Archers Hack Could Have Revealed Archery's BIGGEST LIE!!!

38 and we are 17 paces short. They judged it well, but maybe, just maybe, the dignity of poor Todd Cutler the archer can be saved, because there is a medieval hack that might increase the distance of the arrows. Everything I have learnt and everything I have known for the last 55 years or whatever it is that I have been shooting a bow seems sort of slightly to have gone out the window really. Hi it is Todd of Todd's Workshop and Todd Cutler here and today we are going to look at a medieval arrow hack. Now the thing is we don't actually know how far a longbow shot, because we don't know how powerful they were. We just, we can only make guesses, but that is a different film. But the thing is in the context of this film it doesn't really matter, because here is the premise. Right boys, this is where it is at. I am a skilled archer. I am good with my bow. I am good at judging range. It is part of my job. The soldiers out there, they are also good at their jobs and they are good at judging range as well and the dirty smatches are 20 paces beyond where I can shoot. They are giving me the hand signals. They are calling me names. Cock Womble, Bull's Pizzle, Fusty Lugs, I ask you. And I am vexed because there is naught I can do about it. But maybe, just maybe, the dignity of poor Todd Cutler the archer can be saved, because there is a medieval hack that might increase the distance of the arrows. Medieval archers certainly had what they called flight arrows, but as far as I know they seem to be used more for competition. But there would be a lighter wood shaft, a shaped shaft, it would be barrelled, a lighter head, smaller fletchings. You get greater distance out of it. But they are not the sort of arrows that are taken to war. They are not the sort of arrows that are going to save Todd Cutler's dignity on this day while those boys are giving it all of that. So what can Todd Cutler do about it? Now I have heard it said, I have read it in books and I have said it myself at reenactment events, that actually if you want greater distance off an arrow, you can shorten the fletching, you can remove the whipping and that gives you, cuts down drag, gives you greater distance. Now the question is, does it? Well today we are going to find out. So we are going to do a simple experiment and I am going to put aside this lovely beautiful bow and I am going to pick up something quite horrible instead. So I have put down the beautiful longbow and I have picked up this horrible ugly crossbow, but there is a really good reason for it. I have tuned this up to shoot at exactly the same speed as a 130lb longbow using these medieval true weight arrows. The test is not going to know the difference between the two whether it is the longbow or the crossbow, but this is totally repeatable. Same speed each time, I have an inclinometer on it, an angle gauge, same angle each time. That repeatability is really going to help us. So we are going to do three rounds of shooting. First with the arrow complete like this. Then we will take the whipping off, three shots, average distance and then we will halve the length of the fletchings and do the same again. And then we will know if we are able to take out the guys who have given us the hand signals. So that is our first one and we are short of our man. So I am just going to put this other arrow down as a marker. I am going to pull that one and shoot again because it is important that we shoot the same one each time because even slight differences, one arrow to the next might make all the difference with this. Right, so this is our third. There is about two paces really in difference between them and we are 17 paces short. They judged it well. Fusty lugs, I ask, I am going to have them. This one is the centre of our first group. 17 paces short. Hi, I have just interrupted today's film for another Todd Cutler related interesting fact and today English and Italian base lard. Really strangely, very popular in Italy, very popular in England, not so much really in between. I don't know what is going on there. Anyway, this and loads of similar items available on ToddCutler.com. Anyway back to the film. So on the arrow here is some silk binding. It is obviously fairly high status. It could well be linen or hemp and a little bit coarser. So actually there are other threads that might make more of a difference. So now it is time to start stripping down the binding. So while I am doing this, 38 degrees. That is what I shot it at. Now there will be a lot of you out there telling me it should be 45. Actually 45 degrees is the theoretical angle that you want in a vacuum. Basically we have drag here and that changes the way it works. Also you have got wind, in this case cross wind and that changes how it interacts with the feathers. So between 35 and 40 degrees tends to be the optimum for an arrow, not the 45 that you might think. And there we have it. I have stripped off all of the binding. So all of that horrible draggy stuff is gone. Smoothed it down a little bit. Let's see what happens now. 38. And there she goes. 34, 35, 38, 35, 37, 38. Well this is not at all what I would expect. So you can see a javelin further over there. That was the first round of arrows, the complete one. So let's go to the middle of this group of three which are all less. All less than that. So it is about here. If you remove the binding from your arrow, which logically reduces drag, which logically makes the arrow go further, the arrow goes less. Right then all you physicists, all you fluid dynamicists out there, you