Crossbow mechanisms
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2024
- Apologies for the failure of the autofocus in the second part of this vid. The manual focus on my new camera is rubbish.
Crossbow shown lent kindly by David Tetard, who has a very minor off-screen speaking part.
I would have to do a session of proper shooting with the crossbow to draw conclusions about the effect of recoil. My guess is that the effect of the string's throwing weight forwards would kick in too late to do much to counteract the effect of the recoil of the bolt. Either way, I don't think recoil is a huge problem.
On the topic of shooting a bow without ammunition in it: I did ask (three times) about this before doing it. These steel-limbed crossbows are guaranteed for life not to shatter. By and large, though, it is best to shoot bows, especially powerful wooden ones, with ammunition in them.
Crossbow made by Serge Adrover of www.arbalestrie.fr
www.LloydianAspects.co.uk
The Pope banning crossbows, the first recorded "Nerfing" of a weapon.
I hope some producer at the BBC gives Lindybeige a 6 part series on historical weaponry.
Don't you mean 600 part?
Sorry, BBC only employs historical weaponry experts that look like bodybuilders and swing blunt swords at clay.
That ending snippet was brilliant
Ive always thought crossbows looked kind of pretty. I also think the a-10 looks pretty. I guess i just like things that look functional and sturdy
I agree, i find it functionally attractive. Also one of my favorite weapons, thanks for the video Lindybeige!
Back when I was seven or eight years old I used the same trigger mechanism principle to make an elastic band speargun out of Lego. I didn't, however, use it to shoot Christians or non-Christians. I readily executed GI Joes with it.
puenboy1
I was fundamentally opposed to their philosophy of inaction. They clearly had to die.
No, no Christians, nor non Christians. Only non nons.
I melted my Joes on the stove.
Many of mine had run ins with firecrackers lol.
I was under the assumption that dry firing was a definite no-no. Would love to hear you're thoughts on the matter Mr Lloyd
And that ban on crossbows was about as effective as the various Papal bans on Tournaments.
Yes, piety only goes so far.
or the ones on not killing jews for causing the black death. Aint no one got time for that
+BadlanderOutsider Kind of like the Bans on weapons today. They don't stop criminals.
Well, quite.
Actually it does.
Just look where the mass shootings are happening : where weapons aren't regulated.
The wrong kind of Christian was usually decided after the fight.
Hint hint - the one without the crossbow. ;)
I met a non christian once. Good job I had my crossbow!
Wtf that is so rude
@@ghastly_gengar I think this was a medival joke
Every time you put up a video it just makes my day.
I really wish you'd put up more videos because they are educating and very fun. And as I am trying to build a crossbow (just for kicks really...) the last 2 videos have been very informative.
I don't think any youtube channel has entertained me and taught me as much at the same time, as yours.
Keep up that good work you quirky, entertaining BRITISH genius. ^^
Safety Rule, Never dry fire any bow,especially a crossbow with a steel prod!
+kerry mcmanus I *CRINGED* when I watched him dry loose that.
Yeah scary,not nice a steel prod in the face.It should be wrapped.
And even if the prod is fine, the energy that was released might well shake it loose from the stock, or even crack the stock. Not wise...
Does anyone actually _read_ video descriptions anymore?
+Jonathan Hughes Just because it is safe does not make it ok.
Anything on "hand crossbows" or "one handed crossbows"? They've always felt like a fantasy-weapon style weapon to me.
Please read the description before leaving a comment..
Descriptions are not insurance against archery accidents. Whoever said it was safe to dry fire that thing was an idiot
Robert Olin True, but more to how I meant would be don't yell and Lindy for it, the guy who owned the thing was the one who told him to, so go after that guy XD
"Shall I do it?"
*mumbling* "Oh yeah yeah do it go on then do it"
That made me chuckle.
Hey Steve, fancy seeing you here!
Wow these weapons are powerful. that's amazing..
"They're sort of ugly and brutish" I actually find them with some beauty and elegance. But hey, each to their own!
