The Flying Hun

One of the greatest things about archery, is that if you dig back far enough you begin to find some really interesting tools that expand past your bow and arrows.

One such device is the “Majra” also known as the navak, or tong-ah. The basic idea was to turn your bow into a semblance of a crossbow. There are a few different ideas as to how it came to be the first, being a way to use ammunition (short darts) that could not be fired back by your enemy.

The second, was that the Turkic cultures and Chinese clashed often and since the Chinese used predominantly crossbows – the enemy came up with a way of shooting their short crossbow bolts back at them.

There are a few others.

I built this one out of poplar, I’ve built s few of them in the past. Most depictions of the majra are seen with rounded backs (like this one) – if you’re wanting to build one, I suggest flat backed for your first experiment.

Because of the small size of the projectile and the high speed – it makes an excellent armor piercer. We did some testing over the summer with various bodkin points on the darts – they perform very well.

We filmed a video about it this weekend – take a look if you want to see how it works.

The Flying Hun – Majra Video

Every day the Texas International Archery Festival is getting bigger and bigger! Two new bands announced and we’re getting new vendors every day!

The Texas International Archery Festival

Check out this awesome poster – it should be up in a few places here soon.

We have big news!

The Flying Hun – Archery and Leather will be at The Texas Renaissance Festival in 2019! We weighed the options of different faires, and decided this was the year for expansion!

We recently closed a deal on a beautiful new location – Shop #4 which is just to the right, inside the front gates! This is a big step up for us, and we’re up to the challenge. We’ll have the great stuff you’ve come to love, and a whole lot of new goodies. I’ll be releasing more info about the new products and direction we’re taking, but for Eastern and Eurasian style archery gear, we’re the place to get it.

2019 is a great year to come find us – Sherwood Forest Faire is March-April, Comicpalooza in May and now TRF from September-November. Keep up with us on Facebook and Instagram for more details as they arise.

We look forward to seeing you this year!

2019 is shaping up to be an amazing year! We just secured our spot for Comicpalooza, here in Houston at the George R. Brown Convention Center the weekend of May 10-12, 2019.

This year we are on the main path through the convention – so expect to see a bunch of new media from us. We’ll have a bunch of info on mounted archery, details from our International Tournament and all the goodies you’ve come to love from us.

This is our third year vending at the show, and it’s always a good one. So, if you get a chance – come visit! It’s a fun mix of things and if you’ve always wanted to go to a con, but never have – you can’t go wrong with this one.

Put it on your calendar, it’s an excellent show.

SAVE THE DATES!!!

My group, The Eastern Contingent is hosting the first annual Texas International Archery Festival on April 26-28, 2019!

Registration, Course Details, and More will be announced soon. Until then, mark your calendars! Inquiries may be sent to our Instagram, Facebook Page, or to TXInternationalArcheryFestival@gmail.com!

We look forward to seeing you there.

We will have:
-Traditional Mounted Courses
-Traditional Ground Courses
-Music
-Food
-Vendor Faire
-Demonstrations
-On Site Camping

Hello!

I have a couple questions: have you ever looked at my work and said “I’m not an archer, but I love what you make” or, do you love history, research and someone that cares about making things the right way?

If so, then this post is for you.

I like to think I make pretty stuff, or at the least try to. But what a lot of folks don’t know, is that I quit a terrible corporate recruiting job to do the thing I love. I’ve had moments where I look back and question what I’m doing. I think I should go do it again, to afford a different kind of life – but I always come back to the art. I love creating, building things that people want to show off and love forever.

True factoid: this is my sole source of income; I have my shop online, and I vend at various faires – and that’s it. It’s not easy, I rely on commissions, good seasons and a lot of crazy factors that are outside of my control.

It’s not a cheap pursuit. I got lucky with my recent trips, but came away with a lot of great inspiration and information. I’m already building new products based on those – it’s an exciting time.

But I need your help.

If you love art, or want to support your favorite artists – Patreon is a great platform; everything you give goes directly into new projects, materials and helping me keep this crazy dream going a little longer.

Many thanks, and I couldn’t have gotten here without you!

Check out the link to my Patreon page:

Rob “The Flying Hun” Morton on Patreon

Before I get into the long story of our team “The Western Horde” and our time at The World Nomad Games – Serena Lynn and I were invited on to a local Bishkek morning show to discuss our time at the games.

I’m compiling a larger set of articles, but just know this has been a trip for the record books.

NTS Morning Show Interview

Comicpalooza and Sherwood cleaned us out this year! But, if you’ve been waiting for some new toys – we got a huge order yesterday!

All of our Ali Bows are re-stocked – including both Turkish and Crimean in most colors and weights from 20/30/40/50. We should be getting re-stocked on our entry level leather gear in the next few days.

Take a look!

Probably the most exciting thing we’ve had come up this year is an invitation to The World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan; the games are massive – nearly three-thousand competitors and is broadcast in that part of the world to nearly five hundred million people. Basically, it’s the nomad version of our olympics.

Their games include wrestling, foot archery (numerous types from all over the world), mounted archery and buzukashi (you need to look this up – seriously).

Here’s the best part. We’re the first US team EVER to be offered a spot to compete. Their sports are relatively uncommon here – so the US has never been taken that seriously, some crazy Texans aim to change that.

The site will be updated during our trip, so keep any eye here, Facebook and Instagram for photos and updates.

That’s right – The Flying Hun’s online store is now active!  We’ll be adding more items in the next few months to flesh out everything you’ll need for ground and mounted archery.   We have new nocks, leather gear and some truly impressive bows headed this way – so keep an eye out for updates!

The Flying Hun – Online Shop

As a reminder – The Hun will be teaching archery at Sherwood’s Summer Camp for most of July, but we will try to get your orders out as soon as we can.  It may take an extra day or two at most, we appreciate your understanding.

Happy shopping!