Willie the Duck
Hero
The thread has moved on, but I wanted to get to this. Firstly, if the response is "well I don't have fights at those ranges", that is not and indication that "there is absolutely a problem." It is a neutral point. If people aren't doing a thing, we do not know if changing the rules around doing the thing would make them start doing the thing or not (much less whether it was the existing rules that caused them not to do the thing).
Beyond that, we are clearly trying to answer different questions. I'm trying to explain why I think the rules are the way they are, and why they have not been changed. You are clearly arguing for a change in the rules to address a perceived problem. Towards that, I pretty much land here:
As in, great, good, do your thing, knock your bad self out, etc. I don't see this as a major problem in games I've witnessed, nor does the presence of a rule which might be 'unrealistic' or incentivizing specific playstyles* overly bother me, but if you care passionately about it, go right ahead -- advocate for a rules change for the next version of the game, make the changes at your own table.
*5e's ruleset which favors ranged builds bothers me more in that there are few downsides to going Dex-based (you can still melee well, while Str-based characters suffer when switching to ranged), the stat gets used for everything else as well, and Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter eliminates most constraints that limited such builds in other editions.
As Hussar pointed out, this is yards
Chainmail, oD&D, AD&D (1&2), and all of the basic-classic line have outdoor missile ranges in yards. The Basic books from J. Eric Holmes, Thomas Moldvay, and Frank Mentzer do list ranges in feet, but that is because the basic books are intended for levels 1-3 and for dungeon-crawling exclusively. Those versions of the basic-classic line with Expert sets include clarification like (form the Cook Expert Set, p.X19) "Unlike dungeons, the basic measure of distance in the wilderness is yards instead of feet. ... Missile and spell ranges are also read as yards in the wilderness."Also found this old 1e basic box set book, and the longbow is..... 210 feet. (Page B27 if you want to check yourself). The crossbow is interestingly enough the longest range there at 240 feet.
And moving to 2nd edition (page 146)
Longbow is.....210 feet, 240 for the crossbow. And technically those are for flight arrows, used for hunting. the book notes that the "arrows used for war" have a range of 170.
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This is pretty much not the case. This was my central point from the beginning. Bows have had ranges of ~600' since 1974 when Chainmail came out. It made more sense there--it was a game of massed formations, and the standard measurement increment was 1"=10yd. It was ported into D&D unchanged, and has been carried through without adjustment undoubtedly because (IMO) no one has decided it was important enough to alter (certainly not worth any blowback for changing it that might occur). 3rd edition did change something*, but it was the standardization of 5' square as the combat measurement unit of choice.
*3rd and later editions have also altered other factors of archery combat, making it easier to be specifically-archery-focused (as opposed to all warriors being switch-hitters).
