If you were a solider in the year 1500 which would you rather use longbow or Arquebus

Longbow...if I can...

The longbow is a MUCH more effective weapon--IF the archer is able to use it well. To train a longbowman, start by training his grandfather--it is a a deadly weapon that's also very difficult to learn.
 
The longbow is a MUCH more effective weapon--IF the archer is able to use it well. To train a longbowman, start by training his grandfather--it is a a deadly weapon that's also very difficult to learn.

Which is why the Janissary Corps never switched to firearms and maintained the devsirme recruitment system of young boys until well in the C19th....oh wait no they switched to firearms rather quick smart and defeated numerous other forces that failed to do so.

The fact is we do not know enough about exactly what went on during the battles of the late medieval and early renaissance periods to make a precise value assessment but we do know that the arquebus supplanted the bow and we do know that when gun armed forces met largely bow armed forces the hand gunners tended to win.

The example of units that recruited by means of extended training periods, not to mention that Western European semi-hereditary systems such as indenture fell out of favour as firearms rose to prominence suggests they had something of a rather dramatic impact.

The problem is we do not exactly know the details of how they performed on the battlefield or on the hunt so it is hard to make a truly informed choice except to say if we arrive in the year 1500 we the muscle memory with have now most of us only have a fighting chance with the arquebus
 
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