Many centuries ago when crossbows made their debut on the medieval battlefield, they were swiftly denounced as being ‘unholy’ by the Pope due to their raw killing power. Even these models – primitive by today’s standards – were capable of piercing the plate metal worn by knights and nobles, and with the added advantage of require far less skill or training than that expected from a typical archer. With one shot a peasant could slay a nobleman, and in large part this started the demise of heavy armored cavalry which had otherwise dominated the battle.
A crossbow is a weapon without pretension, capable of delivering an extremely powerful bolt at high velocity, making it naturally in it’s own right potentially a highly dangerous weapon. However there are caveats that need to be considered as by far are all crossbows of similar quality. In order to measure how deadly a crossbow can be, we’ll need to address the question from a number of perspectives.
Crossbows & Power
To effectively kill a target it’s obviously necessary to deliver enough force that will ensure a fatal impact. It’s important here to distinguish between varieties of crossbow, and for sake of purpose we’ll refer to them as ‘modern’ – i.e contemporary hunting bows usually of recurve style – and ‘compound’ the more traditional style that springs to mind when most people think about crossbows.
Speed is obviously essential when considering deadliness and a modern crossbow will generally deliver a greater fps than classic models. It’s not uncommon to find even middle of the range modern variants that are capable of easily breaking 350-400 fps, which over closer ranges isn’t far short of a .223 rifle (more on which below). During the medieval battles discussed during the introduction, in many cases the crossbow bolt wouldn’t pierce the heavier armor – but the actual force/velocity of impact was enough to kill the cavalryman it was supposed to protect. Modern crossbows are much more powerful – so it’s fair to say that in regards to sheer power, crossbows are absolutely lethal weapons.
Accuracy & Deadliness
Of course it’s not much use having a death dealing weapon if you can’t get it to aim straight, and this has always been a major issue with crossbows throughout history. To become a bow archer in a medieval army was literally a career decision – it took a lifetime of learning, practice and physical training to be able to rapidly release accurate arrows. On the other hand a crossbowman only needed to point and release – the crossbow mechanism did almost all of the heavy work; the only problem being that crossbows were only effective in terms of accuracy over very short distance.
This is why crossbows were frowned upon on the battlefield, and usually used by the lowest rungs of the military force. The main problem causing this is the sheer inconsistency of the operating pulley’s – which are susceptible to even the slightest change in balance, direction, bolt weight and of course wind. Only in the last couple of decades has crossbow technology developed to such a degree that components are now highly engineered and geared specifically towards consistent delivery, but this remains an issue with lower range models. Saying this, with only a little practice a well sighted, good quality modern crossbow can still quickly become an accurate and lethal weapon even in totally inexperienced hands.
Crossbow & Bow – Comparative Deadliness
As mentioned above a powerful modern style crossbow can deliver as deadly a force as a small caliber rifle, and will only be let down in direct comparison in regards to very long range shooting. A much fairer comparison is with a classic bow – and there’s little doubt that in a layman’s hands the crossbow is by far a more dangerous weapon.
Classic archery requires huge amounts of practice. Even with modern sights and range finders it’s still extremely difficult to hit a moving target, whereas the principles of firing a crossbow are much more aligned with modern sensibilities. Being able to essentially point and fire – just as we would with a firearm – is even today the great leveler when it comes to making crossbows a much more accessible form of weaponry. Sure, it may lack a little of the class of a bow and arrow – but then, they’ve been saying that for a thousand years!
Know more about crossbows by reading our Crossbow Reviews.
