Effective ranges of skirmish weapons versus fantasy ranges

Hi all,

I was browsing through this site and saw some fairly heated discussions about the effectiveness of certain ranged weapons of antiquity.  Now I've had some experience with ranged weapons of the pre-gunpowder age.  And imho, some of the assertions of the accuracy of these weapons are not just unlikely but basically impossible.    

Moreover,  after I got into the hobby of rifle-shooting, the performance of these earlier weapons seem hopelessly pathetic by comparison.  None of these earlier weapons even performed in the same order of magnitude as the rifle.  This is perhaps why European powers were able to dominate the rest of the world in such a short span of time.  It seems to me that beyond the range of about 100 yards, pinpoint projectile/missile strikes on individual enemy troops with pre-rifle era ranged weapons were basically impossible.  Now I'm not talking about the maximum range of the projectiles/missiles that these weapons fire, just the range where a person can consistently aim and hit a man-sized target.   Firing a barrage of arrows/stones at thousands of infantry in formation at 300 yards would score some hits, but that same barrage if applied to a single infantry unit at 300 yards would probably not hit anything at all.   

I've had time to play around with the following weapons:

Spearthrower:  I played with this little device for several months.  I was eventually able to consistently hit a man-sized target at 15 yards.  Attempts at trying to extend that range were not very successful.  The ballistic trajectory of the darts/javelins begins to nosedive at a steep angle at around 25-30 yards making it very difficult to strike targets beyond 20 yards.  One good thing about this weapon(assuming it's firing a heavy javelin) is that it'll strike targets at 15 yards regardless of weather conditions(rain, heat, snow, wind).  Contrast that with claims that Aztec spearthrowers could effectively engage spanish conquistadors at 50 yards and barrage them at 100 yards.

Thracian Sling:  I spent 3 years hurling pebbles and eventually switched to lead fish weights.  Even with all that practice and consistent lead projectiles, I was only able to hit a man-sized target at 30 yards.  And that level of accuracy is not at all consistent, factors like rain, wind, extreme temperatures will easily reduce accuracy to zero.  And as hard as I could throw it, I never had any projectile fly much further than 100 yards, and I was using a long-range sling.  Contrast that with the claims that the slingers of Alexander or Ceasar could accurately hit soldiers at 100 yards and barrage them at 400 yards.

Crossbow:  I used a modern crossbow with a 40 lb draw weight and modern holographic sights.  After practicing for a couple of days, I was able to consistently hit a man-sized target at 50 yards.  Beyond that range, the accuracy drastically diminishes due to the heavy head of the bolt, the curved fletching, wind, and the inherent ballistics of the bolt.  The bolt seems only to be accurate in the high-speed ascent stage of it's flight, and during the descent it takes a sharp and unpredictable dive due to it's heavy head.  So trying to get the bolt, in the descent phase of it's trajectory, to accurately land on a target appears to be extremely difficult.  With that said, I've never had a single bolt fly further than 150 yards.  Now the Chinese repeating Nu only had a draw weight of 30lbs, or roughly 75% of the power of a modern crossbow.  Yet I hear claims of Chinese crossbow men accurately hitting enemies at distances of 350 yards, which is pretty unlikely.  Claims that Korean (hand drawn)crossbows can effectively strike human targets at 800 yds and barrage enemies at 1900 yards is just plain impossible.  The most powerful muscle drawn crossbow in existence only shot a bolt out to 1100 yards and broke after 6 shots.

Recurve Bow:  I shot (and still shoot) a 120 lb draw weight recurve bow for the last 6 years.  Right now I'm able to hit a man-sized target at 100 yards for roughly half the time.  Beyond this range, wind factors, along with the light weight of the arrows makes accurate targeting very difficult.  In long range shooting, my best range was 340 yards.  Now the mongol recurve bow has a draw weight of around 140-150 lbs, thus I would expect the bow to be able to engage targets out to around 120-140 yards and to barrage targets at 400-450 yards.   Contrast that with claims that the effective range of the Mongol recurve bow is 300 yards.

Muzzle-loading musket:  I shot this weapon a few times.  Using black-powder propellent, this weapon was able to accurately hit targets 50 yards away roughly 1 time out of 3.  Though in truth, aiming this weapon or just firing in the general direction of the target made no significant difference.   And I haven't read any suggestions of the accuracy of muskets.

WWII Sniper rifle:  I've been shooting this Russian Sniper rifle for the last 2 years.  And I'm now able to consistently hit man-sized targets at 1000 yards with high-quality ammunition and good weather conditions.  I read online that the maximum range of the 7.62x54R caliber ammunition is 3km or over 3600 yards, and the effective range is 1km or 1200 yards.

So in terms of effective range, an antique sniper rifle, whose technology was available by the 1870s was about 10X as far as the closest contender, the recurve bow.  My personal opinion is that the range and accuracy of these ancient ranged weapons were grossly exaggerated, most likely for propaganda purposes.

Effective Range Ranking:

1.  WWII Sniper Rifle  1000-1200 yards

2.  Recurve Bow  100-150 yards

3.  Muzzle loading Musket ~50 yards

4.  Crossbow  ~50 yards

5.  Long sling  30-40 yards

6.  Spearthrower 15-20 yards

Maximum Range Ranking:

1.  WWII Sniper Rifle  3600 yards

3.  Muzzle loading Musket 500-600 yards

2.  Recurve Bow  400-500 yards

4.  Crossbow  150-200 yards

5.  Long sling  100-150 yards

6.  Spearthrower 50-60 yards

a few years back i shot and killed a duck with a modern sports bow at the range of about 60 metres...

    and i'd also say that i was fairly accurate to about 100 metres.

and before i learnt how to use the fox skin finger protector, i was drawing the bow with my bare fingers and you know what...it kills!!!

   well the duck was swimming at the time, abeit slowly...and the way i guessed it was 60 metres 'cause that was the length of our dam...i was on one end and it was on the other end.

   and i didn't shoot it just for the sake of it, my uncle made a really nice stew with it afterwards..

  i'd say i fluked it more than anything you'd call skill...like i said...prior to that i've never even touched a bow before, let alone shoot one. i didn't even know how to use the finger protector...lol