[Justin Pasternak]

Someone probably has asked this question many times before but what was the average speed (Feet Per Second) of a common longbow arrow and a common crossbow bolt in the Medieval Period?

When I mean common what was the most ideal draw weight that most medieval archers or crossbowmen could handle without to many problems?

And last how do you calculate the weight of an arrow or bolt, the draw force of the longbow or crossbow and how fast it will travel in Feet Per Second? Are their any charts or graphs that may show me or help me?

Here is a link that is comparing a longbow to a crossbow in arrow/bolt weight, draw weight and how fast the projectile travels (FPS). http://www.thebeckoning.com/medieval/crossbow/cross_l_v_c.html

From what the link says the velocity of both projectiles are almost identical in speed, is this true in some way?

[Glennan Carnie]

The numbers in the article you mentioned are incorrect for a medieval bow

As a baseline we have to look to the largest extant collection of English bows, the Tudor warship Mary Rose.

The draw-weights of the bows on Mary Rose were calculated being between 90 and 180lb with the largest number being around the 140lb mark.

Arrow weights were around 3oz (75g).

Arrow speed was in the order of 190 ft/s (58m/s)

Range, in the hands of a skilled English archer, was in the order of 270 yards

[Randall Moffett]

Yeah, bolt weight is way off for the crossbow as well. I have seen crossbow heads alone that weigh a fair deal so that would be a piddly little dart from a failry heavy crossbow. From what I can tell in the later medieval period feild bows start in the upper 200 range up to many hundreds of pounds draw. You also have siege crossbows which can get up toward 1000, though the line between these and giant crossbows seems blurred.

I could not tell you but think Mike Loades at the Royal Military college did tests on crossbow bolts and has the info on crossbows.

RPM.