We Tested a Trebuchet Against a Medieval Longbow!

In this video, we test a trebuchet against a medieval longbow, as History Hit teams up with Tod's Workshop and professional archer Joe Gibbs for a unique shootout. In their latest historic challenge, Luke Tomes and Louee Dessent find out whether a siege weapon can possibly match a longbow for accuracy over 140m. Who will win the battle of medieval missiles?
Stick around to find out the result and to see one of the best longbow shots ever caught on camera!
You can check out more videos from Tod's Workshop on his KZbin channel here: / todsworkshop1
For this competition, Tod’s team built us our very own fortification made out of wooden pallets, with a garrison of plywood knights. We assigned a score to each of the defenders, with the ‘king’ in the middle being the most valuable target. But would the trebuchet or the longbow be able to hit the king at long range?
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#historyhit #trebuchet #longbow
00:00 Introduction
01:06 History of Trebuchet and Longbow
06:14 Rules of the Game
07:49 Loading Trebuchet
10:55 First Attempt
13:28 Second Attempt
15:38 Third Attempt
17:06 Score Update
22:17 Fourth Attempt
24:44 Final Attempt
27:25 Who Won?

[@HistoryHit]

Hope you enjoyed guys! Be honest, who thought the trebuchet had a chance of winning this competition? 🤔

[@johnstaley6337]

Initially, I did, but as shots were taken, the trebuchet seems lacking in tuning. More weight in the basket? The bowman is truly impressive. One with his weapon.

[@kilianortmann9979]

Maybe if it went up against anyone other than Joe Gibbs, he is just an absolute machine.

[@jeice13]

It just needed a few hundred more targets

[@macmclaughlin81]

Didn't take you guys long to go reality TV

[@jonathandavies3370]

Please could you tell me what was the distance to the target?

[@Seven50ml]

That first bow shot was incredible. Imagine 100 archers of equal skill firing. Easy to see why the long bow was a game changer.

[@martinnilsson5295]

In the year 1210 18000 Danish troops where anhilated by a much smaller Swedish force with 1000 of hidden longbows colored the sky black with arrows at the battle of gestilren Sweden.

[@pjaybasmaignee]

@@martinnilsson5295 wow seriously 😵‍💫

[@ModernKnight]

Great to see the trebuchet and longbow at work.

[@BlueLobster92]

him hitting the king at that range is insane. Every medieval longbowman's dream.

[@mikedunn7795]

Joe would not have been alone in a real medieval battle.

[@mattymc6802]

Very few medieval archers would have 20 years experience with the bow, Joe would be a commanders dream

[@timmysvensson4902]

@@mattymc6802 yeah and they would be skinny 😅 they were probably better archers in the past ( in general ofcourse, here comes laaaaars! 🙄 ). But longbowmen? Would be hard probably to keep that musclemass and get all those hours of training in.

[@BobT36]

@@mattymc6802 Wat? It was law they had to keep a longbow and train between 15 and 60 years old.... Joe is great, but there will have been a LOT of good archers back then.

[@mattymc6802]

@@BobT36 life expectancy was about 30 so i don't know how anyone would have been using the bow as long as he has considering he's 36 now. Maybe if they were nobles or royalty. I'm not an expert but the historians here considered it to be an unbelievable once in a lifetime shot and Joe just thought it was a good shot and not one of his best

[@gafasd]

That longbowshot was impressive. Like knighthood and a castle kind of impressive.

[@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM]

Now, I need to know : If that wasn't Joe's best shot, what in the hell, was?

[@robinhodgkinson]

History Hit’s version of “blowin’ sh*t up!” Never fails to deliver.

[@evilbetty9204]

Joe is a treasure. Astounding.

[@ericcartrette6118]

Glad to see Tod finally hit something with his trebuchet! He's having too much fun playing with that thing.

[@buckingsawpalace3029]

Maybe he should use caravans as targets...

[@kurtnulf3362]

The only problem is that being the king he had the best armor on the field and that 140 pound longbow arrow at that range would have simply pounced off . Great effort by the archer but fruitless

[@buckingsawpalace3029]

@@kurtnulf3362 Wonder what Henry V could tell us about Arrows and Kings! ;)

[@kurtnulf3362]

@@buckingsawpalace3029 Henry should have kept his visor down .Even with the best equipment it is useless if you don`t follow the rules But to be honest Henry was only 16 at that time and at that age you make mistakes .Also it helps that you have a good barber surgeon on staff

[@d33b33]

Seeing Joe fire that longbow, it's clear to see why the recovered skeletons of Henry V's archers show varying degrees of deformed spines.

