In modern times, firearms have largely supplanted bows and crossbows as weapons of war, but crossbows remain widely used for competitive shooting sports and hunting, and for relatively silent shooting. The medieval European crossbow was called by many names, including "crossbow" itself most of these names derived from the word ballista, an ancient Greek torsion siege engine similar in appearance but different in design principle. Crossbows brought about a major shift in the role of projectile weaponry in wars, such as during Qin's unification wars and later the Han campaigns against northern nomads and western states. The earliest known crossbows were made in the first millennium BC, as early as the 7th century BC in ancient China and as early as the 1st century AD in Greece (as the gastraphetes). Crossbows are usually drawn by direct pulling, but windlass-like mechanisms requiring less force were sometimes used. This enables a crossbowman to handle more draw weight, and to hold it with significantly less physical strain, thus potentially achieving better precision and enabling their effective use by less-skilled personnel. A crossbow has a locking mechanism to maintain the draw, limiting the shooter's exertion to pulling the string into the lock and then releasing the shot by depressing a trigger. Ĭrossbows and bows use the same launch principle, but an archer using a longbow must maintain its draw by pitching the bowstring with fingers, pulling it back with arm and back muscles, and then holding that form while aiming, which demands significant physical strength. A person who shoots crossbow is called a crossbowman or an arbalist (after the arbalest, a European crossbow variant used during the 12th century). Crossbows shoot arrow-like projectiles called bolts or quarrels. 21st-century hunting compound crossbowĪ crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a prod, mounted horizontally on a main frame called a tiller, which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long gun. If you can't get to the link below, you'll have to join ATARN here: and then search (not the Old Archive search which is different) on "Han crossbow".For other uses, see Crossbow (disambiguation). There were similar discussions there as well as builders who replicated the action.įound it! Here's a 15 year old discussion by ATARN Founder Stephen Selby, where he has disassembled an original Han mechanism and photographed the parts against graph paper so that you can copy and scale the images. Not the Facebook page but the actual website which is a sort of archive for old 'pre-sound bite' discussions which actually have some depth. I remember from a few years back that there were a couple of discussions on the Han mechanism with illustrations or a taken apart actin that could be copied and scaled.Īnother place to check is the Asian Traditional Archery Research Network. » need help contacting le musee Dauphinois Grenoble » Skane/Lillohus lockbow information needed » 400lb Windlass crossbow bolts weight and accuracy shooting high. » prod angle, and lever trigger for sale anyone? » Questions around heavy crossbow lath buildin » Colletiere a Charavines continuing experiment » 12th Century Chinese Crossbow Chronographed
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