Which bow is better ?

last SG · 2007-11-06T11:37:53+00:00

each bow to its own, what i feel is most important is the training. without training, no bowman is effective. Unless you use the Repeating Crossbow.

Dr Who SG

Chinese bowmen

Mongol horsemen

English longbow archer.
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Question :

Which bow is better ?

BenBenDeZhu SG

is this a trick question? Razz

Aaron8209 SG

crossbow better…more power more impact for close range.

airgrinder SG

erm... I think the main effect of bow is like our arty fire. It's not meant on a one-on-one fight, but rather an area target.

So, from your pics, chinese bow better, cos got more people...keke

skeujin SG

then we shall fight in the shade... Twisted Evil

<(0))>< SG

our arrows will block out the sun Twisted Evil

deathscythe99 SG

SPARTA???

touchstone_2000 SG

compound bow

skeujin SG

THIS!

IS!

SGFORUMS.....!!!!!!!!!

/kicks DS99 to stomp...

Twisted Evil

FG42 SG

i think rate of fire and range are important too.

many people left out japanese bow. heard they tried using mogols and chinese ones but later found out that their own is more suitable to them.

frankly, i am not too sure which one is the best unless you include Apache Longbow in the list too, hahaha!

airgrinder SG

Ya, I think the long bow apache quite powerful, can kill a tank, more power than the chinese bow

Darkness_hacker99 SG

Chinese bow ftw.

crosshairs SG

The English Longbow. Traditional Mongolian bows were developed by Genghis Khan to have an advantage over his enemies in terms of range. However, if you were to look at the chronology, the English longbow was developed much later, had the mongols had better bows, it would have been adopted, yet it was not. The English longbows typically had a poundage of more than 100lbs. Competition recurve bows currently has only about 44-52lbs. The French hated the English archers, the mere capture of one archer would render his middle finger cut off, hence the gesture adopted by the english of the “2 fingers” as the English version of “showing the finger”.

storywolf SG

When we are talking about Mongolian bows, the first thoughts go the their military use, although hunting and target practice certainly were more prominent activities. Every day was not filled with war, but hunting and the training of various skills were part of the daily routine. However, we will start with the military aspect.

In the military, each soldier carried two bows on horseback. One bow was for long-range shooting, another for shooting at close distances. Also, each soldier had two quivers with arrows for different purposes. To mention but a few of these, there were armor-piercing arrows with a particularly heavy arrowhead of tempered steel, there were incendiary arrows for setting buildings afire and spreading fear in the enemy ranks, as well as whistling arrows for signalling. Of course, the majority of arrows they carried were ordinary arrows where the arrowhead and length of the shaft were adjusted to the normal range at which the particular type arrow was to be used.

The Mongol bow is not as large and long as the English one, but it is vastly more powerful. The draw weight of an English longbow averages around 70-80 pounds, whereas the Old Mongol bow had a pull that, according to George Vernadsky, averaged at around 166 pounds. Chambers states that the pull varied from 100 to 160 pounds. This seeming discrepancy certainly reflects the fact that draw weight varied with the strength of the user, and with what use the bow had been made for. As could be expected, there was a considerable difference in shooting range. Whereas the English longbow could shoot at distances up to 250 yards or around 228 meters, the Mongol counterpart can hit its target at 350 yards or 320 meters and, if the archer is well trained for the task, even beyond that.

|-|05| SG

However the range of the mongol horse archer was a mere 60-120 yards because without feet planted on solid ground they could only pull much much less.

But yes the compound recurve bow has a better pull strength then the low bow.

Then again u really have to look at what kind of trees were available and the conditions/climate of the places where the bows were used and hence u would get varying results.

Certain woods snap easily when in drier conditions where as others become to soft when wet.

Shotgun SG

I would go with the Mongol bows. But I have no idea how they could pull 166lb bows though. I pull a 38lb already cry father mother liao.

crosshairs SG

The drawlength has to be taken into account as well. Poundage is only part of a number of factors.

crosshairs SG

Wait a minute......the guy in the English longbow picture. Why is he drawing with 3 fingers? Where's his glove?

kenn3th SG

From the pic about the chines bow men. they really look like they are the “olden day” allitery

equlus84 SG

I doubt you can compare directly the various types of bows as described in the pics. These bows are designed and exploited with respect to the doctrine, tactics, availability of materials and geography of the terrain........
Like the pic of the mongolian archer, his bow must be short so as to ensure the flexibility of the user on horseback.........

I have read a book by Joseph needham a sinologist regarding the ancient Chinese usage of ballistics weapon. According to him, longbows are already in wide usage back in the 200BC. On top of that, crossbows were also widely used as early back in the Qin era. Crossbows though short in range, allows a heavier blow against a enemy at close range. Thus it is popular among the Chinese army as the time needed to train the user is shorter and it can penetrate the wooden shields used by the xiongnu.

A special type of crossbow known as "zhuge nu" was also created slightly later than Qin era, but it's creation is wrongly attributed to Zhuge liang. It is known as "lian nu" repeated crossbows. They have 5 bolts housed in a wooden built in magazine that allows the bolts to fall into the chamber when the bolt is fired, thus saving the time on reloading.

According to the book, the may difference between Chinese crossbow and western crossbow is that western bows fired full length arrow and deploys as complicated crank system, thus no doubt the range is slightly further than the Eastern design. The eastern design is more simple and more rapid in terms of firing.