Fletching removed in "Robin Hood"

Craig Luce

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Feb 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/20/97

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OK, this question's just for fun:

In Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, the hero at one point strips the
fletching from an arrow by mouth (he's in a bit of a hurry), straps
another beside it on his longbow, and wastes two of Nottingham's finest
with a single release.

Now, no one expects this to be a factual accounting, right? But what
DOES happen when, say, the cock feather is missing? Does the shaft
deviate to the hen feather side?

--
Craig A. Luce

Mike Rabideau

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Feb 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/20/97

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Actually, using a recurve and correctly spined arrows AND a correct nock
point, unfletched arrows fly as well as fletched out to 30 yds or so.
I've drawn many strange looks at the range while shooting unfletched
arrows trying to tune my bow.

Mike
--
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Angus Duggan

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Feb 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/20/97

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Mike Rabideau <mik...@novagate.com> writes:
> Actually, using a recurve and correctly spined arrows AND a correct nock
> point, unfletched arrows fly as well as fletched out to 30 yds or so.
> I've drawn many strange looks at the range while shooting unfletched
> arrows trying to tune my bow.

Make that 70m or more. I've seen Richard Priestman grouping unfletched arrows
inside the red at 70m. That's a well tuned bow.

a.
--
Angus Duggan, Harlequin Inc, 301 Ravenswood Ave, | 40lb 68" Hoyt Radian, 29"
Suite 100, Menlo Park, CA 94025, U.S.A. | ACE 520, 30" Kudlacek Multirod
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/ajcd/archery/ | AGF sight, 20 str Fastflite
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/archery/ |

James Pitts

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Feb 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/21/97

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Craig Luce wrote:
>
> OK, this question's just for fun:
>
> In Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, the hero at one point strips the
> fletching from an arrow by mouth (he's in a bit of a hurry), straps
> another beside it on his longbow, and wastes two of Nottingham's finest
> with a single release.
>
> Now, no one expects this to be a factual accounting, right? But what
> DOES happen when, say, the cock feather is missing? Does the shaft
> deviate to the hen feather side?
>
> --
> Craig A. Luce

He bit one feather off both arrows. I'd like to see what that does to
the arrows in flight. Anyone ever try it?
Jim

James Corral

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Feb 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/21/97

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In article <330E02...@hpuerci.atl.hp.com>, James Pitts
<jj...@hpuerci.atl.hp.com> wrote:

>Craig Luce wrote:
>>
>> OK, this question's just for fun:
>>

>> In Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves,..

>>
>> Now, no one expects this to be a factual accounting, right? But what
>> DOES happen when, say, the cock feather is missing? Does the shaft
>> deviate to the hen feather side?
>>
>> --
>> Craig A. Luce

I once lost a spin-wing vane off one of my X7 shafts. I was just practicing
indoors and too lazy to get another arrow, so I kept shooting it. It
grouped right along with the rest of them. Not scientific research, but it
did happen.

--

James Corral

"Powered by Macintosh"

Kingsire

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Feb 22, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/22/97

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Craig
who sys it's not factual ???????????,,,,,,,,
when you cant the longbow (almost at 90 degrees) , two shafts will split
away from each other ,,,,,, i've tried it many times and find that at 10
yds the two shafts will group with 4-6 inches from each other ,,,, at
20yds they group within 12" + / -.
whether its the cock feather or any one feather you will get some veering
off ......
just like anything else with practice , (and if you really need to shoot
like this ) you can get it down to where it will hit two men riding on a
horse .........

P.C. Young

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Feb 23, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/23/97

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In article <330E02...@hpuerci.atl.hp.com>, James Pitts <jj...@hpuerci.atl.hp.com> wrote:
>Craig Luce wrote:
>>
>> OK, this question's just for fun:
>>

>> In Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, the hero at one point strips the
>> fletching from an arrow by mouth (he's in a bit of a hurry), straps
>> another beside it on his longbow, and wastes two of Nottingham's finest
>> with a single release.
>>

>> Now, no one expects this to be a factual accounting, right? But what
>> DOES happen when, say, the cock feather is missing? Does the shaft
>> deviate to the hen feather side?
>>
>> --
>> Craig A. Luce
>
>

>He bit one feather off both arrows. I'd like to see what that does to
>the arrows in flight. Anyone ever try it?
>Jim

I believe the rational behind the stunt such as it was involved nocking the
arrows closely on the string but splitting them at an angle on the bow to
provide simultaneous launch in slightly different directions. Removing a
feather from each arrow and ensuring that resulting the bare parts of the
shafts were next to each other would have reduced the likelihood of mutual
interference of the fletching upon release. I doubt the removal of
fletching would affect the actual flight trajectory significantly but feathers
bumping against each other certainly would. Just a scientific wildass guess
for whatever it's worth.