tell me what is going on. I have one hint of a theory and that is I do know that on certain parts of plane wings and certain boats, parts of hulls, they have a textured surface because the turbulence that is created actually reduces the drag. Because the whipping there, creating textured surface, creating a little bit of turbulence, maybe that is reducing the drag. So let's plant this second one in the middle of this group which is about here and I am going to wonder what the heck is going on. I mean part of it could be the wind, it is quite gusty, but it is a side wind, it is affecting all of them, it is not a head wind, it is not a tail wind. Who knows. So now time for some arrow vandalism. Will Sherman if you are watching, look away now. So what I am doing now is just stripping away the flight, trying to get as much of the quick of the feather as possible because I want it to be smooth, that is the whole point. This is a bit hurtful doing this kind of thing, but let's face it, this is not the first time I have destroyed Will Sherman's beautiful arrows. Have a look at this. So cleaned up the shaft. Now didn't happen last time, but logically I am feeling that we have reduced the flight area here, that has reduced drag, should go further. The big fletchings that we have are great for stabilising an arrow at short distance. So they are brilliant for sort of flat shooting, 30 metres, 40 metres, something like that. These ones hopefully will be enough to stabilise the arrow over long distance before it has scrubbed off too much speed by wobbling. But we will see. We are about to find out. Just so we know what I have done to this arrow, there is a before and an after. I wonder if we got them. Well we didn't get them, it is off to the side. But I wonder if we could reach them. Should be more on target I hope. Bit to the left. 24, 30, 34, 38. Lovely. Let's go see if we have reached them. So we will mark off the midpoint and then we will conclude. About there, 9. 9 paces short. So we have managed to reduce our 20 pace lead. What? Right I am going to have you mate. Right you watch this. I am going to strip off these fletchings and we are going to get them. I am going to take the whole lot off. There will be no friction. It is going to slip like an upturned churn of butter. Right I am going to have them. I can't believe I am doing this, but I have to get those guys because they have vexed me. Common sense tells me this is just going to so not work. I have never actually tried it. So we have a completely balled arrow. Just as nature intended or not. Anyway, let's shoot it. Possibly one of the more ridiculous things I have done. Oh not so bad actually. That is actually flying true. That is the last thing I expected. Right we have to go and have a look at that. A little bit of a wobble, but pretty stable all things considered. Come and have a look at this. Unbelievably, like unbelievably that went two paces beyond the target. It was stable, stable enough. It has landed point first. It went in the same line as all the other ones. Why are we bothering with fletchings? I mean obviously there are lots of reasons, but that is just unbelievable. The medieval archer's hack was not what I expected. It is not trim your feathers down. It is rip them off. 22 paces more by stripping all the feathers off your arrow. So the furthest javelin you can see is very oddly the one without whipping on it. The next one was the complete arrows. This one just behind me was where we halved the fletching and this one is no fletching at all. That will teach them. Calling me fusty lugs. Got them now. Why I am so shocked about this is that we all know that the fletchings are there to add stability. If you have the thing stable it goes in the direction you want. If you have the thing stable it spends less energy doing that and reducing in velocity. And yet it worked. It worked brilliantly and it is kind of like one of those things where everything I have learnt and everything I have known for the last 55 years or whatever it is that I have been shooting a bow seems sort of slightly to have gone out the window really. Anyway, it just shows the power of not just talking about it or reading about it, going and doing it. But before we go, don't forget that we have got a second YouTube channel. Tod Cutler does a bit more niche content and reviews of my weapons and stuff like that. We have got a website which is chock full of medieval goods. Both budget stuff on Tod Cutler and higher end bespoke stuff on Tod's Workshop all bundled into one site now. And then of course Patreon. As you saw, we can rack up the bills on these things. It always helps. Anyway, if you can please lend a dollar for that. But see you again. The Mary Rose sank in July 1545. It was ready for war. It was armed for war. But when it gets to some of the more obscure things like these incendiary darts, it is much harder to make out. I have worked with medieval fire arrows before. I am continually amazed by how sophisticated they are. But this thing is massive. It is on a different scale. Will this work from a fighting top? I have made this from the best of the archaeological data we have. Smell is often a good indicator. That smells really good. Get an idea of space and also frankly, just because I really like to. Huge amount of fire, huge amount of smoke. So we think there are two principal ways that this munition could have been used. Thrown from the tops, crow's nest or shot from a cannon. This cannot, under any circumstances, land on your own ship. And that I think is something we need to test. Right. Three, two, one.