I know a sample of one don't mean anything but back when we had jackrabbits I used to shoot them with a 38 while I was mowing cotton stalks in the fall. Not a horse but a tractor bounces pretty good while you stear with one hand and shoot with the other. I got to be a fair hand at the game after some practice and Elmer was right about throwing the pistol at the target. Also, when I was a very small kid, I used to watch my grandfather lope his horse by the garden fence and shoot tin cans of the fence posts at @ 25 yards.
Birdy one thing I have noticed in many many of the accounts is that when stuck with arrows many of the stickees just pulled them out. Makes me wonder if the Comanch either didn't or couldn't full draw while shooting from horseback. I know Indian bows were by todays standards relatively weak but still and all.
W/O me having to look it up which one of the old boys said never to ride up on the left side of a Comanche.
BCR,
Somewhere in my magazine collection is a copy of "Primitive Archer" that references a study done of Plains Indian bows. This study measured original examples of Plains Indian bows including wood type, grain structure, string material, etc..., and then replicated the bows.
The average draw length was 26", with average pull weight of 40# at that draw length. Given the construction of the string, it is quite possible that they would draw even less as the strings were damp, aged, etc...
Add in points made either of stone or "trade iron" which may or may not have been very sharp, and you have a recipe for short range effectiveness.
Still wouldn't want to be shot with one!
Ed
