Build Your Own Crossbow

by V. Oliyanovich

Mistake you can make in construction is quite as crippling as the fear of beginning because you might do it wrong. You have to begin to get anything done, is a kind of progress in itself. Few mistakes in this craft are irretrievable, but sometimes it's a lot easier to start over.
So just what is a crossbow? It's a short, stiff bow permanently mounted on a stock, that can be spanned and loaded with a projectile, to be released to fly at your leisure, in a controlled direction. It shoots little arrows. Crossbow draw weights are often impressively large, but their power-stroke is usually quite short.
Medieval crossbows have few moving parts and are usually very reliable if made correctly in the first place. Will take the crossbow front to back, and look at each part in turn to discover what can go wrong and how the problems can be fixed. Remember the most common failure is in the shooter, rather than the machine. 90 percent of the complaints of misfire and erratic flight can be attributed to the shooters either pulling the bow off square on loading or not planting the butt of the quarrel squarely against the string.

111 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 25, 2018