i read an article yesterday that said they weighed a 1000 grains or roughly a little over two ounces so if you multiply them by what i figure the velocity of a longbow shot an arrow out (280 fps).

280*280*1000/450,240=174 ft lbs

that did surprise me i didnt expect that they would have that much power.

of course that is at the moment of release and although an arrow is designed to fly straight because the feathers catch air and stabilize it like a mortar round they are also have more drag. there has to be a trade off the bigger the feathers or whatever would be used the more drag but the better accuracy. so by the time the arrow has traveled say 50 yds it has probably lost quite a bit of speed but when elevated when the arrow reaches the peak of its descent it begins to accellerate as goes downward but will have to be less than 32 fps per second because of the wind drag.

but at close range say within 20 to 30 yds that would explain why the arrow could be so destructive against armor.

in comparison i would say that an early firearm used something close to a two ounce slug which would balance out to about 880 grains and mean velocity could be anywhere between 600 to 1200 fps so if we use the low figure.

600*600*880/450,240=704ftlbs

1200*1200*880/450,240=2,814ft lbs

i sure hope it aint the lower figure but i figure myself it would be between 600 to 900 fps.

but as you can clearly see your talking about a lot more power from a firearm and a lot more trauma plus superior velocity and force would outweigh projectile shape from a lower velocity weapon when penetrating.

but it did surprise me about the amount of force from a longbow if it is 280 fps. some state of the art compound bows in the 85 lb range are shooting at 340 fps but that is because of gradual acceleration due to the cams, a dropping arrow rest and lighter arrows. compound bows are much more efficient than traditional bows. but sextus may have shot his through a chronograph so it would be nice to know what the velocities actually are from the longbows they shoot.

174 ft lbs is superior to just about any 22lr cartridge except the stinger and velicotor from cci.