I got a bit carried away, but the gist is that you don't measure bow/crossbow power in draw weight. You measure kinetic energy of the projectile. Formula: (mas

I got a bit carried away, but the gist is that you don't measure bow/crossbow power in draw weight. You measure kinetic energy of the projectile. Formula: (mass * (velocity * velocity)) / 2 Weighting is simple, but for measuring velocity you need a chronometer. The great composite crossbow I linked above had 1257lb draw weight, and it managed 420 Joule energy with a 320gram projectile. By comparison, Tod Workshop's 1000lb windlass crossbow shot achieved 110 Joules https://youtu.be/kHnZo6ELEV0?t=591 https://youtu.be/kHnZo6ELEV0?t=591 This is to give you an idea that crossbows of similar draw weight can vary wildly with their projectile energy. Note the composite crossbow used wood / great horn and it had much longer bow arms. The 160lb draw weight longbow in the Tod Cutler / Joe Gibbs mythbusting video managed 123 Joules (10m from target) and 109 Joules (25m from target). Arrow weight was 80gram. And the staff sling I linked above managed 107 Joules with a 3000grain (194gram) stone.