Arrows vs plate armor

[KG]

A professional fletcher makes historically accurate armor-piercing arrows to be shot by a life-long English longbowman with his 160lb longbow at a breastplate made as historically accurate as possible by a professional armorer. The hosts are similarly qualified - a smith who makes reproduction weapons and a Dr. of History(? IIRC) who is a curator of the Wallace Collection that happens to joust in his spare time.

I figure this might interest some other people around here if they haven't seen it yet. This is the first time I've watched this sort of test and not been able to find glaring faults. I guess I could complain that they don't have an unlimited budget or time with which to do more of the same?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBxdTkddHaE

[ULTRA]

shoot me bro

punches can run from 50 to upwards of 1000 J btw:

http://www.science.ca/askascientist/viewquestion.php?qID=821

yes I know replication is not good haha, but just read the explanation

Arrows in Warband should be doing less damage to an opponent wearing a convex surface of similar material to the arrowhead than a human fist would do through the same armor

I also imagine a military pick swing from a strong man to an armored head would be far deadlier than an arrow shot from a similarly strong man to the same armored head

[Tuidjy]

Nothing in the video surprised me even a little bit, except how well the archer shot a 160 pound longbow. Made me feel wimpy.

Also, the test is perfectly well setup, as far I am concerned. The only thing that may be subject to improvement is how solidly the gel assembly is affixed, i.e. how much the target is allowed to move.

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A human fist cannot go through the armor, and neither will most arrows and quarrels. But you do not need anything to go through, in order to be injured.

100 Joules fully transferred to the head will knock almost everyone unconscious. It will also kill quite a few of the targets. Shotgun fired beanbags kill about one person per year in the US. One of the reports said it took the equivalent of 18 Joules. 1000 Joules would probably kill almost anyone.

I've personally witnessed an idiot volunteer to take a shot from a 9mm Makarov in the head, while wearing a Warsaw Pact helmet. The person doing the shooting was nice, and fired so that the bullet glanced off. Actually I think that the bullet would not have hit the head even if it had gone straight through. The helmet in question had a inner and an outer shell, joined by a stiff spring system. The moron was groggy for a few minutes, walked into a wall, and had stiff shoulders for days. I do not know whether he had brain damage, at least no more than he started with.

And a 9mm Makarov is just 300-400 Joules. Probably less than 50 was transferred to the helmet, and only a tiny fraction to the head.

Look at slow motion of the last arrow fired. It was pretty much hanging in the air in front of the armor. It had stopped, and transferred its energy to the target. That's 100 Joules, right there. Such a hit to the helmet would knock out, and possibly kill.