Main Discussion Area > English Warbow

power or speed of shooting?

<< < (2/3) > >>

jaxenro:
I often think we discount the effects of adrenaline when discussing this. How your body responds is different when there are 2,000 armed men charging at you to kill you then when your standing in the field chatting with friends.

Pat B:
My ideas of war bows is they were the artillery of their times, long range weapons that shot heavy arrows...in mass. They would hit the enemy before the enemy were close enough to be effective.  When dealing with armor and chain mail (sp) light bows and arrows would probably not be as effective.

Urufu_Shinjiro:
What Pat B said. Folks who haven't seen real warbow arrows up close are quite shocked when they do. The best comment I heard was "That's no arrow, that's a broom handle with feathers!". These bows and arrows are not something you would go hunting with, these were serious weapons of war. Power, speed, not a trade off in this case, speed was regulated as they generally fired in volleys, though not at a slow pace by any means, and power, well no one on the receiving end of these miniature (and I use the term loosely) spears is going to argue power...

Wyrda:
Power was of primary importance. 5 powerful shots are better than 20 that will just bounce of any armour. Clearly, warbows prioritise power first and foremost. That's why I place little stock in the people who claim there is practical application to shooting an arrow every two seconds from a half-drawn 30# bow, and that theirs is the "correct" or "historical" way of shooting as contrasted to modern target archery. Warbows are not easy things to shoot, and you are limited by your muscles just as much as your dexterity. Mark Stretton thinks that 7-9 seconds is a realistic estimate of how fast one can shoot a warbow accurately. However I think it might be the case that he hasn't trained to shoot fast like a Medeival archer might have, and 5-6 seconds would have been the standard.

Marc St Louis:

--- Quote from: mikekeswick on September 08, 2016, 03:06:25 am ---Neither - lots of heavy arrows from heavy bows :)

--- End quote ---

Or both  (SH)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page