MONSTROUS CROSSBOW, what could go wrong?

Looks dangerous and even tho I know nothing about weapons, somebody could run up and shoot you with a regular bow?

I think the more distance the bolt travels the more it slows and slows. Think of terminal velocity of a bolt simply falling from a mile overhead. It eventually stops gaining speed, velocity, impact. Because it takes so long to reload, my thoughts are one volley at the last moment before hand to hand. Use long bows, bows, lighter crossbows as the charge crosses the field and then one devastating volley of heavy cross bow a couple moments before the lines clash. Whatever those bolts hit first, will hit HARD! Then your crossbowmen put their crossbows down and change to a different weapon. Hand weapons, or even a lighter crossbow that can still be deployed, or some other task. Only plan to use heavy crossbows once each charge, if the enemy withdraws and reforms to charge again.

Suiside cross bow

Hi... This frustrated me. You shot every time at the same angle and they appeared too high, imo. Also, you failed to speculate at all on ways a crossbowman team might increase their rate of fire. Maybe they used multiple crossbows. Maybe they worked out a system that included a stand to hold the crossbows while they were being drawn and set. If you were an actual crossbowman with your life on the line I'm fairly convinced you'd be a lot more urgent and motivated than the relaxed, laid back work you displayed... and yet you came to some conclusions based on some pretty lazy analysis. Just saying.

A very impracticable weapon. It makes it easy to see how, and why the English longbowmen vanquished the French during the Hundred Years war. It is said the sky appeared to go dark as the longbowmen released a volley of between seven thousand and twelve thousand arrows every 5 seconds or so. It is estimated that over a half million arrows were loosed at the French Knights and crossbowmen. Is it any surprise they were decimated? It brings tears to my eyes to think of the horror of it all.

This bow looks like an accident waiting to happen when you are handling it. Especially in excitement of battle ! I'd rather use a regular bow !

I'm assuming this is one of Tod's wonders?

less distance than you hoped for might have been partly because of head wind as I noticed the flag behind you seems to blowing from a headwind direction

He suggests using a hip hook, the kind attached to a belt.

Some years ago I found some tips from crossbow bolts near an castle. Inside of one of the iron tips the wood from the bolt was still existing.

Oh for gods sake. If you grab ANY weapon from the armoury, you can be sure it needs upkeep. Not just crossbows.

Going by the flag behind you, the wind was in your face-which could explain the modest distances achieved.

I never thought I would say this to anyone but the mustache looks really good on you! Cheers love the vids keep them coming

I've Got To Disagree.
Devastating Medieval Weapons? That's Got to Be THE CAVALRY (Horse back and Lances), Attacking Your Flanks.
How Do You Stop the CAVALRY, Attacking Your Flanks - That 1000 lbs Crossbow. Team/Groups of Crossbowmen - Firing at Horses - So they DON'T CHARGE and Di-sect your Flanks.
How is that METAL in the 1000 lbs Crossbow Made. Adding Silver to Steel. Otherwise, Steel - Just Bends, Like Rebar. Unfortunately, You've Wasted ALL Your Silver Making Computers and Broadband Internet.
Gunpowder? You Don't Have LIMITLESS Amounts of it. The Crossbow is LIMITLESS. You Have To Fire it in Groups/Teams Against The Cavalry. Otherwise The Cavalry will Di-sect your Flanks.

Sounds like this was medieval artillery.

Another fun video, thank you SIR!

Стреляй уже

I imagine a big part of the training of a crossbowman would have been about reloading sans cock-up.

One of those old steel prod crossbows from the 15th century, shot a bolt across the Menai straits (400 yds).

You should wax the string and wax the track the bolt is riding on. The serving at the middle of the string needs to be made of better quality cord. The prod (the bow of the crossbow really should be wrapped in leather or have leather jackets sewn over it. This protects you in the event of the prod shattering.

A bow was much better and long range weapon. With Eastern composite bow the range coil reach over 1000m (1km) In Hungary there are.archery long range competitions.

you need to lube the rail and string

To counter a cavalry charge on flat ground they would have fired once at about 25 yards or less from behind a wall of pikes and halberds and then gone to their melee weapon. An almost guaranteed kill shot at point blank range to penetrate the breast plate. The same tactic would be used for the Arquebus. I think you'll find that beyond 50 meters a bolt/quarrel doesn't penetrate a breast plate. It would be interesting to test.

I never imagined crossbows would be used much in an open battlefield between armies.
However, crossbows have several advantages over simple bows:
- Anyone can fire it with (lethal) accuracy (and it really does take a lot of training to become efficient with a longbow).
- They can be used in much narrower spaces than bows. Perfect in cities or castles.
- The bolt can penetrate most kinds of armour and still do significantly more damage to its target than a bow arrow.
Crossbows are ieven used by the military today to shoot suicide bombers when there is a risk that firearms could trigger an explosion.
So, there good reasons why a bow does not require a permit, while a crossbow does.

