Folks,
I know many of you will be disappointed, but I had to put my quest for the unofficial "over 55 years old, less than 180 pounds body weight" world longbow pull record on hold. My goal was 135 pounds at 31 inches of pull length. By June of this year I was at a tad less than 120 pounds when tendonitis struck my shoulder. The doctors tell me recovery will be slow.
I am still training, but staying away from trying to set records.
There is still debate as to the strength of longbows in the golden era (1350 -1550) of the "warbow" in England. Bowyer (bow maker) Pip Bickerstaffe has just written a book on the topic that is self published (i.e. you can't get it on Amazon.com). He feels that the vast majority of bows where in the 100 pound at 30 inch range. I find it interesting that Pip's shop is a short drive from Sherwood forest in England.
Experiments that I have done, suggest that about 80 pounds at 28 inches is needed to penetrate armor and go 6 inches into a target as shown in the photo (don't try this at home!) This was the main advantage of the longbow and what made this "warbow" change history for 200 years.....it could kill knights in shining armor.
So those of us that can pull more than 110 pounds would probably be better than average in the English Archery Corp if teleported back to 1400 AD!
Cheers,
Dr. Ron