Excellent! One of my favourite pieces of technology from the middle ages.
Except the Crossbow is so much older than that. It was used in Ancient China about 2.300 years ago.
magnusbjarnisk
I don't particularly care about those ones nor the Greek ones...
RyanRyzzo
The Medieval European ones are, indeed, much cooler, IMHO.
RyanRyzzo The Chinese ones were quite sophisticated. They even had a magazine. And because this technology is older than the middle ages, it isn't exactly a middle age technology.
But the Medieval European ones are brutal and cooler.
magnusbjarnisk those repeating crossbows were useless for anything other than home defense, You needed to be able to rapidly pull the lever back making them too weak to do any damage to anything other than an unarmoured target, and even then they were usually tipped with poison just to be sure.
the repeating crossbows were peasant weapons, and thus were made out of a simple wood construction, their loading mechanism was clever, but i wouldn't say anywhere near as sophisticated at a steel or horn crossbow in terms of construction, for example this bow would have required fairly exact metalwork, while a horn composite bow would have required a lengthy process involving horn, dried ox tendon, and fish swim bladders.
Thank you SO MUCH for your videos! I love them!
Greetings from Portugal!
Maybe in the future do a video/video series about muskets and old black powder rifles.
Fires the crossbow: 2:03
put on 0,25 speed on the video, enjoy.
What you see is that you CAN'T see the string moving really. What you see is that it moves from one end and the next thing you see is that it is at resting state (not loaded).
This means it's pretty damn strong. Imagine how much faster a "heavy" crossbow is.
Wonderful videos. I hope you get the opportunity to showcase/compare different crossbows in the future. We had an antique store once upon a time with an ancient we believe Arabic Frankish crossbow. Hard to date and display use only but it was fascinating. I'd love see those comparisons. Great video,
Another Great Video. I still gotta make my Roman Arcuballista. On my huge Roman To-do list.
I think the big thing about the crossbow is that, like firearms, you can put one in the hands of pretty much anybody and it becomes an effective weapon. For sure they might not be a very good shot but the effort of drawing it is separated from firing it which makes it much more effective in untrained hands and, with the right loading mechanism you don't need to be very physically strong to use one.
The contrast with a longbow is that you need to draw, aim and fire the weapon in pretty much one fluid movement, which combined with the fact that the longbow is drawn to the ear means that even moderately accurate fire requires a certain amount of training. Of course this says nothing about the fundamental accuracy of the weapon but ease of use counts for a lot in war.
Was I the only one whincing when he dry fired it?
+Gerald Eder Me too
And me
Dont he know its dangerous for the crossbow to dry fire.....
I noticed that too
I guess dry firing it would be better than having it loaded, given the circumstance.
If you would run out of bolts you can always shoot your pommel and end your opponent rightly.
is... dry firing bad for these bows?
Yes, since energy has nowhere to go.
I imagine since he only did it once it wouldn't be too bad.
Dry firing is bad in all kind of contexts.
I didn't say it was good. I said it wouldn't be too bad.
Probably but did you read the description?
Ah! That dry fire must have been hell on it.
Didnt that ban kind of get overlooked by almost any military at that time for reasons of common sense
Yes much in the same way many of the restrictions on modern warfare are ignored when it actually comes time to do the killing.
***** Yes, nukes are banned by those that possess them. How convenient.
Every few years they get graduate students a test from the nsa they are to build a nuke using household items but dont put any actual uranium in it. Besides that one component they always get like two dozen functional atomic devices. Its a tool. The people who use and make em are those who should be scrutinized not the hardware.
It was not overlooked. It was brought back to fight in the crusades by king Richard who would later be killed by one and then after that everyone started using them
Some interesting stuff about the Second Lateran Council and the ban on crossbows. The ban is:
"Artem autem illam mortiferam et Deo odibilem ballistoriorum et sagittariorum, adversus christianos et catholicos de cetero sub anathemate prohibemus."
This is translated to:
"We prohibit under anathema that murderous art of crossbowmen and archers, which is hated by God, to be employed against Christians and Catholics from now on"
So it actually banned archers and crossbowmen from using their art against Christians.
