Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
History Channel - Warriors
ChrisD:
Look guys, clearly some mistake has been made here.
1 180mph is 264 feet per second - never achieved in a longbow of any description.
2 Impact velocities as quoted in ballistics article at the end of 'The Great Warbow' are invariably less than initial velocities - they are quoted as e.g 210f/s initial and 160 at impact with a light arrow and 175/147 with a heavy arrow.
3 147 ft per sec is 100mph exactly.
C
nickf:
--- Quote from: ChrisD on April 07, 2009, 02:10:59 pm ---Look guys, clearly some mistake has been made here.
1 180mph is 264 feet per second - never achieved in a longbow of any description.
--- End quote ---
not with 10gpp, maybe with 5gpp?
ChrisD:
Well OK :D :D :D but I took it as read that we were talking about arrows that would have been used by medieval military archers - which is what the figures at the end of 'The Great Warbow' refer to and what the programme appears to be about.
In Mike Loades programme on the longbow, if you listen hard you'll hear that Mark Stertton was getting 45m/s initial velocity with his warbow and a heavy arrow 147 ft\sec. I appreciate that this was a relatively venerable bow - but with a really good longbow, you'll be doing well to get more than 180ft/s as an initial velocity with a heavy arrow. I have seen figures suggesting that Simon Stanley got up as far as 210 ft/sec but when I asked him he told me it could not be regarded as generally doable.
The yew longbow/warbow isn't actually that good with light arrows and doesn't necessarily give you great increases speed as you reduce the weight. Either way, there is no way that war arrows ever got to 180mph or indeed anywhere near that out of an english longbow.
Chris
stevesjem:
oh well it was a lot of fun doing it and it was nice to be asked by the History channel, it is a crying shame some people just can't enjoy it for what it is.
Thanks for the link Nick
Steve
alanesq:
It was very good to see a T.V. program which emphasised the draw weight required for a English longbow (used in war) and pointed out how the arrow gains speed as it drops which a lot of people dont realise
Unlike a lot of programs I see where they talk of "the mighty longbow" then show someone shooting a 50lb butt bow ;-)
e.g. I saw a program on Channel 4 last year where they "demonstrated" that the arrow from an English Warbow would bounce off a dead pig - how could no one involved in making this program not have questioned this ?????
BTW - I know from talking to a few people who have been on such programs that the info. they eventually put out is often not what the archer/bowyer had told them etc.
so whatever was said by the T.V. program don't hold Steve responsible
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