Got a Real-World Weapon, Armour or Tactics Question? Mk. XXX

[Spiryt]

I admit I was assuming that light arrows were structurally capable of being fired with the bow's full power, if that's not the case then all my working was wrong, an arrow made of wet spaghetti is going nowhere.

The reasons heavy arrows tend to have better energy retention is due to how
constant the rigidity the shafts/dynamic spine have when combined with heavy draw weights.

There is even a famous paradox covering it. It's very easy to "over power" light quarrels with powerful bows and sap energy, accuracy, and even structural integrity.

If it was all about arrow structure being able to "take" bow limbs energy, then two bows of similar energy storage wouldn't have such drastically different performances with light arrows.

100 pound 30 inches Korean flight bow will likely be few to something-teen % faster with 1300 grain arrow than well made 100 30 inch yew selfbow, but completely outclass it with 200 grain arrow.


It's about angles, internal friction in limbs, limbs weight, hysteresis and couple of other things I'm not sure about, but in any case heavier arrows will always have at least few % more KE.