[@gerry343]

I didn't see him fire the longbow, I did see him shoot it.

[@timmysvensson4902]

@@gerry343 what a stupid remark 😅 who cares

[@gerry343]

@@timmysvensson4902 I do.

[@timmysvensson4902]

@@gerry343 So what did the medieval Archer say when he fired his bow Gerry? sheten! skeutanan?! Where did the treebranch shoot out?

[@gerry343]

@@timmysvensson4902 None of the people in the video are medieval, neither are those who are watching.

[@thoughtful_criticiser]

I have seen Joe before on Tod's workshop. He was using a bow with a 200lb draw absolutely brilliant.

[@Slaitaar]

Joe hitting the king first shot? Incredible. Joe casually saying the expected to be able to do it in 5 shots as standard at 140m away in wind? Mind boggling.

[@ronaldolio76]

The king is dead long live the (longbow) king. What a shot taking out a king is an instant win in Medieval warfare, He could have won a war and a kingdom with a single arrow. Imagine thousands of battle tested Joe's shooting at you, arrow volley's must have been terrifying.

[@marcoengelbracht4141]

Really loved it- thanks for that! And congrats to Joe for that spectactular shot!

[@earthknight60]

140 pounds is far from his heaviest bow as well. Lighter weight, so easier on the accuracy, but he often shoots a heavier bow.

[@HistoryHit]

🤯

[@chengkuoklee5734]

I remember he says he can shoot 160 bow all day. For 200 bow, he said the most 5-6 arrows. He is really a beast.

[@cameronblack7984]

Great challenge! Love this channel

[@williamrobinson7435]

Astonishing shot with a 10st draw on a longbow. If Joe had got an Earl or Baron or such early on, and survived the day, there'd've been beer or cider after.. 🌟🌟🌟🌟👍

[@Bayan1905]

Last weekend my son went to an event where the organizers brought out a few trebuchet catapults to launch some pumpkins. It was one of the best things I can recall doing in a long time, hilarious amount of fun. I have a small 1/10 scale trebuchet, good for launching apples but I need to repair it but I have to get some material to fix it and get it up and running again. They're an awesome thing to have and get to use.

[@Real11BangBang]

Imagine seeing you here

[@kev3d]

In some medieval art you can see the armies carrying royal house banners and flags. I'm sure this was done partly for pride, partly to identify the units to the commanders making decisions and all that. But I wonder if the flags and banners also served as a wind gauge for anyone using missile weapons.

[@davidogan]

Very good show. Very entertaining and informative. Throughly enjoyed. Thanks.

[@Gworgalad]

12:48 Talk about humble. I think with that face, Joe knew. Well done!✌

[@simonlauber9014]

I could watch Joe and Todd all day, just brilliant guys all the way.

[@kev3d]

Trebuchet for the masses, bow and arrow for the classes.

[@Fuerwahrhalunke]

Been following these guys for years (Even bought a bow from Joe and a dagger from Tod) and now I will start following you. Glad I found this channel 🙂

[@kleinerprinz99]

Much impressed by that longbowman!

[@anthonystevens8683]

A great video folks, it really is amazing what can be achieved with a long bow and a trebuchet both with different purposes so well done to both teams. That long bow shot was amazing though. It really incredible what could be done in the days before electricity where the individual along with the mechanical engineering made a difference. Many thanks for sharing.

[@MrFirsthour]

I think the yellow ball fell short of the designated target because of the cracks riddled throughout the ball. When it is flying through the air, the cracks are actually creating drag allowing the wind resistance to act against the balls flight trajectory. The second shot was said to have weighed in similiar size, albeit plus or minus a few kilos and it flew significantly further.

[@HD4all]

Fantastic video!!

