According to an article by William Hamblin, the most detailed passages describing archery in Book of Mormon warfare are found in Alma chapters 49-50. . . . These passages provide us with the following important facts concerning archery in the Book of Mormon:
1. Both Nephites (Alma 49:19) and Lamanites (Alma 49:2) were armed with arrows.
2. A large mound of earth negated the effectiveness of Lamanite archery to the extent that no Nephites were killed by Lamanite arrows. (Alma 49:2)
3. In the same battle, Nephite archers, shooting from the top of the earthen fortifications, were quite effective against the Lamanites, managing to kill more than a thousand of them (see Alma 49:19, 22-23).
4. Nephite fortifications are said to have been effective against both arrows and stones (see Alma 49:2,4; 50:4), implying to me that the stones and arrows had essentially the same range, or that the stone throwers were uniformly at closer range than the archers. However, there is no evidence in the Book of Mormon for this type of special regimentation according to weapons. The text does not say whether the stones were thrown or cast from slings.
5. Lamanite archery was not effective enough to wound Nephites when they wore armor, but could cause "very severe" (Alma 49:24) wounds on unarmored legs.
6. It may be significant that the bow is never mentioned in these passages, only arrows.
[William J. Hamblin, "The Bow and Arrow in the Book of Mormon," in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, F.A.R.M.S., p. 371]