Chinese Long Siyah Bow from AF Archery

Hey guys, this is Jack from Historical Weapons and today we're going to check out this medieval era Chinese bow. This one, I'd say, is based on the Song slash Tang dynasty. It is a fiberglass reproduction of a Changsha, which means Longxia. Now, they call this a Han bow, but I think they mean Han as in ethnically Han people using these bows, rather than the Han dynasty. Because we know the Han dynasty had bows with typically wider limbs for the composites, and their Siya's typically had bone reinforcement for this more static tip. So this is more of a representation of the later era, the more medieval era Changsha bows. I do like that this one does have an actual arrow pass compared to the other one I looked at, so that's nice, but it still wears out quite quickly. And of course, fiberglass limbs and a typical M shape, but this one, the Siya is more straight, which would be quite prominent on those Denghuang bows as well, with a more straighter Siya. So it's almost contact, or I'd say just slight contact recurve, or if you want to be technical, it is a recurve, yeah, because the Siya does recurve very slightly back, so it's a little bit of a recurve. Now another feature about the medieval era Chinese bows is that they have long Siya's, but their bending portion is actually quite short. This one is longer, and that's because fiberglass can't handle it. But actually, I don't think that's the main reason. I think the main reason is because they want to advertise that 34 inch drawlend. A lot of people who like Asiatic archery, they like the whopping 34 inch drawlends, so that they can almost practice Kyodo, but then you're going to have to make the fiberglass longer. Now if you want a more historical Song slash Tang Dynasty era bow, you want that bending portion to be a little bit shorter with a longer Siya. Then it would be more representative of the Changsha era. But if you want that whopping 34 inch drawlend, this will do. Can this do 34 inches? I actually don't know. I haven't tested it. We're going to have to see, and if it blows up, I'm sorry, but I don't think it will. They said it was supposed to shoot 34 inches. Let's see. I'm definitely confident with 28 inches. Let's do that at least. Yeah, obviously it can shoot 28 inches. I'm not surprised at all. Well folks, the bow is quite powerful as you can see, penetrating wood. Now it is on the side, but it's a field point. At 50 pounds, I'm quite surprised it can penetrate a log. Well folks, let's test the 34 inch drawlend that they claim. We're not using mantra rings for this. Okay, you ready? That would be about 70 pounds at 34 inches. That was more of a 33 inch drawlend, but it did handle that. So I'm a little bit more confident about pulling 34 inches. I was expecting a lot more creaking, but okay, it shot. Okay, let's do the 34. It's scary to shoot that 34 inches. If I were you, I'd drop it down at one or two inches just in case because, and of course I'm using 1,200 grain by the way. I'm not using like a 800 grain arrow because it's generating a lot of energy. So I wouldn't try this with a 800 grain arrow. The GPP would be a little bit too light. Now did the medieval Chinese people shot 34 inches? I don't think so. It would be a little bit shorter because they weren't six feet like us modern people today. They were like maybe five, eight, five, six on average. So your maximum drawlend would be a little bit shorter around 32 maybe, not too sure about that. But this is obviously catered for modern humans like us. And I think 34 inches is pretty good for me for this kind of bow. So I wouldn't be doing full Manchu drawlend just yet because the Manchu ring does give me a little bit more drawlend anyways. But this being 34 inch drawlend, it packs a punch folks. Damn, you can see that pack. But I'm not accurate with this kind of draw style though. Sorry guys. Damn, you can feel that pack. Just wanted to show you what 70 pounds at 34 inches on this bow does. Like look at how much it's penetrating. It penetrated two bags. And one of the other bags goes, oh my god, 70 pounds at 34 inches penetrates two bags. You can penetrate two people with just this little bit of drawlend, draw weight, you know? Of course the drawlend adds a lot of power stroke to really pack a punch on these 1,250 grain arrows. Damn, I love it. Goes two bags. Goes through two bags. Now if you look at the medieval era Chinese drawlends, they're not pulling like, you know, the 34 inch drawlends. But it's nice to know this bow can handle that. So that's cool. But if you want more historical drawlends, stick to the 29, 31 inch max drawlends. I mean, proportional to our heights today of around six feet, like I think that's okay. I just really want to draw more drawlends, but this arrow doesn't let me. Damn, that hand shock, man. Well folks, I love this bow. I actually love this more than the other Han Dynasty bow just because it can handle that 34 inch drawlends, which really packs a punch. While I love the option of having short drawlends and long drawlends whenever I feel like it and have a bow that can do that. So a Manchu bow, when you shoot it at a short drawlend, it just doesn't feel right. Doing 28 inches, sure you can do that, it just, it doesn't feel right. But on this, I have no excuse not to do 28 or 34 if I want, so I love it. Well, thanks for watching. Stay tuned.