According to un-sourced Archery Heaven, regular crossbows are as loud as a lawnmower, nevermind repeating. Not quite the stealth you might be looking for.
Yep, that’s what the linked articles’ conclusion was. But 80dB vs 120dB is a huge difference, jackhammer compared to a dishwasher. Anyway, I’m out of my depth, I shot a bow last 30 years ago. And never as a stealthy assassin nor archery-based superhero.
“easier to use” shouldn’t really matter for Particularly-Good-At-Archery-Man. It’s not like a bow is a particularly slow weapon, either (medieval archers were probably doing about 10 shots per minute), and you don’t really need the additional power of crossbows - medieval war bows were able to kill armored knights, they were pretty much only limited by the archer’s strength. Whether you need high power pretty much depends on the setting - if you’re mostly fighting against human thugs who maybe wear a protective vest you don’t need extremely high draw strength. If the setting is more fantastical, why WOULDN’T “particularly good at archery” include absurdly strong muscles that make the additional power of crossbows unnecessary?
I’d still go with a repeating crossbow though, more power while being easier and faster to use.
According to un-sourced Archery Heaven, regular crossbows are as loud as a lawnmower, nevermind repeating. Not quite the stealth you might be looking for.
Bowstring twang is going to be loud no matter what at high draw weights. A high draw weight recuve would be loud too.
Yep, that’s what the linked articles’ conclusion was. But 80dB vs 120dB is a huge difference, jackhammer compared to a dishwasher. Anyway, I’m out of my depth, I shot a bow last 30 years ago. And never as a stealthy assassin nor archery-based superhero.
TIL the movies lied to me! I vividly remember John Rambo stealth-killing a camp of enemy fighters with a bow.
“easier to use” shouldn’t really matter for Particularly-Good-At-Archery-Man. It’s not like a bow is a particularly slow weapon, either (medieval archers were probably doing about 10 shots per minute), and you don’t really need the additional power of crossbows - medieval war bows were able to kill armored knights, they were pretty much only limited by the archer’s strength. Whether you need high power pretty much depends on the setting - if you’re mostly fighting against human thugs who maybe wear a protective vest you don’t need extremely high draw strength. If the setting is more fantastical, why WOULDN’T “particularly good at archery” include absurdly strong muscles that make the additional power of crossbows unnecessary?
Medieval archers weren’t really aiming as much as just lobbing the arrows in a general direction.