Mit meinem 70 LBS Compoundbogen schieße ich um die 500 Meter weit!

What a cumbersome weapon to use in battle. In the heat of the fight, you get super stressed to draw the string while being shot at by multiple arrows and at times the ropes of the windlass gets jammed or breaks. Time to bring out the modern Ravin r29x crossbow!

Yeah what went wrong? All of the above.

I have read that the crossbow had a very high velocity within 50-60 meters, close to a bullet, and than would become much less lethal after that. So very effective to defend a castle for exemple.

I feel like the flight deck, or whatever the top bit of wood the string is in contact with is way too rough and it could probably use a lite lubricant to prevent string wear as well. I know we even do that with modern crossbows, even though they're made of smooth metal.

This crossbow makes a lot of sense. The middle age generals had to be aware of its limitations, but it makes total sense as a anti-tank gun to scare the enemy. All you needed to do was flaunt it and you can get their armored personnel to pull back who was all their social elites of that period. I bet they had multiple rounds for Steel, wood and leather targets, and long range bolt for sniping.

Don’t your go with your time and use Metrics ???

"devastating, but slow firing"

Jason you've caught yourself out there!

blabbermouth!

Does the 250yds assume an elevated shooting position?

"I never liked crossbows... take too long to load!"

my dad had one as a kid. it was a relatively flimsy thing, entirely made of wood, certainly didnt need a windlass to load. my dad loved it until he fired one of those dainty little plant sticks three inches deep into a tree in the yard. it spooked him so badly he never fired it again.

(he did go on shoot his best friend in the foot with pellet gun, through wellies and all, so never fear, he didnt learn too much from the experience lmao)

Where did you even get this thing?

Why cant you dry fire it?

Thank you for putting the video out. What I appreciate most about your videos is how down to earth, and relevant they are to real life of the period. The little things you find and point out is what you don't get from any other historical teaching.

Something that came into mind (probably from the fraying): I wonder if there's any reference at all to the use of any kind of lubricants on the "rail", meaning the surface that contacts the string of the bow as it's worked. I'm aware of such with modern crossbows, though I'm not entirely sure how effective this is.

Pounds?
What is this medieval measurement?
Translation for us all living in the future please. :)

It doesn't seem like 45 degree shooting angle would achieve maximum distance, id like to see you do this again at a few lower angles to see what firing angle achieves the longest distance.

The distance-is about what 450 ft lbs 600 joules-would give you 600= 1/2 x .25 x v^2 =70m/s .7 of that 50m/s. so 2.5 seconds of horizontal flight 125meters distance

No offense meant but medieval crossbow men were. 1000x more experienced than you; their bow equipment etc was sorted out etc.
roughly 450 ft lbs potential energy)-about 600 joules. 600= 1/2 x 0.5 x V^2- 50M/S muzzle velocity- 0.7 of muzzle velocity is horizontal so 35m/s horizontal velocity- 3-4 seconds of flight-110 meters about right. So yeah it must push it to close to 450 ft lbs-600 joules - BLUNT TIP-armored men horses-why not a Bodkin-MV and penetration?

That huge fletching probably put quite a drag on the bolt's distance. It certainly was turning the bolt though. The first shot appeared to be at 45°, the second closer to 40°.

I have several crossbows including a 150kg/320 lb windlassed one I had custom made.

Kinda obvious why crannequins were popular. I have had problems with my windlass similar to yours. I finally put a brown parachute cord on it.

Looks like that wood stock has quite a bit of friction that could be reduced by curving the top a bit, or installing period style strips of cattle metacarpal bone or ivory inlet into the top. In England you can buy imitation Ivory they make for turners or inlayers. Cattle lower leg bones cleaned may be easily had at pet supply stores.
I have worked bone, antler, Ivory and horn replicating medieval objects. Arthur MacGregor published a book by that title in the 1980s. Dover republished it. Bone if not over baked has natural fats in it to lubricate it. It may be necessary to treat the glue surface with a solvent just prior to gluing, perhaps lacquer thinner. I have not used that on bone specifically but I have read of it being done on oily wood.

As a more modern archer I often used monofilament fishing line for my string serving as it is tougher, more wear resistant and faster on release.

Arthur Credland is a great published crossbow expert. He can be contacted through the Society of Archer-Antiquaries which is based in England. I was an American member for many of the sixty+ years I was involved with archery. I am too infirm now to do it anymore. I was trained to teach archery at an NAA school about 1968. I have been involved with medieval reenactment for 43 years not counting my kid years. I have a very substantial archery/crossbows/siege engine section in my library.