Third video in Tod Cutler’s fantastic Arrows Vs. Armor series. They are doing some amazing work answering the question “how well did armor work?”
Third video in Tod Cutler’s fantastic Arrows Vs. Armor series. They are doing some amazing work answering the question “how well did armor work?”
I’d like to see how it does against modern compound hunting bows and crossbows (my guess is not so great).
Funny enough, they tested something similar. They got a modified compound bow to push the same archer and he shot a replica 15th century breast plate. He also used a 70 pound compound bow to shoot the breastplate several times.
Wow, 130 lbs is nuts! I’m really surprised that didn’t go through. Heavier arrows and different tips might’ve helped, but still, damn.
How did the crossbow do?
I’m not sure if they have tried a crossbow on the breastplate or brigandine. I do know Tod Cutler has, in the past, created a crossbow specifically to mimic the longbow Joe Gibbs shoots. So, my bet would be on it being pretty similar. At the end of the day, armor really did work and worked well. There is a reason it stuck around so long in history. Even to the point of firearms showing up. Some armor could stop early muskets.
They aren’t totally impervious, but yeah, they mostly work pretty well. As metallurgy made better steel, we kinda came full circle with trauma plates in carriers and ballistic shields too, they pretty reliably stop most small arms.
Now I’m wondering how modern armor would do against something like an English longbow.