Lorica Hamata being pierced by arrows

[Sean Manning]

Sean,

I'm basing that extreme poundage-- 100-- on the size of ancient arrow heads, some of which must have weighted 3 to 4 ounces or larger, such as Manchu heads. Modern Mongolian bows are still built up to 100 pounds, and Czaba Grozer makes them up to 75 pounds. I don't think the Mongols would be shooting 100-pounders by stepping up the size of their sport-target weapons. They must be based on tradition.

Humh. If you have any citations handy for arrowheads that heavy, with sockets which could take a wide shaft, found in the ancient world, I would be interested to see them. Recent Turkish archers seem to have preferred light heads with their powerful bows, but I have not been reading up on steppes archaeology as you have. A 3 oz point would be heavy for a 16th century English selfbow let along an ancient composite one.

In this light, a healthy young archer could shoot a heavy-poundage bow constantly and accurately during battle. If a person such as myself can use a 55-pounder with no trouble, then many an ancient archer could easily handle a 75-pound bow, and a goodly number could shoot 100-pounders.

I think that ancient archers could have learned to use bows with a 150 lb draw if they had wanted to ... but that doesn't mean that they actually did so. There are plenty of skills which an archer can develop, and most traditions focus on two or three (the English focused on shooting fixed targets at long rage with heavy bows, some steppe traditions focused on moving targets and rapid fire at medium range, ...) You probably know the articles on Turkish bows which Adam Karpowicz has put online, but ancient archery traditions don't look much like recent strongbow traditions to me.

I don't have a problem with the odd ancient bow with a draw weight of 100 lbs or more, and we seem to agree that the average for the common types of bow was lower. As you point out, a more powerful bow is not always better (Maurice specifically advises that a soldier's bow should be too light rather than too heavy, although he also says that recruits should be given stronger bows after they have learned to shoot).