I've read a quite interesting paper on the subject called "The Not So Diabolical Crossbow", which examines possible reason for the ban.
There is the "standard” explanation, essentially that they were too effective/deadly or were a threat to the social order based on the military importance of knights. There is also an interpretation that it banned usage poisoned arrows and bolts or some kind of tournament shooting competitions at people (jousts and tournaments which led to peoples death were also condemned in another of the Councils canons).
The paper presents a new explanation, which I find quite convincing, that the ban was aimed at king Roger II of Sicily. He had been in conflict with the pope since he supported the antipope Anacletus (who had died shortly before the Council) and his army included several Muslims recruited from Sicily. Roger was forbidden from letting his Muslim troops use bows or crossbows against his Christian enemies, while the weapons could be used against those soldiers.
"slow and careful" good one
Earned a thumbs up with that last bit XD
Copy/pasted from the description because nobody will read it otherwise:
"On the topic of shooting a bow without ammunition in it: I did ask (three times) about this before doing it. These steel-limbed crossbows are guaranteed for life not to shatter. By and large, though, it is best to shoot bows, especially powerful wooden ones, with ammunition in them."
love the channel helps me understand tactics and helm me improve as a game artist
Would love to shoot a crossbow some time, but as is with many countries today, they are banned where i live. Only non-firing replicas are allowed. A shame, considering that much more powerful firearms are allowed
I know that hunting with them is banned here (Great Britain), but they are not banned completely.
***** Bought one when I was 16 so I don't see how that can be so :-3
Not quite, I did tell them I was 16 at the time *****
+Thomachi I know, In germany they are regarded as normal firearms. Its just that you are allowed to buy, own, produce and sell them without any license. Where is the point in that, you ask? I dont know, myself...
+Thomachi Most countries that have very strict weapons laws, I find, are actually concerned about anti-government groups, not crime. One reason why the US has such lax gun laws (by comparison) is that the 2nd Amendment is specifically intended to allow anti-government groups to become armed, the result being that handguns (which are heavily favored by our criminals) are much, much more regulated than rifles are.
just a reminder: you said you were going to make a video about fire arrows in the Crap archery in Helen of Troy video.
Would like to see a live shooting of this weapon or a similar one on your channel.
God I opened this video up last night and since then I made a whole fucking functional crossbow
Hey Lyndibeige, i've been watching your videos and they are quite informative, so i want to ask you if ou could do video/s about the "stone bows" or "bullet shooting bows", internet is lacking of information about these (i have found som but i would like to found some more). Thanks and keep the good work!
Im from english, sorry for my Argentina.
Would you say that the recoil of shooting a bolt is strong enough to need precaution? I haven't tried it myself, but watching people shoot crossbows, it doesn't look like there's any noticeable kick that would actually effect the aim or require bracing for it.
:'( dry firing :'(
:( description :(
Did crossbows have pistol grips? And can you fire one gangster style?
Modern crossbows do, and no, you can't fire them "gangsta style" because the bolt would fall out and all your friends would laugh at you. They still laugh at you with modern guns too, but at least the thing stays loaded while you humiliate yourself.
Is dry-firing a problem with crossbows? I'd be surprised if it weren't. If you shoot a bow without an arrow, the energy goes into the limbs and not the arrow, so the limbs are now under a lot of stress that they shouldn't be under, and that can damage your bow, and I see no reason why that shouldn't apply to crossbows.
Yeah, generally shooting your bow without ammunition (dry firing) is a wonderful way of breaking your bow and possibly injuring yourself in the process. But on a crossbow with steel limbs and a lifetime warranty? That's probably alright. :P
"Ugly and brutish", really? I love crossbows so much, I've acquired sort of a fetish for them over the years. And that's an especially sexy one you got there.
I am not so sure, if dry firing is so good to the crossbow.
*****
I don't know if it is damaging to the bow. I heared that some modern bows crack after the first time you fire them dry. I did not mean it as a complaint, but rather as a question.
