Old school bow questions...

[goon]

How powerful were medival (?) bows?
What about those used by Native Americans or the natives of other countries.
Didn't the Arabs use bows made out of steel?
What kind of draw weights and accurate aimed range did these things have?
What about the range when used as indirect fire?
Thanks.

 

[SAWBONES]

The yew longbows used at Crecy were sufficiently powerful and accurate to decisively win that battle, circa 1100.

The crossbows (arbalests) of several hundred years later were judged so devastatingly powerful and accurate that Pope Innocent (II, IIRC) judged them only moral for use against the "Turks", not against Christians!

Draw weights I don't know, but good archers with good equipment were the "snipers" of the day.

Best.

 

[Baba Louie]

Taken from PRIMITIVE ARCHER magazine, spring 2003, in an article about the Battle of Poitiers titled "Death in the Hedges: Poitiers" by Gene Langston, he writes, "At about 300 yards, they now became the subject of the archers attention".

So ye old english longbows were good for at most 300 yds, I'd gather.

Great magazine if you like longbows, old bows, historical articles, flintknapping tips, selfbow tips, etc.

Adios

 

[Penman]

In many of the medieval battles, the archers used arrows which weren't even fletched. They were the light artillery of the day, and massed fire was used against the enemy. When they ran out of arrows (I think 24 was the standard supply) they used their swords and entered the general fighting. Forensic anthropologists have found skeletons which reflect the muscular development and stresses from using the bows, through the points where the tendons anchored the muscles to the bones.

The Turks, Mongols, etc. from the Middle East often used very short bows of composite construction-wood, horn, sinew, with pronounced recurved ends. If you ever make it to Istanbul, the museum at the Topkapi Palace displays some of these bows, (some have strings that were put on backwards, the museum staff didn't understand about the recurve form)

The bows used by some primitive hunters weren't very powerful, for they were used with poisons and the animal was tracked until it fell.

 

[Sunray]

1. Crecy was in 1346. Poiters in 1356. Agincourt 1415. Not 1100. No long bows in 1100. Short bows, yes, but not that big bugger of Welsh fame.
2. The normal bow was roughly and it's a guess because none survive, 100 pounds plus. English archers were required to practice after church on Sundays. Little guys with broad and immensely strong backs. A heavy bow is pulled with the back muscles not the arms. You push and pull at the same time.
3. NA Indian bows were nowhere near this. 50ish pounds.
3. No. Horn, wood and sinew. Sometimes together sometimes not.
4. An experienced English archer could and did kill at ranges up to 100 to 150 yards aimed, 2-300 in volley fire. At long range mostly itwas the horses that got killedthough. Massed archers(1,000 plus) were the norm. Not guys like Robin Hood.
5. "...crossbows (arbalests) of several hundred years..." This is nonsense. The Genoese at Crecy, 1346 were crossbowmen.
6. "...weren't even fletched..." Nope, always fletched but not always large fletching. Small fletching means a faster arrow. A sheave though is 24. Never seemed adequate to me.
See if you can find a book called 'The Longbow" I forget who wrote it. Amazon should have it or maybe your local PL. A good read and there's a picture of a sheet of steel that show how the steel actually flowed upon penetration.

 

[CWL]

India introduced steel bows in the 1500s -Moghul India (derivative of mongols). They were apparently very powerful. The technology behind these bows has been lost thru the ages.

 

[makdaddy03]

Oh never mind. I'm not that "Old School".

 

[goon]

I believe it is the 18th Psalm that makes reference to the use of a metal bow (I have read both bronze and steel).
That would suggest that they were used by someone at some point in time, right?
I think that I was thinking of the Mongolian bows when I first posted this question though. There is another thread about them that I found interesting.

 

[ed dixon]

Sunray: If you mean "The Longbow: A Social and Military History," it's written by Robert Hardy. The same guy who played the older vet in the old BBC/PBS show "All Creatures Great and Small." Excellent reference, comprehensive and well-written. (Watched the show as a teen, got the book as a "post-teen.")