[@jeice13]

Arent bowling balls weirdly weighted? That seems like it might be part of the innacuracy. I think there was something about their mass being deliberately off center

[@FinkNZRat]

Indoor bowls are not round, so the weight definitely isn't even . But I think ten pin bowling balls are evenly weighted. But I could be wrong

[@TheAnntoon]

@@FinkNZRat Indoor bowls are round lmao, you cant bowl if its not round xD but they contain hidden weights that affect their balance and rotation.

[@Twerkulies]

English longbowmen were extremely deadly back in the day. They practiced for hours and hours. Imagine a squad/company of snipers today holding off a charging army. That's essentially what they were doing. Fun fact: English longbowmen's skeletons can be identified over other skeletons due to how their shooting arm developed.

[@minisam1988]

Thanks for keeping history fun, bit fan of Tods work too.

[@quantumimmortality551]

awesome video guys!

[@adriaandoelman2577]

140m with a traditional longbow… first shot on target… 😮wow!

[@lmonk9517]

Very good video. Crazy power in that longbow. Trebuchet needs to be tested on a bigger target.

[@derekstocker6661]

So very well demonstrated guys, loved this, well done to Joe for his superb headshot! Could adding a little more weight to the trebs weight box have helped to send the ball further maybe. Great video, so enjoyable and to all who set up the treb as well. Great day.

[@AustinJASMR]

Imagine you're one of the king's bodyguards. Your castle starts come under siege and you accompany the king to watch the combat from a safe distance, and an arrow just takes his head off in the first 5 minutes of combat.

[@LiveDonkeyDeadLion]

How epic would it have been if the arrow had gone through the targets eye? Would have made the Harold legend that little bit more plausible, and that was already a great shot

[@PortmanRd]

Wounded in the eye and then hacked down by Norman knights

[@thesteelrodent1796]

very brave to park a car that close to a trebuchet.... At the medieval centre in Nykøbing F, in southern Denmark, they have a trebuchet that's a bit bigger than this one, and very impressive indeed. They're currently building a new one - a Blide as they're called here - which is more or less full size and has two man-mills (hamsterwheels) for the winch. It'll be inaugurated on St Hans Eve 2023 - that's the Danish midsummer celebration on 23 June for those unfamiliar with our customs

[@dnmurphy48]

Did it get built?

[@givemeanameman1]

Have you considered buying some atlas stones to see how a real actual heavy stone projectile functions?

[@wkuntjoro6130]

I like this. This shows the reality and complexity of shooting, either by trebuchet or longbow. Brilliant guys.

[@howardchambers9679]

Think trebuchet as an assault weapon and longbow as anti personnel. You wouldn't expect the trebuchet to attack the king any more than you'd expect the longbow to knock walls do own. Bit of a silly comparison as I've come to expect of Tod's workshop. It's all about clicks lately

[@Nerd4LifeTV]

A medieval Longbow archer could fire 12 arrows per minute and with that type of accuracy (he hit his target within 5 shots), and imagine thousands of archers on the battlefield. You can see why, for example King Henry V, stacked his armies with 80% longbow men.

[@BobT36]

Battle of Crecy, 2k French dead, just 50 British lost, lol..

[@kcwliew]

Jesus F Christ... that shot - actually all of his shots - to get them within shouting distance of target at that range... and he'd be able to shoot about 60 arrows for every one shot from the trebuchet. He would absolutely have hit all of those guys. This is practical archaeology at its best. You learn so much from that one shot. One of the things that was mentioned in Tod's longbow vs armour video was that archers would wait until the enemy were right on top of them and would be shooting more or less flat trajectories. Arrows were expensive and time consuming to make, and you didn't want to waste them on long range shooting where the chances of penetrating armour were low. BUT looking at how accurate Joe was I reckon they surely must have loosed a couple of volleys off at long range just on the off chance that a few arrows would penetrate a weak spot - hit someone in the eye etc... 2 volleys from 5000 archers - 10,000 chances - if you even had only a 1% hit rate that would be 100 people out of action. They should have Joe shoot 100 times to get his percentage hit rate at that range.

[@DJL78]

Thus was so fun!

[@thomaslinville1508]

The king doing his best Harold Godwinson impression.

[@garychynne1377]

i'm impressed. excellent demonstration.