PS: Christians gave more than enough possibilities to such verbal attacks. I could list them, but I don't have enough space...
Actually, I think they've determined that the whole papal ban on them is apocryphal, if I recall correctly, it happened because historians confused two different subjects in two different Papal councils held some 20 years apart.
Probably the strongest case against the existence of the papal ban is that crossbows continued to be used extensively all throughout the period with in Christendom. The vast majority of bow archers, in absolute numbers, were in the British isles and in far Eastern Europe where the steppes start. In between, the crossbow was the dominate individual missile weapon and in some places the dominate weapon period e.g. Switzerland with William Tell.
It takes a dedicated social class, which pretty much has to be either horse riding nomad or yeoman farmer out in the stick, who has the time and area to train for years to become a skilled archer. The most elite have to start training when their about five if the distortions of the archer's skeletons on the Mary Rose are anything to go by. The French king Charles the Umptempth who finally ran the english out France, did so in part by creating almost a new social class for archers and giving them high pay, and social status with sumptuary laws in order to encourage them to practice constantly for over a decade before they could even hope to hold the field against the English.
By contrast, a crossbow has a training time only slightly longer than the first firearms. More suited for the part-time urban infantry militia in Italy, Switzerland and the Germanys where the crossbow saw so much use. That argues against the existence of any papal ban. We'd see records of someone, somewhere at the very least shaking the crossbowmen down judicially for violating the ban and those records don't exist.
There was a papal ban on the wheellock because it was perceived as being a tool of assassination with little utility as an honorable battle field weapon.
1:00 "In fact I'll shoot it in a moment, and let you listen to it", I actually feel 12 years old again
Nice video and funny ending.
I heard tell that you are not supposed to "dry loose", shoot a crossbow (or any bow) without a bolt or arrow in it, to prevent damage to the bow. Is this only for modern bows?
Lloyd, is it possible to re-position that querell hold so it doesn't make that thwang noise? I'd imagine that'd be horrible for an ambush situation.
I built a very low poundage crossbow, and it is quite noisy. I can only imagine how loud that one is. Of course, I didn't wrap my prod where it meets the tiller, so mine could be just as loud as that one.
There's a little trick how to easily draw a crossbow. Attach a hook to your belt, squat and hook the string on. Then put your hand on the end of crossbow and stand up.
Also you should not release the string like that. If you don't want to shoot it, use goat's foot lever to slowly release the string's energy.
Read the description. The dry-firing is deliberate.
+Jonathan Hughes Deliberate yes, but stupid also.No one can guarantee how steel will react under strain.
kerry mcmanus What he means is that the prod is under warranty, and will be replaced (presumably for free) if it breaks.
Yeah ,but what if it fails & takes half his face off!
+Jonathan Hughes Although yes, I haven't read description, I won't withdraw what I've said. It seems like Lloyd was mistaken the crossbow's limbs would have a problem with dry shooting.
+kerry mcmanus It's not about steel limbs, they wouldn't care if you shoot with ammunition or without. The problem is the string. It takes the most of stress during dry shooting and is also the weakest point. However I would doubt it would cut his face, it's not steel and look at the ends - it (I have no idea how it's called) is supposed to break first and safely unwind itself without the whole whip to the eye effect.
I'm still waiting for the video on 'A point about War Scythes.' Since he did one already on scythes.
What if they were the right kind of Saracens?
The crossbow is a thing of beuty. That allowed a peasent to inflict damage on a man that had trained in violence all his life and that was wearing very expensive armor and riding a very expensive horse. Suddenly a peasent could pose a threat to these beasts with an affordable weapon and with little training.
Dr. or Mr. Tetard maybe right, and those limbs can very well sustain that force, the sting on the other hand... that energy is going to find the weak link some where either in the sting or the binding riser
Lindybeige Hi, Iv always been told never to cold shoot a bow (recurve or longbow or flat bow) in this video you cold shoot the crossbow, does this not have the same damaging effects as it does to bows? I mean grated the actual bow bit of the crossbow is metal, but I still would have thought it was in some way bad for the crossbow, is this right?
