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Maximum arrow weight for hunting ?

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Strelets:
Gentlemen, thank you for your replies.

If I have got the attachments to work here are a couple of photographs of the kind of arrowhead that I was talking about. Both are now in Salisbury Museum.  The best preserved specimen now weighs 410 grains, and the one missing a barb now weighs 526 grains (probably a lot more originally). If fitted with 29" long 3/8" ash shafts, I estimate that the weights of the complete arrows would have been 1000 to 1200 grains. If 14 grains per pound is taken as the maximum practical weight, this would imply a minimum of about 70 to 85 lb for the bows.
Regards,
Dave J.

bjrogg:
Are those for hunting animals or people? I would have guessed war bow arrows, but it would only be a guess. For hunting deer I use from 575 to 600 grains but no where near that wide. A narrow arrow penetrates better than a wide. Just have to put them in the right spot and get good penetration. For a thin skin human those would be nasty. If they didn't kill you from good placement you'd probably die from infection. Just my totally uninformed guess. Interesting points there. Thanks for sharing.
Bjrogg

bradsmith2010:
that seems about right,,
but a heavier bow would work as well,, (AT)

Pappy:
525 to 575 is what I try and set up for deer at 50+@26 and I feel pretty sure they would kill most any critter you were hunting. :)
 Pappy

Strelets:
They were definitely for hunting animals, especially red deer (Cervus elaphus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). The head shown in the lower photo' was found at Clarendon Palace, in the middle of what was England's largest royal deer park. Ten arrowheads were found there, six being very wide barbed broadheads, two forked heads and two bodkins. Similarly, finds made at Woodstock (another royal deer park) consist mostly of very wide barbed broadheads. Excavations at Faccombe Netherton (a medieval manor complex) showed a lot of deer bones and associated wide broadheads (one embedded in the skull of a fallow deer). In contrast at military sites (for example Ludgershall Castle) the arrowheads are mostly much narrower. 

It seems that in medieval England they favoured very wide heads for shooting deer, but much narrower ones for shooting people.

These big heads would certainly work better with bows much heavier than 70 or 85 lb, but I was trying to establish a minimum draw weight.

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