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Crossbows outrange Longbows?

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Jmilbrandt:
I was just watching Warriors on the history channel, it was about the battle of Agincourt. The host was talking about the differences between the longbows the English had and the crossbows the French had. He said that a crossbow generally outranges longbows and that the only advantage to the longbow was the reload speed. That isn't true is it? I always thought that longbows out ranged crossbows.

Badger:
  a 100# longbow would store about the same energy as a 200# crossbow typicaly, if they were large crossbows with longer draws they would store mre energy naturally.

Dane:
One of the great advantages of the cross bow is that it takes relatively little training for someone to get procient. Also, you don't need the physical strength a war bow shooter has to have. They can stay loaded and spanned for a long time, and you don't need as much room as a long bow.

Making one is much more complex and difficult, though, so they would have been far more expensive than a yew bow. Less material needed for the bolts vs. a war arrow, too.

Dane

deerhunter97370:
From what I always understood at Agincourt the crossbowman were out of range for there crossbows, at the range of of the English Longbows. And since the crossbows werent effective the French charged their calvery and got slaughtered. Joel

Badger:
I believe most of the crossbows were relatively light weight back then, less than 200#. These would have lacked range over the longbow. Steve

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