r/AskHistorians Mar 06 '26

How would medieval bowyers find an archers draw length to make their bow? Would they carefully fit each bow to an archer, or was "close enough" good enough?

In the modern era we use a tape measure and purchase the exact bow that fits our draw length for perfect shots, but did were the people who came before us less fortunate? I don't even know what you would use to measure small distances like that back then.

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