Middle Earth Ranger Forum

The crossbow did better than I thought it would:

The Gunny:

I've seen the top video a couple of times. I was quite surprised at the speed of the crossbow myself. There are a couple of guys in my local SCA chapter who are absolute speed demons with the crossbow. I can't believe how many shots they can get off in a 30 second timed round.

I appreciate how forthright he is about the relative power of the two: I do wonder what the comparison would look like between a younger man in fighting trim behind the longbow and another like him using a mechanically spanned crossbow of equivalent power.

Were crossbows so light used on the battlefield, and if were they "in earnest" or harassing tools?
... and I forget, do we see them mentioned in Middle Earth?

Didn't watch the second video but I call the top test farce. Honestly though the man shooting the longbow is wasting a lot of time having to pluck arrows from the ground instead of from an arrow bag hung at the waist or across the lower back as would have been done historically. Also he is bending down then bringing the bow all the way back chest high to nock and draw, thus wasting more time. With a true warbow you hold it waist high, nock it waist high and come into your full draw from the waist as you take the weight of the stave's draw on your back, chest and shoulders. For me I hold my warbow waist high with my arrowbag belted low across my back. When I knock I grasp an arrow between thumb and middle finger and slid it between the stave and the string to nock. This allows me to go straight into my draw instead of having to take time to nock traditionally by moving the arrow to the other side of the stave before drawing. By doing this I guarantee I can get an arrow off every 3 to 4 seconds at full draw which usually adds up to 15 arrows a minute. 15 arrows and I only shoot as a hobby, imagine men who did it for several hours daily much of the time.

One thing to remember here is that neither of those two in the first video were pulling accurate bows. I am pretty confident the longbow was not in the 80-120 lbs range (though it could be) and I promise you that the crossbow was not. My wife has a period design crossbow at 75lbs and it is still tough to pull back over and over. The reason for all those methods of spanning a crossbow is because of the weight of draw needed to be effective.

I have shot against crossbowmen on speed rounds of 30 seconds and I usually get off 6-8 to their 3-4.