Hunting by Crossbow
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Introduction: Crossbows were developed in Ancient Greece, and East Asia where Ancient China was the main source from archaeological evidence. Medieval crossbows had many names, most of which came from the word Ballista, which was a siege weapon resembling a crossbow in appearance and its functionality. One of the earliest reliable records of this type of weapon used in battle was from an ambush, the "Battle of Ma-Ling" circ. 341BC. and by the 200s BC. the crossbow was quite widely used all over China. While the earliest date for the crossbow in the European world, was around 5th century BC. starting existance from the Greek world. Crossbows almost completely superceded hand bows in majority of European armies by the 12th century for many reasons. The main was the fact that crossbows although had slower shooting rate and lower accuracy, they could release much more kinetic energy and be used effectively after a week of training, whereas longbow skills took years to master. Design: A crossbow is a bow mounted on a stick (called a stock or stiller) with a mechanism which holds the drawn bow string.At the earliest stages of this design, the cocked string was placed in a slot that was cut into the stock. This design required a vertical rod to be thrust up through a hole in the bottom of the notch, forcing the string out, ultimately firing this design. This rod was usually attached perpendicular to a rear-facing lever called a trigger. Originally, the crossbow’s bow was made from a single piece of wood, usually yew or ash. Composite crossbows are made from layers of different material, often horn, sinew and wood, glued together and bound with animal tendon, making them much stronger and effective in releasing energy than simple wooden bows. As steel became available by the 14th Centure in Europe, prods made from steel came into use. The crossbow prod is much shorter compared to ordinary bows, which results in much shorter draw lenght, and this results in much more energy required to load. Furthermore the thick prod are a bit less efficient at releasing energy, yet more energy can be stored by a crossbow. |
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Variants: The two legal and most widely used are the recurve and compound crossbows.
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Recurve Crossbow Recurve Crossbow is a bow which has tips curving away from the archer. This type of bow has longer draw length than an equivalent straight-limbed bow, giving more acceleration to the projectile and shock. They also put greater strain on the materials used to make the bow, as well as may more noise with a shot. |
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Compound Crossbow A Compound Crossbow is similar to a compound bow. Compound limbs are much more stiffer than those of a recurve crossbow, and thanks to that it makes compound types more energy efficient than other bows, but due to this the limbs are much more stiff to be drawn comfortably with a string attached directly to them. In this case, usually the string is attached to the pulleys, and when the string is drawn back it causes the pulleys to turn, ultimately causing pulleys to pull the cables which in turn cause the limbs to bend and store energy. |
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Crossbow Cocking
To load a crossbow, you have two options, either by hand or using string. Either way is possible, but the most effective way and safest way is cocking by string. But choosing the right type is very critical. Remember that compound crossbows require a special type of string, one used for recurve crossbows will not work for compound crossbows.
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Image Courtesy of HowItWorks.com |
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