[@jamesrussell7760]

You Brits are a bit strange, but without a doubt, you know how to have fun. Congrats to Team Longbow!!! King Henry V would be proud! "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; ... "

[@BobT36]

Imagine it, lining up for battle with all your fancy French tosser comrades, and some scraggy English archer takes a random potshot and takes your King's ear off right at the start. MASSIVE detriment to morale even if it didn't kill him. That would have straight-up turned the tide of the battle, a single well trained longbowman. And the English mandated ALL men between 15 & 60 had to keep & train with a Longbow..

[@awoodenkiwitoy6293]

Honestly the wildest thing to me was the way the arrow had used literally all of its power getting through the king, and it just kinda dropped dead on the other end

[@CaptCanuck4444]

Incredible shot, and very humble guy too.

[@woooster71]

10 stone draw weight is not to be sniffed at! 😮 Impressive first shot..

[@solar-e-bike-touring-europe]

Joe is the best, entertaining video, thx...

[@Pedro8k]

Excellent video as a fellow archer I would bet on the longbow every time he is like a medieval sniper

[@henryvagincourt4502]

Problem was guy's you should have put a Frenchman there, you would have both hit the bugger all day!

[@bozobaz30]

The finger holes would have been imparting spin you can hear the whistle during travel

[@carlhannah1884]

Tod and his channel are the best

[@xToddmcx]

When I the thumbnail for this I wondered if it was Tod and Joe. Sure enough. How many medieval trebuchets can there be, especially owned by someone as enthusiastic about using it as Tod.

[@jonathanbacon916]

What a great channel! Well done to everyone involved and you geeks like me watching... have a great day!

[@HistoryHit]

Cheers Jonathan 🍻

[@thesleepyweasel3775]

Without even watching, yet, thumbs up because I thought, "I bet Tod would like to get in on this..."

[@LuvThatDirtyWater]

Testing a trebuchet against a longbow isn't fair because they don't compare. If I wanted to pick off a charging horseman I'd use a longbow but if wanted to knock down the walls of Jericho I'd use a trebuchet for sure

[@secondhandlyon2603]

Tod Cutler had to be involved of course. Excellent.

[@jsullivan2112]

That knee cap is demolished for sure.

[@bradclifton5248]

How many arrows in the time it takes to load the trebuchet once.

[@davidogan]

Base on these two, I’d imagine in medieval times, the trebuchet crew would be loud beer-drinking jovial and jolly makers at any pub. Longbow men would be the cool, silent type leaning at the bar enjoying scotch alone.

[@AshioBashio]

I know this is a year old now and im late to the comments but when i built one for a technology project many moons ago i found that the angle of the pin on the end of the trebuchet arm needed to be bent at an angle rather than having the straight one used here to get the most efficient trajectory. I did a whole range analysis with 5 different angles but cant remember the results now as was over 20 years ago. Just some info in case people are interested

[@jimmyneighbors4943]

Trebuchet was like a cannons

Well that was interesting

[@jinz0]

took the king out, on his first shot, with a headshot LOL

[@brocknspectre1221]

I was well into my adulthood before I learned they weren’t called "Tree buckets".

[@Xenophaige_reads]

Is that a bronze mace head on the end of the pawl for the trebuchet?

[@Redhawk85]

18:00 - welcome to artillery, mate. U.S. Army Artillery (emeritus) You guys are too much fun - reminds me of old days at the target range on Saturday afternoons.

[@triffidgrower]

The bowman should have been allowed to loose as many arrows as he could fire, in the time that it took the trebuchet to fire its allotment of rounds. To be even more fair, maybe both weapons to fire at will until the defenders were no more. Scores to be totalled after the 'victory'. (Please, no wailing about a shortage of projectiles. You can't play at war...) 😃

[@acelilumelody4445]

Tbh while really fun to watch this is like pitting a knife vs a fork on which one picks up soup the best 🤣

[@doncacique2769]

You wanna shoot....no shit I almost broke my back locking that crap back 😂🤣

[@garycornelisse9228]

I would like to have seen some details about each weapon.

[@leoh1191]

Gotta admit that was pretty accurate for the trebuchet

[@Jager-uq1dc]

I am sure the mediaeval French would have had a saying like "Stay out of the English bowman's sight" now you know why. They could take your head at over 100 meters, while you peeking over a wall.

