Quoting Joey Beutel <mejobo@comcast.net>:
In real life it takes practice from a young age to be a truly excellent archer. Not so with guns. However, to keep things
Bunk. Olympic shooters practice every day possible, not just on Sundays (as English law once held). That guns require less physical strength does not mean in any way that it requires less physical or mental technique at the upper edge of prowess (your 'truly excellent'). It does mean that you can train someone who is not strong to load and fire a gunpowder weapon. And is it not true that the original purpose of the NRA was to promote marksmanship because of the poor accuracy of Civil War troops? If it were so easy to be excellent with a firearm, you wouldn't expect to see the problems that have been found with discarded Civil War era firearms -- guns shot with the ramrods still in the barrels, double and triple loads, etc. Using Olympic shooting as the model, archers shoot 72 arrows at 70 meters at a 1.22 meter diameter target (with the 10 ring 12 cm across). Gunners shoot 60 shots at 50 meters at a 154.4 mm inch target (with the 10 ring 10.4 mm). For gunners, the 2008 gold medal for 50 meter rifle prone went to a guy who shot a 599 out of 600 in the preliminary round (final round has different scoring). For archery, the men's world record is 687 out of 720. So, for the modern world at least, gunners shoot far more accurately than archers. I'd say that being a truly excellent shooter of any discipline takes about as much effort as the other.
Neil Gilmore raito@raito.com ===== Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com. Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body "unsubscribe tft"