If you haven't seen it already, I recommend folks check out Leo "Tod" Todeschini's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/todsstuff1 . He has some really interesting videos on there. Worth a look and a subscribe. :)

Thanks Chad,

I have been making videos for a while now, but really it would not be possible without myArmoury as that is where I have learnt so very much - Thank you.

Just a note as well to say I have another vid coming up soon about armour penetration using a longbow against an Agincourt era breastplate.

Yes again; but with a difference.

The bow is a 160lbs mountain yew English longbow shot by Joe Gibbs

The arrows are properly made war shafts with case hardened wrought iron heads made by Will Sherman of Medievalarrows.co.uk

The breastplate is based on a Churburg piece at 0.5% carbon with variable thickness made by Kevin Legs of Plessisarmouries.co.uk

And context and analysis is given by Dr Tobias Capwell

The jupon is fashioned after that of CharlesVI by Chrissi Carnie of thesempster.co.uk

Altogether quite a team

And the result was...

Subscribe to make sure you don't miss it.

Tod

Tod,
I can’t wait to check that one out. :)

I have posted up a new video of the amazing Joe Gibbs shooting a 160lbs longbow and myself with a 860lbs cross bow, shooting and chatting about speed, accuracy, training and role uses of the two weapons.

We hope you enjoy it

https://youtu.be/1w8yHeF4KRk

Tod

Thanks for all these videos! As I mentioned on YouTube, Andreas Bichler's 1,200lb-draw composite crossbow has managed 160-200 J in tests with mid-weight bolts, depending on environmental conditions. That's more powerful than the 160lb-draw yew warbow in the video, which managed, what, 130 J initial? Note that this crossbow weighs 7.7lbs and its cranequin just under 6lbs, so it's a reasonably handy weapon.

We see lots of crossbows with thick composite prods in 15th-century (& earlier) artwork. Even if they were only as good as Bichler's replica, which I consider unlikely based on period sources, they still hit noticeably harder than any yew bow apart from perhaps the absolute strongest (200+lb draws).

Thus, at least for large field crossbows with composite prods, there was a power advantage to the crossbow.

Thanks Benjamin,

Benjamin Abbot wrote

Quote:

Thus, at least for large field crossbows with composite prods, there was a power advantage to the crossbow.

My understanding of Andrea's bow is that it is a rampart bow rather than a battlefield bow (if we are talking about his big one) and so other than this one was steel, we are not talking like for like. I am unsure of the numbers on his smaller bow, but yes that is battlefield. I have no doubt that my bows are not as goos as the originals, but I doubt they are that far behind and so I can only conclude that a steel limbed bow matched or was marginally outshot by the longbow, but was not far in excess of the longbow.

Talking to Joe, the 200 does deliver more, but not much as the sweet spot seems to be around the 160 mark.

Regards

Tod

This comment about a 1200 pound crossbow draw weight makes me wonder: How common were 1000 pound or greater battlefield crossbows? How often would anyone come across one at a battlefield? Is there any existing way to know?

I am unfamiliar with composite bows, but I am with steel bows and I know the dimensions required to produce a 1200lbs crossbow and I often see steels in museums that as a guess would be up toward 2000lbs, so yes soldiers around 1450 onward would often encounter 1200 plus and if composite is to compete, it must also be up there.

Tod