Why are longbows less accurate than modern bows?
A. Most obviously, you have no sights, no predictable way to compensate for range changes, and you have a much greater amount of `archer’s paradox’ to contend with. But that’s not all. The `cast’ of an all-wood bow, particularly a longbow, changes with temperature and humidity. During a two-hour shoot, the draw weight can easily vary by five pounds, which might mean an error of more than a foot at the target. This means that you will have to adjust the position of your imaginary sights continually during a shoot. With a longbow you don’t really have time to aim, even with the imaginary sights, because even if you have shoulders like a gorilla and can hold the bow at full draw for more than a second, it’s not advisable because the bow will follow the string. With my bow, I find that every extra second I remain at full draw means the arrow falls several inches below the mark at 20 yards. In reality, for a very skilled archer the limiting factor on accuracy will probably not be the bow at
