One thing that i have noticed is that a lot of people think bodkins points are short headed, those are for crossbows. Since a crossbow can have more power in a shorter bow the bodkins for them were smaller to give more punch at the shorter ranges.

Long Bow bodkins are 6"-8" long and are of two designs long and needle shaped with a sharp point Norman type, or triangular in shape coming to a sharp point.

Both were able to pierce plate armour at any distance when used in volley fire like at Agincourt the English Long bowman were able to sherd the French Heavy Knights. When the Knights did get close to the line the bowman switched over to other arrow heads with other uses.

So the vidio shown early is half right that style of bodkin would not go through plate armour at 25 yards from a long bow even if that bow was 110lbs draw,but out of a 350lb crossbow it would blow right through it and the poor man in side it.

@ TempestSatori

Without getting too far into the pros and cons of bows vs firearms or how effective bows were vs armour I would say that the DH rules are not particularly detailed but rather give a broad comparative overview of different weapon types that range from primative stone headed axes to track mounted las cannons and everything in between.

I think your rules have merit but perhaps are too detailed. By which i mean for them to work you'd have to re-do the rules for Stub-revolvers las guns etc.

For example it is easier to learn how to use a gun effectively than it is to use a bow but this isn't reflected in the rules unless you were to say that a character could learn Solid Projectile training for free on a successful Int check for example.

Equally and especially in the 41st millenium Imperial manufactured items are very robust, perhaps lasting for centuries if not millenia Again this isn't really reflected, but again could be if there more detailed rules about weapons being damaged etc.

The point is that bows are obsolete weapons for a wide variety of reasons. They don't feature heavily in the WH40K setting background either. The rules simply take things on aggregrate and give us stats that make it a clear choice that a fire arm is better than a bow. Now the details such as accuracy or armour penetration may or may not be correct but the end result is correct, 99% of PCs will choose a fire arm over a bow.

Also

Second a bodkin can piece modern Kevlar body armour from a 60 lb long bow and kevlar is flack armour in 40k.

Direct comparisons of modern equipment with WH40K weapons is a bit iffy. Imperial technology is on the whole far more advanced that modern designs. In fact it is often more advanced than xenos technlogy because often Imperial tech is a product of the Dark Age of Technology.

For starters WH40K Flak armour does not use the same materials as a Kevlar vest and so a comparison of which weapons would be effective doesn't quite hold up.