Main Discussion Area > English Warbow

power or speed of shooting?

(1/3) > >>

poplar600:
was the warbow made for speed shooting, or just raw power with fewer shots?

if you were a battlefield commander, would you rather have your archers shooting lots of arrows from lighter bows, or less arrows from heavier bows?

say 10 arrows per minute from a 90lber vs 4 arrows per minute from a 120lber.

mikekeswick:
Neither - lots of heavy arrows from heavy bows :)

loon:
They can get pretty fast when they get really heavy... I think, lighter arrows for long distance, very heavy arrows once the enemy is closer???

Del the cat:
I think there is a lot of BS spoken about rate of shooting.
Yes if you can only just shoot a 130# bow your rate will slow, but if you went down by just 10# it would be like shelling peas. Add in the fact that these guys did it for their living... literally. I don't think there was a problem.
I would imagine they'd all know what they could manage in terms of draw weight... yeah I'd imagine they'd have the 'who could pull the heaviest', shoot the furthest and fastest contests same as any group would.
They'd shoot the arrows they were given, maybe a few archers would have some light ones to antagonise the enemy at range...dunno if they'd get to select a bow...
I s'pose that sums it up, we don't know... but they sure as heck did.
Once the distance closed to say 100 yards, I don't s'pose you'd get off too many shots before it got real nasty anyway.
If I could go back in time, I'd love to see the first arrow storm go up, but I wouldn't want to hang around for very long or see the results of it!
Del

stuckinthemud:
100 yards and I reckon it'd be time to let the infantry do their thing while praying hard that your heavy horses will arrive in time! No armour, no shield and a light sword?  Just stay the heck outa the way..........unless the French are up to their thighs in mud that is ;)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page