" Takes months to years of drill to be reloaded effectively in battle. It baffles me that you are ignoring this. A longbow with a draw weight to be worth anything in a battle takes years to learn to use and to develop the right kind of strength, the two go hand in hand. An average person will not be able to use a 200lb longbow in a day, it's not difficult, it's impossible. I noticed you didn't include "aim" as part of that procedure, I know you say accuracy wasn't important but I question this, even for massed troops it's important especially as ranges become shorter and correspondingly your shot is more powerful at short distances and because of this aiming and accuracy becomes more significant.Īn average person can be trained to use a crossbow, even a windlass, in a day, and that's being pessimistic - of course more training will improve your speed and accuracy. " I think this is a bit optimistic, although not far off, I would say more like 5 seconds. " Further, a competent archer can pull, knock, draw, and release as one swift action, taking under 3 seconds. " this is not true, unless you are talking about very light draw target bows, which it doesn't seem like you are because you say " Versus formations, which was the default situation, accuracy is far less important than rate of fire." No one is going to field armies of novices against troop formations, which is why archers were trained from childhood to use powerful longbows. You claim, comparing with crossbows " a similar power selfbow, it can be fired every 15 seconds or more even by novices who never held a bow before. I also agree that the power of crossbows came to equal and then exceed longbows, but much of what you have said does not agree with physics, mechanics or history. It's clear that crossbows are much slower and clumsier to use than bows, although with a goat's foot lever you are down to "only" twice as slow as a longbow (windlass is more powerful but much slower). I'm sorry but most of your assumptions and conclusions are wrong. The only factor which makes them worthy for infantry is the improved power. A 250 lb crossbow was about the limit for stirrup and lever past that, cranquenins were essential for even the best.Īcross the board, crossbows allowed higher draws and higher power from the same user, but sacrificed accuracy and speed. What it is is more likely to hurt the target, especially, as you note, 200 lb is an insanely hard draw. About 150 would be the peak crossbow for novices, and about 70 lb for self bows.įor footmen, the crossbow was NOT a more accurate nor easier weapon to learn. There are several surviving examples of ones that dimension. But the peak human recurve bow was 200 lbs or so (Drawn to 180 before the curator said "No further"). Whether that's survival selection (lesser bows got damaged easier), hard to say. But the medieval bows all seem to have been well over the 70# common for hunting today. they are more comfortable, allow much longer operational time, but at the cost of much slower firing rates.Ī novice won't be picking up a 250# crossbow, either, as the loading sequence for both is pretty hard. Having fired a variety of bows and several crossbows, crossbows aren't any more accurate. and more likely to penetrate chain and plate. putting the same mass significantly faster. A person with a lever cocker pull a 250 to 300 lb 28" draw crossbow. A person can, at peak, pull around a 200 lb 28" draw. The takeover of the crossbow has as much or more to do with power as training. Further, a competent archer can pull, knock, draw, and release as one swift action, taking under 3 seconds. Versus formations, which was the default situation, accuracy is far less important than rate of fire. Meanwhile, a similar power selfbow, it can be fired every 15 seconds or more even by novices who never held a bow before. 2 shots per minute is realistically a fast sustained rate for a very light crossbow. Combat use is slow to load, fitting the bolt on the move can result in being disarmed, and they cannot be fired from the uncocked mode. To be honest, crossbows are harder to use than most people think.
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