[Agema]

Chrispederson is right, that as a general rule for missile fire, volume has been more important than accuracy. An obvious side effect would also be that the missile should be useful - arrows don't stop tanks.

The Russians did a study that led up to the development of the AK-47. They found that most decisive firefights occurred at under 100 metres range and possibly the major factor to determining the winner was who was firing more bullets. Similarly, in the age of muskets, the chances of hitting a specific target with a musket beyond a few dozen metres was very low. The idea was simply to get to about 100 metres or less and fire in the right general direction as fast as possible.