heres an interesting post that describes a world record flight or distance for a turkish bow:
http://seventhsea.itgo.com/7thsea/fa.../weapons02.txt
this is an extract on his statement regarding the English long bow and turkish bows:
"The record was 347 meters set with a 157 lb pull orange & yew longbow. At the 1910 world championships, a 65 lb Turkish bow set the new record of 434 meters.
a better, more believable post can be found here concerning both the english and the turkish bows
http://huntingsociety.org/BowPower.html
"Determined to duplicate these old bows, I selected a very fine grained stave of seasoned yew and made an exact duplicate, according to the recorded measurements.
This bow, when drawn the standard arrow length of twenty-eight inches, weighed sixty-five pounds and shot a light flight arrow two hundred and twenty-five yards. When drawn thirty-six inches, it weighed seventy-six pounds and shot a flight arrow two hundred and fifty-six yards. From this it would seem that even though these ancient staves appear to be almost too powerful for a modern man to draw, they not only are well within our command, but do not shoot a mile. "
"The greatest distance shot by a modern archer was made by Ingo Simon, using a Turkish composite bow, in France in 1913. The measured distance was four hundred and fifty-nine yards and eight inches. That is very near the limit of this type of bow and far beyond the possibilities of the yew long bow. But the long bow is capable of shooting heavier shafts and shooting them harder."
its a pretty good guess that if you find two groups making these claims, there could be some truth in the superority of the turkish bow over the english in distance, the english bow over the turkish in throwing weight.
