bow
