WORLD’S MOST AMAZING ARCHER in Slow Motion - Smarter Every Day 130

Hey it's me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day. I know when you think about archery you think about Nottingham, and one guy in particular, Robin Hood. But I'm gonna tell you about a guy today in my home town that might even be better than Robin Hood. You're getting Smarter Every Day.

(someone in distance) - Hey! Hey, he might!
(Brady Haran) Better than Robin Hood?
(Destin) [UK accent] He might be!! [laughs] Let's check it out, we'll see. You gonna agree with me Ms. Wanda?

• I will.

(Destin) For years in high school I heard about this famous archer in town that can hit anything you threw at him. And now I'm at his house drinking his sweet tea.

• I shot that moose in Newfoundland.

This is Byron Ferguson. He and his wife travel all over the world doing exhibition shooting at live events. I politely asked if what I heard was true and if I could make a slow motion video about what he does. So Byron you wanna tell em what we're gonna do today?

• Well what we're gonna do today is some exhibition shooting, starting with a wooden disk tossed up in the air and then we'll see what the smallest target is we can hit.

• Alright.

• But first we gotta hit this wooden disk.

• Start with the wood disk, work our way down. We've got a Phantom Miro, that's kind of why I'm here, I'm running the high speed camera. So, let me get to that.

[music]
[Crash]

(Destin) Impressive, but let's quantify exactly how difficult that was. In geometry there's an equation for something called circle packing. It's a way to determine how many little circles of a certain size you can fit inside of a bigger circle. You can pack 310 arrows into the presented area of the wooden disk. The next target cuts the circle packing number down from 310 to only 55.

(Destin) How did daddy convince you to throw stuff for him the first time?

• I had no choice. He told me to do it, so I had to.
• [laughs]

(Destin) Alright, he hit that too. Let's cut the circle packing number down from 55 to 21. According to geometry, this is over twice as hard.
[Bump sound] OK how's he doing this?

I can understand how a modern archer can do this with a compound bow because he has a really complicated sighting system. The archer looks at the sighting pins at the front of the bow using a peep sight that's attached to his string in the back. These pins are aligned based on a bunch of different ballistic variables like the tension of the bow and the weight of the arrow etc. Byron Ferguson does not shoot a modern bow. He shoots a longbow that he designs himself, and he doesn't have any form of sights on it.

His brain is like a ballistic fire control computer. It's not just about accuracy though, it's also about timing. Once he figures out where the target is going to be, then he has to be accurate enough and well timed enough with a 70lb bow to hit that target. So he can hit a golf ball. Let's go to something over 4 times more difficult, a life saver.

[Clank]
[Swoosh]
[Crunch... Pooof]

This is amazing, but we are at our last option, a single aspirin tablet. Finally, a miss. Well, kind of. According to the high speed his accuracy was dead on. You can see that the aspirin tablet jumped straight up from the arrow shaft which means he was lined up perfectly. His timing however was off by a whopping 8 milliseconds.

Obviously, this is still super impressive. Byron however is disappointed, and asks me if he could do it again. The rumors were true. There's a guy from my home town in Alabama that can literally hit anything you throw at him with a bow and arrow. Let's see what he has to say about how he does it.

• People ask me all the time how can you hit an aspirin tablet?... Cause I'm shooting at the center. The center of the aspirin tablet is exactly the same size as the center of a beach ball. Always shoot at the center.
• The center of an aspirin tablet is the exact same size as the center of a beach ball.
• Correct.
• It's just a point isn't it?
• A very minute point.
• Pretty awesome.

Alright, that was one of the more manly episodes of Smarter Every Day. And another manly activity.. [gunshot].. is shaving. That brings us to our sponsor today. Weapon is safe. On Smarter Every Day. The sponsor is Harrys.com.

I actually used Harrys before they were a sponsor for Smarter Every Day so I'm not just saying this, it actually is a product that I use and I like it. You go to Harrys.com and use the promo code "SMARTER" and you get a really cool shave kit. The way it works is they send you the razor, they send you the refills, and the way it works is, once it goes bad you just pop the old one off, pop the new one on and you're good to go.

It works really well. This one's called the Winston, this one's called the Truman. The Truman comes in a bunch of different colors. But if you want to support Smarter Every Day, go to Harrys.com, use the promo code Smarter. It actually ends up to be pretty cheap. It's cheaper than those disposable ones at the grocery store. These are better too. 5 blades. I like it. So there you go. I think you'll enjoy it. Go to Harrys.com, use the promo code Smarter.

If you think we've earned your subscription here on Smarter Every Day, click right over there to subscribe. I'm Destin, you're getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one.

• Byron Ferguson?
• Yes!
• He's awesome! Forget Robin Hood! [laughs] I mean, could you show us a video about Byron Ferguson?
• I can. Let's do that right now. [laughs]

And another manly activity is.. [gunshot] missing what you're shooting at.

• You don't put that arrow on the string, you just hold it like that.
• Yeah.
• And then, right down the lens.
• [laughs] That is so messed up looking.

Well there's two different types of razors. The one that I use a lot is called.. [gunshot].. the Winston. But there's another one that you can use called the Truman.
[gunshot]
[laughter]

Did you learn down here on the creek?

• Some of it, yep.
• Flint Creek?
• Flint Creek shooting at garfish.
• There's a lot of stuff learned down on Flint Creek isn't it? [laughs]

[Sound of an arrow hitting a target]