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Arrows vs. Armor 3 (www.youtube.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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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?"

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[–] [S] 6 points 10 months ago (5 children)

It's really a lot more in depth and interesting. In this one, they shot a lot of arrows against a target in brigandine, mail, and arming doublet with arm armor and gauntlets. Thanks to the volume of arrows shot, there were hits on basically every bit of it, including one hit to a eye slit in the salet.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    I'd like to see how it does against modern compound hunting bows and crossbows (my guess is not so great).

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (2 children)

    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?

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago*

    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.

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