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[Phlum]

The enteire problem is how un-accurate arrows are. We are probobly wasting time on how well they penetrate, we will probobly never know.

[10ebbor10]

The enteire problem is how un-accurate arrows are. We are probobly wasting time on how well they penetrate, we will probobly never know.

Arrows are fairly accurate. Combined with the fact that combat happened mostly in close formations, and that they used  massive volley's, it's rather hard to miss. A trained lomgbow archer can pincushion you from pretty far away.

A mistake people here are making is that all bows will be longbows, which isn't the case. Longbows required many years of training and are made off specially treated wood(I believe it was Yew). In such away that the English switched to guns for 2 reasons.
1. Guns don't require training. (I mean, they are enormously inaccurate.)
2. They ran out of trees

[GreatWyrmGold]

Bows have a slight downside, specifically they tend to leave you defenseless against a guy on a horse swinging a sword if he reaches you. Also, those mostly-longbow armies tended to consist primarily of trained peasants.

Not to mention that your argument is empirically fallacious. After all, since modern armies don't consist 100% of nuclear missiles, by your logic they must not be able to efficiently destroy pretty much anything. They can; it's just that they have downsides. Nukes have fallout, of nuclear and political varieties, and weakness on the defensive; longbowmen tended to require good numbers to hit anything much at longer ranges and tended to die at shorter ranges, and accuracy suffered if they wore armor, so one of those range problems would become potentially crippling no matter what you gave them.

[Gashcozokon]

Do the hard-core re-enactors shoot each other with bows whilst in armor?

Yes we do.

how much brain damage have they suffered?

Surprisingly little. (our insurance is on par with Badminton)

Asking them about accuracy would be useful, though.

I am not personally an Archer, I'm one of the Armored fighters getting shot with arrows.

The Society for Creative Anachronism is full of people who, at the very least could lend an experienced educated guess at answering some of these questions. I don't necessarily consider myself the best person for conducting this research, but I will try to construct a question list from this thread to take with me to ask next time I go out.

(more info in spoiler)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can find your Local Chapters website here.
These pages are poorly laid out, feel free to ask for help if anyone is curious.

Combat archers use blunted arrows for safety, live arrows are used on the range, certain groups may include equestrian events I have seen mounted archers once or twice. If anyone discovers they are near to a group local, simply find the weekly practice. Heavy practice usually combines archery, some areas may have a separate day. SCA Members love what they do, and love to talk about it. So a few questions of 'Hey this looks neat, and can I get your opinion' normally cause people to try and talk your ear off.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Do the hard-core re-enactors shoot each other with bows whilst in armor?

Yes we do.

how much brain damage have they suffered?

Surprisingly little. (our insurance is on par with Badminton)

I'm surprised...

Asking them about accuracy would be useful, though.

I am not personally an Archer, I'm one of the Armored fighters getting shot with arrows.

How often do you get hit?

I know someone in the SCA, I'll see if  she knows anything.

[Gashcozokon]

First:
This is a quick list of what i've pulled from this thread as to the questions needing details.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Arrow Types:
   Wood / Bone / Metal(soft:copper) / Metal(hard:steel)

tips / solid shaft

Crossbow Vs LongBow vs ShortBow

Accuracy
Range

Penetration:
   Flat vs glancing

Stopping power:
   Cloth
   Leather
   Chain
   Plate
   Layered

Break bone w/o penitration

I personally haven't played with arrows in game enough to be familiar with them to know.
Are they always lethal, or is it only after enough skill ranks are acquired?
same for rate of fire,
and i guess range would be constant.
 

I'm surprised...

Asking them about accuracy would be useful, though.

I am not personally an Archer, I'm one of the Armored fighters getting shot with arrows.

How often do you get hit?

I know someone in the SCA, I'll see if  she knows anything.

By the rules we play for simplicity any arrow hit is considered to take the offending limb; body and head shots are fatal.  Because of the armor and them being blunted it is just easier.  I've been shot a fair amount, one particular war weekend. 3 times by the same archer, in exactly the same spot.

He managed to hit me just under my colar bone in the gap between breastplate and shoulder/arm. Say 2" wide with my arm raised. I'd estimate range at ~30m+ through a crowd of ally & hostile fighters. 
Made nice work of my arm. After the fight I showed him. and he replied "I have a knack for finding exposed flesh on the field"

I have also seen Him continue firing arrows while preforming some matrix style dodges. Accuracy takes a hit for that, but your oponent also tends to stop moving to say "Woah"