Crossbows

English Bowman

Well-known member
I agree with what you say, to a point. I still stand by the fact that a war weight longbow would out-range any crossbow that it was likely to meet on a European battlefield. Experiments have shown this many times. I agree that the Chinese design with the long tiller negates the longbow's advantage, but this design didn't make it to Europe. I also agree that the extreme weight crossbows could match the longbow, but these didn't come in until the advent of hand held gunpowder weapons and so were obsolete as soon as they appeared on the battlefield.
 

4d4m

Active member
The Chinese crossbow point was just an interesting aside, and something I hadn't realised myself until I'd read it. As you say they would not have come into contact with each other.

I agree with a lot of your points but not the blanket assertions such as "any crossbow it was likely to meet". I'd be more prepared to go along with statements like the typical war longbow would usually outrange a typical war crossbow from the same period, but even that assumes too much. We don't really know the distribution of draw weights of either longbows or crossbows used in the period, but I'll concede that the median of maximum range probably favoured the longbow. However I believe the distribution curves overlapped considerably.

Most experiments I have seen have been flawed by selection bias, but I would be interested in any links you have.

We have evidence that crossbowmen of the time used windlasses and we have evidence of a wide variety of draw weights and arrow weights for the war bows used. If you're using a windlass there's very little to be gained by not using a very powerful bow. The limiting factor is one of construction methods not use. We know that composite bows involving materials like cow horn were used for crossbows, in parallel with plain wooden ones, throughout a period that covers the hundred years war. Cheap bows kept in a castle armoury would be mainly wood, high end bows would be composite. Elite troops like the Genoese would be expected to have the top end kit. The advent of steel bows towards the end of that period was the catalyst for the very high draw weights, as much to compensate for the mass of the limbs as to increase overall power.

Another factor of course is the aiming. As mentioned the stock of the crossbow gets in the way of aiming at extreme range targets. It would still be possible to aim using the bolt's point while holding the tiller lower but without some sort of ladder sighting system as used on modern grenade launchers it would be very difficult to be precise. Conversely it is quite a bit easier to sight in on a distant target with a longbow. My speculation is this rather than ballistics may have been the limiting factor on effective range.
 
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