Piercing Butted Chainmail with Medieval Arrows

The purpose of this test was to see what protection a section of butted maille (chainmail) would give against arrows, with a variety of medieval heads, shot from 100lb English longbows.

The maille used in this demonstration was of 6-in-1 construction, made from 8mm spring Steel rings. This is a much tighter design than the more commonly used 4-in-1 construction, of which most medieval armour was made.

We are well aware medieval maille was riveted or made of alternate rows of riveted and solid/welded rings, as compared with this test piece which was only butted. We also accept that butted maille rings will part easier than riveted rings, but this was the only maille we had to hand and once we can obtain some more authentic maille we shall do some further tests and post them here.

We are also aware that a maille shirt would have been worn over the top of a padded jack, which would thus afford extra protection. During these tests we noted that the arrows that missed the maille went right through the straw target, with their heads protruding on the other side to a distance of up to 2 inches, whereas the arrows that hit the maille did not come through. Therefore the maille was effective in absorbing a good deal of the arrow's momentum. However, the arrows still penetrated the straw target by a good inch, and if it can be accepted that the straw target is denser than a typical padded jack then it is our guess that the arrow head would still penetrate far enough through maille and jack to puncture the skin. There may also be enough blunt force trauma from the arrow to break bones even if the arrow were not to penetrate far into flesh.