130lb Heaviest Korean Warbow? Joseon Archery Test 六兩弓箭

Just got this custom made! It’s a heavy traditional Korean bow 130lb@33“. After watching Armin Hirmer’s video on a Korean Warbow, I started to wonder what is the draw weight of the typical Joseon dynasty archer in the military? This time period is around 500 years, so there would have been some fluctuations on the draw weight of the archers. For example, with the introduction of reliable firearms, the bow eventually became obsolete and archery transitioned into a sport, so the need of heavy draw weight bow declined drastically by the end of the Joseon period. However, records of Korean archery before the widespread use of reliable firearms did exist, which can give us empirical data to estimate the draw weight of Korean archers before the decline of archery. The biggest system which contributed the development of archery in Joseon Korea, was probably the system of military service examination (MSE or in Korean: Mugwa). The MSE started in the 1400s at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty. Now there is a lot
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