[@HilaryOsborne]

great vid! had to increase the video playback as maybe a tad too much build up chat each time

[@davidbooth508]

I have seen both yours and Tod's videos, I would say that there was plenty of history seen. Of the practical science variety. I for one, when I was growing up, thought of the trebuchet as much more of an accurate weapon. Thanks Hollywood. But watching Tod's videos, I learned that some level of accuracy can be achieved, it's more of an accuracy of +/- 4 meters or so. As Tod indicates, there are a lot of variables when the trebuchet is loosed on every shot that will change. Joe's archer is more of a finesse weapon, where the accuracy seems to be in the order or +/- a yard at those distances. I have seen cannon fire go through the sides of simulated ships that would have caused massive damage and death to those behind the defenses. Trebuchets are designed to take down walls, not snipe solders. Though some hits could take out dozens of soldiers with a lucky hit. Bows are designed to take down one man at a time. Overall, fun and I learned something, cleared up some myths, and was mightily entertained. Since I had seen Tod's trebuchet videos in the past, I knew it would miss such a tiny targeting area.

[@philspencelayh5464]

Hats off to the longbow archer plus in the time taken by the trebuchet an awful lot of arrows could have been shot.Polishing a cricket ball affects what it does greatly over a distance of 22yds so its hardly surprising that a bowling ball with visible cracks in it was unpredictable over the much longer distance here.

[@m.o.s6275]

Have there been multi shot trebuchet ammo?

[@harryconnor5079]

When is arrows verses armor pt2 ????

[@David-fj5lz]

Like an ammunition wagon

[@d4nnyh0g4n]

should of shot so much more with tht trebuchet to get footage of it wrecking things lol

[@robertcorradi8573]

Great stuff.

[@missymason9192]

I built a small trebuchet and found that adjusting the length of the sling changes the range dramatically.

[@ExecutionSommaire]

The first person shot of the arrow is frightening. Imagine being there, exposed...

[@NathanNostaw]

I may have missed it, but what was the reasoning for the 2 sides having the same number of shots over the same time for shots? Surely the advantage of a bow is how fast one can get arros down range.

[@janwillemgunneman2235]

There are trebuches still "intact". I at least know of one in the church of Strasbourg. This one is from the late Middle Ages. It's not usable at the moment but still standing.

[@gerrit9519]

Joe Gibbs FTW!!!

[@kevinmccarthy8746]

OO, YAAA. Of course they are engineers, maybe a few doctors as well. I always thought these people would be the least capable, but the bow was a lot stronger than I thought it would have been. This was a very long away over 300 feet at least and that big ass arrow was screeming very true and strait. Incredible, the power this thing had. And the first shot on to of it all.

[@dylanpiazza6358]

As an American, Joe Gibbs is a national treasure 😂😂

[@BenDover-tj8vf]

I love my longbow. Amazing weapon

[@walking_in_the_shade]

That wasn't the wind deflecting the bowling ball, it was the wind whistling in the finger holes of the bowling ball

[@bacca71]

Apples, oranges. The trebuchet is designed to knock down stone walls to allow storming the fort. The longbow is designed to target and kill or incapacitate enemy targets, but it would almost never be one archer, it would be a whole company of them - a few dozen archers like Joe Gibbs would've rained hell on enemy (rows of different archers shooting different trajectories have arrows coming straight, but raining down from above). Two effective tools, used for different purposes.

[@cyankirkpatrick5194]

Red ball could give you wings 🤔😱😳😁😜🙄

[@mikedunn7795]

They should have had a crossbow in the competition.

[@IHateThisHandleSystem]

23:05 "We probably killed all his his ancestors as well"... no Todd, not unless you have a time-traveling trebuchet. You would have killed all that man's DESCENDENTS", lol.

[@kev3d]

I caught that as well. Easy to make slip of the tongue, but still amusing.

[@woodsman105]

A very fun competition. Though, the longbow shot was likely more luck than skill. Definitely a very skilled bowman. But, the grouping is just too wide to be intentional. I'd imagine that's why Joe was not as excited as the rest.

[@nicholaiginovaef4861]

for all the trouble, they should have took turns cranking the trebuchet down and fired 15-20 more times while there's daylight 🤣 that looks like a lot of fun, I want a trebuchet!

[@kariknutzen532]

Should be shots per 5 min. The long bow works better for soft targets. Trebuchet for fortifications not a fair contest but was fun to watch.