I dunno duuuuuuude.... also, flat bow is a lame name.
Usammity well flatbow is a correct term, the only other name for a flat bow is an american longbow, unless of course we were to talk about specific flat bow designs such as the holmegard style
Usammity I agree that flat bow is not the most exciting name but it explains what it is, the names of most bows are like this, recurve bow, compound bow, long bow, war etc.
You are sooooo not wrong. The average cross bow has about 150lb behind that sting and by the way he strained I'd say his was around that. When you dry fire, cold shoot is a new term for me, the entirety of that energy goes right back into the bow. The bow can break free of the riser, and worst case scenario is the string breaks near as it can to the limb, whips out move 3-400 feet per second pass through your eye on a visit. All most forgot the limb can brake and swing back at you like a flail and give your brain a breath of fresh air.
+fringis1 I would have supposed I was correct although I don't understand the part about your eye? However the limbs breaking was primarily what I was thinking about
Why is dry firing a bow supposed to be bad for it? Does it put some kind of pressure on it that firing with ammo doesn't?
Just curious.
Well you see, the point of a bow is to impart a high speed on the projectile right? A lot of energy gets stuffed into the arrow/quarrel. So if that projectile...just isn't THERE to take all of the energy, it has to go someplace else. This being back into the bow itself, which with a wooden bow is liable to shatter it after some time. The steel crossbow should be alright since it's a lot sturdier., but you can still tell all the energy that usually pushes the bolt (causing the recoil pushing you backwards) went straight back into the bow instead.
Surtak
Oh that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.
Purin1023 Getting smarter one fact at a time o3o
That last bit was hilarious. Shame it was true :\
I wonder, is it possible to use a metal cable for a crossbow string?
As someone with a background in competitive marksmanship, that stock is quite terrible for resting your face on to aim. You're not supposed to drop your head to reach the weapon stock, you're supposed to raise the weapon stock to your face, or else you get serious neck fatigue and have a bad visual angle at the target area (especially with proper sights). Since the end of this crossbow has only a small square bit that is in line with the top edge of the weapon, there's no way to avoid this trouble. Unless, of course, you fabricate a simple piece at the back end to allow you to raise the weapon further.
But then, you'll probably have a harder time gripping the back end and squeezing the trigger mechanism, since it is angled completely parallel to the direction of fire. All in all, an atrociously non-ergonomic design in the most basic ways...
Actually, when shooting medieval straight-stock crossbow, you don't have to rest back of the stock (that small square bit) against your shoulder (opposite to as Lloyd shows us in this video), as this weapon has little recoil. Normally crossbow stock goes behind and above your shoulder and touches your cheek only. To aim the weapon you have to tilt your head, so that the eye would be in line with bolt, but you don't have to drop your head down in an uncomfortable hunchback position.
It isn't ergonomic design by all means, but it's not that bad either, when you use it as it is supposed to.
Good thing you don't have to use a medieval crossbow then, because you would obviously suck. Oh wait, you are one of those elitist competitive nimrods, not a professional combat shooter who kills people for a living. Good thing, you would probably suck at reality to.
were there small crossbows kinda like hand guns in medieval ages ?
so, technically, crossbow was overpowered :D
Crossbow OP, devs should nerf because chainmail takes too much grinding to make. Why does crossbow win? Omg, devs plz nerf.
* Puts moss safety-tip on bolts *
"Unless they were the wrong type of Christian"
*cough* *cough* Protestants *cough*
Or anyone who protests that the Poppe is having sex.
Or anyone who thinks the Church should stop selling indulgenses.
Or anyone who the Pope doesn't like right now.
probably Orthodox more so in that time period in Europe
Protestants didn't quite exist until the 1500s, though there were some random christian sects that denounced the pope before that.
Jacob Furrow waldensians and
Anabaptists they were called, Today, were called Baptists. Not some "Random Sects."
It's not so much that they denounced the pope, (they did) but that they believed what the Bible said, no matter the Pope's interpretation.
