***WARNING: VERY LONG, but then again, I'm trying to summarize hundreds of years and many different weapons!***
Gosh. The amount of things we haven't touched on yet... For a start:
I chose a crossbow due to how he will need to use it later in the book. And when he is running a loaded weapon is easier to pull out than to throw one of his daggers.
All right, but what weapon does he use for hand-to-hand fighting? Sooner or later he'll have to do it.
A regular bow is likely to be faster to use and might have more range. Don’t remember. But I feel range and speed are important.
What do you mean by "a regular bow"? I understand that we're in the medieval era, but the kind of bows that were used in 1000 AD (or even 1066 AD) are very different to the ones used in Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt/Azincourt. Magyar bows were different to the Welsh longbows, etc.
Come to think of that, the crossbows used during the Crusades (1095 to 1291) were different to the ones used by the Genoese crossbowmen at Crécy.
But if we were to simplify this: N3OGIN, you said your character uses a wooden crossbow. The early wooden crossbows were made of wood and sinew, which made them vulnerable to rain. If it rained, the sinew became slack, which made the crossbow useless (which is what happened to the Genoese crossbowmen at Crécy).
In the 12th century, crossbows began to be made from a composite of wood and iron (i.e. composite crossbow). This changed to an steel lath crossbow (also sometimes referred to as arbalest) in the 15th century.
Also, the
rate of fire of a medieval crossbow was about 3 bolts in one minute. In contrast, the Welsh longbowmen could fire at a fearsome rate of 6 arrows a minute. The Welsh arrowheads could easily penetrate mail (generally known as chain-mail) and even the later plate armour.
Lastly, the
effective range of a medieval crossbow is generally calculated at about 100 yards. A longbow, however, can shoot much further - 450 to 1,000 feet.
So why didn't everyone use the longbow? Because it was so tall (some were as tall as 6 feet!) that it took years and years of practice to be any good at it. Longbowmen started training at the age of 6 (with smaller bows, obviously) and continued training all their lives. If you weren't used to it, your aim could wobble, resulting in inaccurate shooting. (I tried shooting one, but I'm a beginner, so my aim was wobbly until I got used to it). In contrast, medieval crossbows were much easier to use. They were steadier and required less time to train.
Conclusion. Longbows had a longer effective range and higher rate of fire; crossbows took less time to train and were easier to aim. They were also useless in wet weather. (A longbowman could unstring his bow and keep the bowstring dry; a crossbowman couldn't do the same trick).
One last point: N3OGIN, you mentioned your character using a crossbow on a horse. This was not possible with a purely wood-and-sinew crossbow.
Mounted crossbowmen did exist but they were not used in the same way as mounted archers (e.g. Huns, Magyars, Mongols etc.) Mounted archers would ride up to within range of the enemy and then loose arrows while still in the saddle. They would then gallop away before the enemy could react.
Mounted crossbowmen could ride up close to the enemy and discharge one shot, but then their crossbows would be useless. Why? Because it's impossible to reload a crossbow while mounted on a horse. It's also difficult to accurately aim a crossbow while in the saddle of a large, powerful animal. So they'd have to ride very close and shoot point-blank, which naturally put them in far more danger. They'd have to have some kind of hand-to-hand weapon (swords/maces/etc.) to defend themselves, and since they couldn't carry large shields, they'd naturally be at a disadvantage against heavy cavalry.
Your character might be able to discharge and reload his crossbow from the saddle IF he was under cover or protected somehow (e.g. in a siege situation). But your description sounds very different to a siege.
Anyway, I've lectured enough. I hope you find this useful.
The script-writers obviously have no idea about weapons. Revolvers, obviously, work in a completely different way to crossbows.
