this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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Mildly Interesting
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I'd like to see how it does against modern compound hunting bows and crossbows (my guess is not so great).
Isn't the draw weight of hunting bows much lower than that of historical war bows? I would guess they would do even less.
Sort of, but effectively, modern compound bows (at least ones for big game) are equally powerful and more accurate.
They only require a fraction of the actual draw weight at full draw, which makes aiming easier, but they are still fully capable of taking down a moose, grizzy bear, elephant, etc.
Modern materials help too, but basically modern bows are better in ever regard. You can still have crazy draw weights like old war bows/longbows, but the cams take the vast majority of the weight off once the bow is drawn.
Funny enough, they tested something similar. They got a modified compound bow to push the same archer and he shot a replica 15th century breast plate. He also used a 70 pound compound bow to shoot the breastplate several times.
Wow, 130 lbs is nuts! I'm really surprised that didn't go through. Heavier arrows and different tips might've helped, but still, damn.
How did the crossbow do?
I'm not sure if they have tried a crossbow on the breastplate or brigandine. I do know Tod Cutler has, in the past, created a crossbow specifically to mimic the longbow Joe Gibbs shoots. So, my bet would be on it being pretty similar. At the end of the day, armor really did work and worked well. There is a reason it stuck around so long in history. Even to the point of firearms showing up. Some armor could stop early muskets.
They aren't totally impervious, but yeah, they mostly work pretty well. As metallurgy made better steel, we kinda came full circle with trauma plates in carriers and ballistic shields too, they pretty reliably stop most small arms.
Now I'm wondering how modern armor would do against something like an English longbow.