"Henry V's archers vs Wellington's redcoats: Who would win?" Topic

Hi

Well, I am a musketeer and a rifleman and an archer. Love tools. I even have a dremel! Grin.

I just picked up a new book on the market from someone crazier than I am! It is a study of civil war cavalry carbines where the author a collector, spent serious money buying 11 origials of 97% of the weapons used, and manufactured the ammo to test. This latter is the reason I haven't done this sort of thing. Some of the "solutions" like with the Burnside are so bizzare and difficult to make with no period tools still surviving that I know of, as to be an expensive nightmare.

Even stranger, the guy did it in EUROPE. Wow!

Good stuff.

I am not sure I believe more than 5 people will buy it, though.

Rocky

I understand that the British had "Sniper" in Normandy that used a bow. Friend did a paper in college and dug up that fact. Don't know any of the details.
Just a statement, this is not meant to endorse any the points of view in this discussion.

'I understand that the British had "Sniper" in Normandy that used a bow.'

You may be referring to the legendary Capt. 'Mad Jack' Churchill who by all accounts was quite a character. The story goes that he took his longbow to France in May 1940 and while on patrol with his regiment ambushed a German patrol and shot the enemy sergeant with the bow. As well as the bow he carried a Claymore and wasn't averse to using it. Definately a good old fashioned 'eccentric' Churchill's exploits included a spell as a commando, being captured in Yugoslavia, escaping from a prison camp in Austria and walking 150 miles to Verona Italy where he met the advancing Americans, a spell after hostilities ended as 2 I/C The Highland Light Infantry and being the first man to surf the Severn Bore on a board of his own design.

Always thought you had to be slightly loopy to shoot a longbow. :)

F5

F5 wrote:

"I'd be the first to say that when the muskets graduated to rifles the longbow was history, no question. But I'll still take the side of the longbow in this contest because it will shoot faster, almost certainly outrange the Napoleonic musket and IMHO thats what would count."

F5,

But the longbow was confined to history when matchlock smoothbore muskets were in use, well before rifles were seen on the battlefield. I don't dispute the rate of fire, but a longbow does not outrange a musket, and on this there is no doubt.

Cheers

Cptn Snort

Hi

Snort, trust me, as an owner shooter of both, the bow does outrange the musket if you consider the ability to hit "the broadside of a barn" at range. If absolute get it out theresoemwhere, the musket will carry further, but not able to hit the broadside of the barn.

So, effective range, no, absolute, yes.

In Nam, I have ops friends who used crossbow in stelth situations as a sniper weapon because "thunk" is quiet, and a Barnett at 175 or so is the equivilent of shooting an M1 carbing at a target.

Rocky

Rocky,

I don't know how big the broadside of your barn is, but muskets can hit the broadside of my barn at ranges way over 300 yards. I doubt your longbow could even reach that far.

Cheers

Cptn Snort

Hi

Ya, gonna rehash that? at 300yards you are holding at what angle? At three hundred yards your ball will land randomly somewhere in an circle some 7 meters in diameter or more.

Your barn might be seven meters long, but it isn't 7 meters HIGH.

At 200, where my longbow can put them all in your chest, your circle is still a random strike in a circle 4 meters across.

YOur musket needs to be with 50m before your circle is small enough to target me.

Thus my statement about "maximum versus effective".

R