[wombatsSAR]

Ref: Scientific American January 1985 pg 104-110

examples: (from Payne-Gallway, actually) 85 g bolt shot 420 m from a 550 kg pull medieval crossbow. Longbows attained lengths of ~275 m. Article authors cite another historian claiming 2x pull weight xbows were common, fwiw. (note to self - find that guy's book)

Wind Tunnel Test results (so this is science and not conjecture):

Drag/Mass ratios and range (calculated from an 80 m/s start)
(the numbers are approx. since I had to eyeball a graph)

Arrow: >1.5 range ~210 m
bolt 1: ~.75 range ~250 m
bolt 2: ~.72 range ~320 m
bolt 3: ~.70 range ~420 m
bolt 4: ~.68 range ~520 m

bolts 1 & 2 were medieval designs, bolts 3 & 4 were roman. Just to make it clear, the higher the d/m number, the worse the aerodynamic performance.

note: 80 m/s is a rather high speed for an arrow (from the authors of the article). Typical numbers are usually in the 60 m/s range (from me remembering what Hardy's book, which isn't nearly as handy as a journal).

Upshot: xbows flew further and hit harder. They could be fired ballistically just as easily as a bow and would have to be for the bowmen to hit targets farther away. Close shots are flatter just because the bolts flew faster.