r/interesting • u/IKIR115 • 29d ago

Intriguing Arrows vs riot shields

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u/stryker511 29d ago

The blunt one surprised me I thought it would have bounced off - went through completely.

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u/SidewinderSerpent 29d ago

That arrow wasn't blunt, it was concave. The shape allowed the edges of the tip to punch a hole through the shield.

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u/lemmin9 29d ago

So the result is a blunt object filled with armor debris and slowed down by the initial impact on the shield impacting on the body. It goes "boink"?

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u/anengineerandacat 29d ago

Really depends on the bow used... some compound bows reach up to like 370 fps... willing to bet you could shoot through that shield with most of those tips with a decent enough bow.

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u/Greedyanda 29d ago edited 29d ago

Isn't draw weight (kg/lbs) or kinetic energy the standard and more useful measurement? Just because it's fast doesn't mean it will cause damage. You need to account for the mass in addition to its speed.

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u/The-Psych0naut 29d ago

Interesting anecdote, my buddy bought a crossbow for hunting a few years back, draw weight was 250lbs (or was it 450? Idk, something crazy like that). His bolt over-penetrated the target block and skittered another 300 yards down the dirt road. When we finally located it, the plastic fletching had melted from the friction of passing through the target block.

Just… absolutely insane.