link

Id like to get or make an english longbow and some arrows.  I have a compound, but there is something alluring about a stick bow, especially the english longbow.
Dont know if I could even attempt to draw back one of those "war bows" with a draw weight of 100+ lbs, but i do like to watch videos of them being shot.

Reseachers can tell who the archers were just by seeing the changes in the skeletons.

Yup. Distortion of certain vertebra occurred because of the training they went through.

I used to use a bamboo longbow for a while, but only about a 55lb draw weight

Have a friends WarBow here....in the region of 120lb pull weight.
I can use it, but I'd not want to do it as a day job unless I had a LOT of training first

I suggest you get possibly the best book on the topic, which was written by an English actor - Robert Hardy - "Longbow: A Social and Military History"

I also have an replica of an older flat bow - a Mere Heath.

Make my own arrows too.
ETA: the video you linked to was interesting, but the bodkin he used was not really one designed for armour plate - He should have used one like this:


A great hobby in preparation for when we next fight the French, or the Scots (the latter may be sooner than planned when their Independence experiment goes tits up & they head south looking for plunder...)

I have this DVD.  It's pretty neat, and I've done some pretty cool fletchings out of it.  If anything, it's interesting to see how they made the arrows.

http://www.thelongbowshop.com/products/Fletching-Medieval-Arrows-%252d-The-Longbow-Series-DVD.html