The Longbow Vs The Crossbow Speed Test - Video 17

The purpose of this video was to demonstrate the comparative speed of shot between the English longbow, and the hand-spanned crossbow.

As you can see in the video, the crossbow wasn't as slow to shoot as many people make out, but please keep in mind that the hand-spanned crossbow is a very quick weapon to span and shoot, much quicker that the other types of crossbow in use during the middle ages.

Due to the heavy construction of the crossbow's steel prod, or bow, and the short draw length along the crossbow's tiller, the crossbow was a very inefficient weapon. Although the crossbow in the video has a draw weight of around 130 lb, compared to the longbow's 110 lb, our crossbow could only manage a maximum range of some 90 yards, compared to the longbow's 250 yards. To compensate, medieval crossbows were often many times the draw weight of the bow used here, and thus required the use of a belt and hook, Goats Foot or Windlass to draw. This made them much slower than the longbow. Due to this slow re-loading crossbowmen often sheltered behind Pavises, or large shields, while re-loading on an open battlefield. These shortcomings were not an issue, however, when the crossbow was used to defend walled towns or castles, a situation where the crossbow excelled.

If you wish to see the longbow compared with the more powerful, but slower, windlass crossbow, then watch the new series of Warriors on the History Channel. In episode 5, on the English Knight, you can see Martin and I going head to head, pitting a 110 lb yew longbow against an 850lb windlass crossbow, while Terry Schappert counts the amount of arrows and bolts we manage to loose in 1 minute. It makes for a very interesting comparison with this video! (The episode was screened in the US on April 2nd, and comes to the UK in the Autumn, but it is available to watch on the History Channel website too).

Here are some answers to the most common questions we receive:

1.The longbow was made by the Italian bowyer Celestio Poletti. It is made of high-altitude Italian Yew, has a draw weight of 110 lb and cost around £700

2.The crossbow was made by Robin Knight. It has a steel prod and a draw weight of around 130 lb. It cost around £250.

3.We do not make crossbows, arrows or longbows for other people.

4.The music is shareware by Jean Paul Grois and Forson Meyer, and can be obtained through the Soundclick website.

Please feel free to post sensible comments.

Best wishes,

Nick

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• longbow
• warbow
• bow
• archer
• archery
• arrows
• bolts
• crossbow
• crossbowman
• crossbowmen
• longbowman
• longbowmen
• medieval
• english
• war
• battle

[cplR3yk1ng]

im extremly interested on archery and purchased my first longbow i hope to get proficiant at it any pointers?

[bigbowbrum]

@cplR3yk1ng Glad to hear you have just got into longbow archery. Just concentrate on getting a good consistent draw length and clean loose, but above all enjoy yourself and don't take it too seriously. If you have any specific questions then please feel free to send me a message and I will help out where I can.

[thomasnbishop]

@bigbowbrum why do the long bow archers lean forward when they shoot

[bigbowbrum]

@thomasnbishop Hello Thomas. The archer leans forward so he can use his bodyweight to push the bow away from him as he draws. This is really helpful when shooting bows with a draw weight over 100lbs as it stabilises the left arm, stops it collapsing under the strain and makes it much easier to draw the bow. There is even an 18th century quote that suggests English archers bent their bows by pushing them rather than drawing them like we do today.

[bigbowbrum]

@welshlord4 No that is incorrect. If you read the Pipe Rolls (pay rolls) which are freely available to view at Kew, then you will see that out of approximately 5,000 archers in the English army only around 500 are listed as Welsh. Edward I may have used large numbers of friendly Welsh troops in his campaigns against the Scots, but even then he was recruiting large numbers of English archers from the Shires. I am proud to have Welsh ancestry but facts are facts.

[bigbowbrum]

@microminers Thanks for the comment but in our experience we have found there is no difference, plus using a quiver would not have been authentic as military archers at this time didn't use them, they took them from the ground as per our video. Best wishes.

[kalef1234]

@bigbowbrum oh ok very neat

[cplR3yk1ng]

@bigbowbrum questions are sure to arise as soon as my bow is finish thx

[Skybaby79]

BOTH of them were loading way to slow.

[bigbowbrum]

@nephildevil Oh OK. Yes, for the most part in battle they would have shot volleys until the enemy closed to within 100 yards then they would have shot flat, aimed shots.

[bigbowbrum]

@EpicPlusFail Hi. I guess it depends where your interest lies (i.e. modern or traditional archery) and what type of shooting you want to do. I prefer traditional bows but modern bows are more accurate and can be just as fun. If you want to take part in modern competitions then I would get a metal recurve bow but if you are interested in re-enactment then of course the tradtional bows would be better.

[EpicPlusFail]

excuse my language of bow and arrows for i know nothing about them but, if i were to buy one, should i get a classic one of wood or those metal ones with different mechanics to them? i feel so stupid.