http://www.africahunting.com/showthread.php?312-Bowhunting-Rhinoceros-Shot-Placement
I "now" think that the guy we found on Google may not have been telling the "whole" truth. I think that maybe Jess was right to be cynical about Thutmose III's claims.
Over to you Myth Busters!!! Did Thutmose III really kill a rhino with an arrow/ arrows?????
OH NO! LOL it sounded so believable though! I bet you Bear Grylls could kill it with an arrow.
ReplyDeleteBear Grylls would probably try to eat it.
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I just logged on to say Thutmose III and not Bear Grylls! BUT you two had already beaten me to it. Bear would have killed it with a paper clip! lol
ReplyDeleteI reckon the guy with the pliers had it right :P
ReplyDeleteLOL. Well, being the big geek I am, I did a few minutes of hardcore googling and came to this conclusion...
ReplyDeleteSo, as we know, the 'The Armant Stela: The Asiatic Campaigns of Thutmose III' states that:
'He captured a rhinoceros by shooting in the southern land of Taseti, after he had gone to Miu to seek out him who had rebelled against him in that land. He erected his stela there as he had done at the ends [...]
Source: M.J. Nederhof'
This excerpt from some documentary says that an the ancient Egyptian angular composite bow (the bow said to be used by Thutmose III in Wallace E. McLeod's 'Egyptian Composite Bows in New York') would be able to fire at around 300 feet/second. However, the comments for that video of people who seemingly belong to some sort of hunting community show some skepticism towards the video's claims, with most modern composite bows (constructed with modern techniques and materials) only being able to reach around 212 feet/second. (Source) But, traditional construction methods may have allowed such high velocity to be possible, as the materials would have allowed much more energy to be stored at full-draw, but I don't think anybody wants to wait 18 months for some resin made from fish to set to prove it to be possible.
Anyway, so I figured I'd go check whether it would be possible for an arrow shot at 300 feet/second, constructed of reeds and a leaf-shaped blade of bronze (Source) to penetrate rhinoceros hide. So, I stumbled across this site and looked at the icky maths and decided to cut corners and ctrl+f to find this interesting piece of information:
"Art Young and Saxon Pope used 75# self-wood longbows and 3/8" birch shafts with broadheads 1" wide by 3" long (arrow mass of approximately 800 grains at approximately 155 FPS for a Momentum of .55). With these they were able to completely penetrate (with arrow exit) Alaska Brown Bears, and Young successfully took many of the larger Africa species, including several lion and cape buffalo, with the same equipment. He was unable to achieve adequate penetration on black rhino with this combination."
The site containing information on the capabilities of the modern composite bow also provided me with a comparison to those of the longbow:
"The composite bow gives superior accuracy, velocity, and distance in comparison to the longbow. Using a modern bow, target archers of equal skill can score an average 30 to 40 percent higher than they can with the longbow."
Now, paring that with my logic and knowledge of the fact that the pharaohs of New Kingdom Egypt being renowned for their crazy archery skills + the additional velocity boost provided by being carted around on a chariot, I'm thinking it may have been possible, but I still remain cynical about it because of the obvious lack of rigidity in reed arrows, despite them being reinforced with tar. Refer to Arrow Construction for reasons why, if you're still reading. :P
Oh, and, for an arrow to reach a speed of 300 feet per second, the bow would have to pull around 150lbs. Most modern fiberglass bows with a draw-weight around 70lbs, will just exceed 200fps. I believe Mr. hunting-guy had a 98lb. draw-weight.
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I have spent too much time w/ Google.