Lorica Hamata being pierced by arrows

[Alanus]

What is the quality of Lorica Hamata compared to Medieval mail?

Also Xenophon mentions the Scythian bow is only effective at 147 meters far less than the English longbow or Turkic bows.

However, Parthian bows need not have been "Scythian" bows. I don't know where Xenophon got his info., but at roughly the very period he lived in a Greek-named archer, Anaxagoras, in the Crimea shot a record distance of 521.6 meters. Distance equates with a bow's power; and at a much shorter distance-- 20 or 25 meters-- that same shot would have been formidable. This record stood until the Middle Ages when it was topped by a shot from a Turkic bow. As for English longbows, they diminished in power over a short period of time because the wood stressed; and secondly, they have no connection with our time period or geography.

The link that Nathan directed us to shows a test with handmade, high quality hamata, not cheap Indian stuff. The bow used was a 50-pounder, far short of a steppe war-bow. 15 feet is closer than any barbarian would make a release; yet with 100+ pounds of thrust at three times that distance, we would find occasional penetration. I'm sure Roman padding would have helped, but once in awhile a legionary or auxiliary looked down and said, "Ooops!"

[attachment=10146]Oops.jpg[/attachment]

An arrow is a bullet; and sooner or later a bullet will kill you no matter what kind of flack-vest you're wearing.
If anyone wants to continue their losing argument, let them be an experienced archer.