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Good discussion Dave and am enjoying the counter thought. The colonials and soldiers ( English, Colonists, Hessian or French) did not wear the body armor of the pilgrims and Jamestown crowd at the time of the French and Indian wars when it really was primarily bow against flint guns.Hi M.De land,
Agincourt was won because the French knights fought dismounted and got stuck in the mud. Crecy was a better demonstration of the bow and they were ineffective at Poiters because the French locked shields and advanced rapidy on the archers. By the late 1400s, an arrow from a long bow could not effectively pierce the hardened and tempered steel armor worn over padding. You need to read Strickland and Hardy (2005) "The Great Longbow from Hastings to the Mary Rose" and M. Bane (2006) "English Longbow Testing Against Various Armor Circa 1400s". The upshot is by the late 1400s, English enemies no longer feared the longbow very much. Moreover, modern testing always fires arrows at the armor at close range and such that the arrow hits dead on. The vast majority of arrow hits in battle were at longer ranges and deflecting blows, not dead on.
As far as early colonists wearing armor, please go here.
https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/category/arms-armor/
and here:
https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/category/arms-armor/
dave
Bow and arrows were hampered by rain but so were flint guns so I think that was pretty much a wash as to advantage at those times.
I've used both most of my life and in a close battle I'd take the bow and a quiver of arrows over my muzzle loaders personally.
Also many arrows that missed the mark or even if hitting it were retrieved to launch again. They take far to much effort to construct to throw them away with only one shot a piece.
The technique as I understand in European warfare of the period of long bow use , from the special I watched about Agincourt, was to repeat birage fire and the Bodkin tipped heavy arrows launched from 100 often plus pound long bows would penetrate chain mail with ease by separating and wedging between the links. Only relative few of the rich knights could afford tempered body armor and even then the hail of arrows falling from the sky would eventually find an opening.