Keep up the good work I fucking dig your videos dawg
Didn't expect him to dry fire a crossbow..
Is that pair of lashings the only thing holding the bow to the frame?
There wouldn't be any recoil if no projectile was launched...
Did the owner of the crossbow object to it's being dry fired?
Bows were also under the same ban (Second Lateran Council, canon 29).
Oh, I didn't know that, thanks. That makes some of the nonsence arguments about bow vs crossbow seems aven more ridiculus. =)
gurkfisk89 I made a comment about this, it's a bit further up on the page when newest first is selected. I think you will find it interesting.
Thanks Reddit!
Have any recommendation where a Murican like me could get a crossbow like that?
Isnt it bad dry firing a bow, let alone a crossbow?
so where IS that goatsfoot lever video? i mean, i have already seen it and how it works, but still
Ahhhh! That made me wince. I've always heard dry-firing crossbows is very bad for them
Only if it's a heavy crossbow or if the limbs are wood or fiberglass
so, did the owner build that crossbow himself or did he buy it somewhere?
Where is the video of the loading lever? I think you called it a goat's foot lever?
What poundage is that bow? I'm guessing around a hundred maybe?
so weapon bans have been a thing since medieval times
As far as I know the oldest weapon ban was Roman.
Since forever I'd wager. It's all about power. Can't let the people have means of defending themselves or worse - means of revolution.
A crossbow would be great for spreading the faith
Knock, Knock, Knock.... "Excuse me, are you a Christian?"
The question is,Are you a Christian?
If you have a crossbow, I am.
But what KIND of a Christian, hmm?
The kind of Christian who packs his bags and leaves no forwarding address.*****
That Ending..
haha loved the bit at the end
oooh Lindy you fibber !.. you had trouble cocking the xbow with your atrophied muscles..you weren't being slow and careful.. hahaha.
What if they are French Christians?
LOL
The French had and used them, whereas the british favored the longbow. Thus the French were bad christians...
edi Was this referring to the Cathars?
edi
Most people who used crossbows where mercenaries methink. French and Italian, so pretty much Norman I guess.
***** completely wrong time period, that insult towards the French refers to their reputation in the 20th century ONLY.
Could you make a video of you actually shooting a crossbow?
What sort of steel should get if I'm gonna machine the bow part of the crossbow? (I'm not picky about whether it's authentic as long as it works really well). And what's a good way to test its strength at various amounts of bend regularly so I know it's not somehow losing strength so I know I did it right?
Spring steel is best and cheap.
unintelligent scientist Thanks :-)
junoguten no problem, spring steel is cheap and can be bought on hardware or u can get it on the old car suspensions. Just hammer it at ur desired shape and make urself a stirrup and weld it and ur good to go!
unintelligent scientist Neat. I imagine I'll probably find some of that at a local scrapper. Thanks.
"Don't worry. He wont dare to dry-fire it" ... "It looks like he's going to, but don't you worry !" ... "Oh, don't touch that lever... you don't want to ...." CLANG !!
:'(
Lindy: If you were going into battle with 3,000 crossbowmen with reload times of 30 seconds; would you rather have them shoot all at once, or have 100 fire each second?
hey lindybeige do you have any videos about siege engines?
err... most of the ones made with metal bows to them (I dunno what to call them but blagh) they were so powerful that they can put the shooter in as much danger as the person he is about to shoot...
You dry fired a crossbow... Do you have any idea how damaging that can be for the crossbow...
Not really, that bad with a metal bow.
Worst case probably stress the string...meh..?
you are so funny i love your character and accent and everything else : )
Wait, so are you allowed to dry fire a crossbow?
Did the person you borrowed the crossbow from know that you were going to try fire it?
When he asked him a few times whether he was allowed to fire it or not kinda suggested to me yes he did.
can a crossbow also shoot a sword?
Where is the video showing a crossbow firing a bolt?
The cylender is called a "Noix".
"i was being very slow and careful with it"... *dry fires it*