--Pedro

Stretch

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Feb 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/24/97

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Mike Rabideau wrote:

> Actually, using a recurve and correctly spined arrows AND a correct nock

> point, unfletched arrows fly as well as fletched out to 30 yds or so.
> I've drawn many strange looks at the range while shooting unfletched
> arrows trying to tune my bow.

Well that is certainly true of a bare shaft (in fact tuning can be done
at very much further than 30m if your technique is up to it). But two
fletch put on at 120/240? With Spin Wings it makes very little
difference but with feathers? I dunno, have to try it... but maybe one
at a time :o) A new method for anyone struggling to shoot FITA rounds
with 3 arrows in two minutes ;o)Maybe our hero was relying on poor
clearance (from such a high nocking point) ????

John
--
John Dickson,(aka Stretch) An unhealthy pile of twisted garbage
Multimedia Guru? based around what's left of a MKII Hoyt
Heriot-Watt University Avalon Carbon Plus and the front bumper
Edinburgh, Scotland. of an Audi 80. Grrrrrr :o(

Afonso Vargas Loureiro

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Feb 25, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/25/97

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On 20 Feb 1997, Angus Duggan wrote:

> Mike Rabideau <mik...@novagate.com> writes:
> > Actually, using a recurve and correctly spined arrows AND a correct nock
> > point, unfletched arrows fly as well as fletched out to 30 yds or so.
> > I've drawn many strange looks at the range while shooting unfletched
> > arrows trying to tune my bow.
>

> Make that 70m or more. I've seen Richard Priestman grouping unfletched arrows
> inside the red at 70m. That's a well tuned bow.

And I have scored 54 at 70m with two unfleched arrows (all
nines), I don't it was just luck or a very good tuning...:-)

>
> a.
> --
> Angus Duggan, Harlequin Inc, 301 Ravenswood Ave, | 40lb 68" Hoyt Radian, 29"
> Suite 100, Menlo Park, CA 94025, U.S.A. | ACE 520, 30" Kudlacek Multirod
> http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/ajcd/archery/ | AGF sight, 20 str Fastflite
> http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/archery/ |
>
>

Keep in touch.

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Philip M. D'Amato

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Feb 26, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/26/97

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I haven't actually tried this, but I did see the flick, and I have thought
about it. I DO have two arrows that are missing one feather, and since I
don't have replacements yet, I have been shooting them. The seem to fly
just fine at 20yds/18.6m indoors the 20-30 times I've shot these arrows.
I've decided that accuracy isn't determined by fletching nearly as much as
I thought. Your actual mileage may vary.

James Pitts <jj...@hpuerci.atl.hp.com> wrote in article
<330E02...@hpuerci.atl.hp.com>...

: Craig Luce wrote:
: >
: > OK, this question's just for fun:

: >
: > In Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, the hero at one point strips the

: > fletching from an arrow by mouth (he's in a bit of a hurry), straps

: > another beside it on his longbow, and wastes two of Nottingham's finest
: > with a single release.

:

Bowshuter

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Feb 27, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/27/97

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when you're lacking any feather (remember when you were a kid, and had
crappy equip?) the arrow will spiral slightly in flight, at the tail end.
more
importantly, the extra weight of the second shaft will make both arrows
just poop off the bow, with no velocity. i've tried it, haven't you?!!

Darryl Kight

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Mar 3, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/3/97

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How about on the New Adventures of Robin Hood where he shot THREE
arrows at once. Not only did he hit the target with all three,
he split two arrows that were already in the target! Beat that!

Darryl Kight
(ki...@eng.usf.edu)

John Alden

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Mar 12, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/12/97

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bows...@aol.com (Bowshuter) wrote:

>when you're lacking any feather (remember when you were a kid, and had
>crappy equip?) the arrow will spiral slightly in flight, at the tail end.
>more
>importantly, the extra weight of the second shaft will make both arrows
>just poop off the bow, with no velocity. i've tried it, haven't you?!!

I haven't had to much trouble with let-off. The thing I have noticed
most is that when people try this trick the first time they tend to
under draw dramaticly! With a full draw and normal arrows I can
normaly put both arrows inside a 5 ring taget (30cm?) at 20 yards.

As for pulling fletching off don't bother, just reverse the top arrow
so that the cock feather is against the bow instead of away.

I will admit that results will very until you get a good feel for
this. And just like all shooting the only way to improve is to
practice.

John

55# Martin Longbow

Kingsire

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Mar 15, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/15/97

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John,
I will have to agree as i posteed previously,,,,,,,,,,,the tearing of the
feather in the movie was for dramatics,,not for flight.......
Kingsire,,,,
J.D.BERRY "YAWEH",,,,,,,65lbs.