No Mutants Allowed

And from what i saw and like @zegh8578 said most lars critics were mostly learn archery just through european perspective where archery is mostly limited to just longbow

I'm curious, you mention poison a lot. Was this common in Europe? I often wondered what the main cause of damage is, with the arrow. Viking anecdotes describe warriors walking out of the battlefield w arrows through their hearts (the arrow itself plugs any bleeding), same anecdotes mention nearly instant death upon removal of said arrow

Its complex, Bow and arrow is old, mean it should have undergo lots of improvement by different culture to increase its deadliness. it would not strange in europe there is use of poison outside of hunting through cultural exchange in the past. I think its possibility, since europe isn't land that devoid of potent toxic source (Black henbane, deadly nightshade, poison hemlock, (red or white) bryony and many other)

"And to be clear, Lars probably got a bit carried away, sure. But from there to "hoax" or "fake" is a big and unfair step."
Without any offense, please stop projecting . This is not what I believe nor what I said. I am just saying that when it comes to historic topics one should always keep a healthy sense of scepticism.

Yes, I know this is a very high standard! But that's history for you! It's a very rigid and scientific field. And sadly there are way to many charlatans :/ out there selling books and other material - not saying this is Lars, but just saying why the standards are so extremly high. You really don't want to end up on the history chanell.

injuries through wide open wound caused by broadhead arrow, it is said the biggest danger of arrow is not when its struck. But rather the effort to pull it from wound. This is not a problem however, for eastern asian as they wear silk undershirt behind the armor for easier extraction. Maybe thats one of the reason why poison arrow is common in asia.

But Crni, maybe I haven't combed through all of Lars' videos, but I never got the impression he intended to be historically accurate. My impression is that he explores all the potential that lies within the bow, and simply states "if I can pull this off, people in the past could have pulled it off too", wether it was in combat - or just to show off - or never even happened, it still is a demonstration of potential.

Sometime arrow might not penetrate plate or helmet but it does leave impact and caused concussion. However, knight or soldier who could affort padded coif have no problem with this.

eissa, I realized also, right after asking you, that arrowheads come in both needle-like as well as wide varieties. The wide ones would probably leave a slit, that would bleed even with the arrow shaft plugging the wound. I still really doubt these movie depictions of people insta-dying from arrows to the torso, I don't see the logic of it

there is logic if it hit the heart and not mention the amount of shock that someone experience when being hit by half inch wide heavy arrow.

Well, it does certainly put a warrior out of comission. To put it mindly, your day would be totally ruined either way. Even "only in the knee" would possibly require amputations and whatnot. Even the fairly extreme viking sagas admit to that - arrow through the chest makes you immediately abandon the battlefield, even if staunchly on foot

i haven't answered your question about detached string. Well sometime archer would unstrung if the weather isn't good to preserve the bow elasticity, this is more evident in unprotected bow like english selfbow that didn't have leather cover like some composite bow.

In a battle -which i cant remember the name- an army of mercenary crossbowman had their crossbow perform poorly due the harsh weather and their crossbow couldn't be unstrung, they were later beaten by longbowman who manage to outshoot them

@zegh8578 now, imagine it being poisoned

Another question! When a bow is strung normally, is it under tension, or is the tension only applied by drawing it? If under tension, would this lower the "life expentancy" of an individual weapon? The arch in a bow makes it look like under a lot of constant stress, but for all I know, the arch is static, inherent in the shape, strung or not

All strunged bow is under tension, the more extreme the arch than when the bow normaly were unstrung the more acceleration it gives. Composite bow have the most extreme curves, to the point that it resemble ' C ' letter when unstrung, this gives it advantage of having higher draw-weight in the early stages of the archer's draw.

All bow need to be unstrung a while after it use to perseve its elasticity, ussually overdrawing a bow could lower it more fast than normal draw.
http://i.imgur.com/VxpKZ2t.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5ieTe37.jpg

there is huge amount of shape variation when it comes to composite bow, both when unstrung or strunged. the design might vary in depending on the place, its purpose is no other than just what's the design that gives highest amount of acceleration in earlier draw.

http://i.imgur.com/3SOTpO2.jpg

oh yeah about injuries
It's worth pointing out that arrows were often really likely to cause infections even if they weren't actually dipped in poison. Da Medicina notes how deadly an arrow wound could be if any bits of dirt or cloth remain in the wound, and surgeons used special tools for removing barbed arrows without breaking off any barbs in the wound.

Scar tissue that forms throughout the arrow wound is generally going to impact any muscles in that area. Getting shot in your arms or legs could very well mean not being able to use that limb for any kind of heavy duty work anymore. Shots that injure the spine could outright cause paralysis.