Any interest in primitive crossbows?

[Gimlis Ghost]

Years ago a friend who is a Vietnam veteran showed me a simple crossbow he had made that was a duplicate of the crossbows used by the Montagnard tribes he'd encountered.

Would such a bow meet the requirements for primitive archer forums?

I've also run across videos on even more primitive crossbow designs.

[Pat B]

A few folks here have made primitive cross bows. Have at it.
 I have a primitive cross bow that probably came from Viet Nam or the Philippines. Looks like it's made from mahogany with a fiber string and simple trigger.

[Gimlis Ghost]

I've been told that a very simple crossbow was commonly used by settlers in East Tennessee at one time to conserve gunpowder  and occasionally built and used by youngsters for small game hunting well into the 20th century.
Could be that the design stemmed from the Border Reiver Crossbow since its said many early settlers here were veteran Irish and Scots mercenaries who had served William of Orange.

Recent threads on Indian style Horn & Sinew Short Bows brought the subject to mind. Something along those lines would make for a very efficient prod for a compact crossbow.

[Pat B]

Be sure to do a build along with pics.   

[stuckinthemud]

Lots of us build crossbows that qualify as primitive.   This was one of tbe most recent http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,68057.0.html

[Yooper Bowyer]

That was very interesting, how was it strung and cocked?

[stuckinthemud]

No idea, bastard string most likely

[Gimlis Ghost]

Lots of us build crossbows that qualify as primitive.   This was one of tbe most recent http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,68057.0.html

Very interesting and outstanding finished CB there.

Years ago I picked up a badly broken fiberglass bow at a junk shop, thinking of using the limbs to try for a short takedown project. I'd considered using something like that in that thread to use the limbs as a cross bow prod.
Still wondering how that bow got busted up so badly to begin with. Both limbs had cracked on the belly side just above the riser. Not a full separation but long wide open cracks. Possibly dry fired many times?
More I thought on it the more I felt that these limbs had too much mystery going on to risk using them for anything.

I'm not interested in a powerful crossbow, just one suited to small game and pests. Most of the truly primitive CB I've seen were only suited to game no bigger than a monkey. Unless poison arrows were used of course.

I have a modern pistol crossbow of 50# pull that is so inaccurate I gave up on it. Before I gave up I had gone overboard buying aluminum bolts that are suited to a more powerful CB and a spare string that turned out to be for a much bigger prod. So I may base my build if any on the stuff at hand.

I also have two fairly large pieces of rock hard fine grained wood of unknown species each is big enough for a medieval style stock. I've had these in storage for 25 years so I guess they are as seasoned as they will ever get.
I'll have to dig these out and measure them to see where I could go with them.

I doubt I'll ever get a good start on this, just too much in the way of home repairs that needs doing right now.

[stuckinthemud]

Crossbows can be a rabbit hole to fall down, I would recommend a wood/sinew bow with a draw length:bow length ratio of no less than 1:3 , don't go below 1:4 if your not using sinew for anything except ossage or yew as the strain of staying drawn for many seconds is huge.  Don't forget the cycle is draw, load, aim, fire.  At a target that can take 30 seconds, and 30 seconds held at full draw is a lot longer than the 2 or 3 a bow is drawn for.

[Gimlis Ghost]

Crossbows can be a rabbit hole to fall down, I would recommend a wood/sinew bow with a draw length:bow length ratio of no less than 1:3 , don't go below 1:4 if your not using sinew for anything except ossage or yew as the strain of staying drawn for many seconds is huge.  Don't forget the cycle is draw, load, aim, fire.  At a target that can take 30 seconds, and 30 seconds held at full draw is a lot longer than the 2 or 3 a bow is drawn for.

Sounds like good advice.

Whatever I come up with it will be a fairly low draw weight.
One good thing about the CB I've looked into it that prods can be switched out fairly easily. I figure to over build the stock and trigger mechanism so I can step it up in power later should it seem appropriate.

I had no interest in these till O worked on one for a friend. His had a 150 pound pull , the trigger mechanism was very gritty, almost impossible to fire while remaining steady on target. Turned out The trigger was rough as a cob with a turned up flange that had actually cut into the sear surface like a hacksaw. Took a lot of stoning to get it right.
He had an old car out back he was stripping for parts and since the windshield was cracked he wanted to see if a bolt could shoot through a windshield. It did alright. The bolt, all aluminum with not even a steel field point, passed through the windshield and struck the cross bar of the steering wheel almost penetrating the heavy gauge stamped steel. Had the bolt carried a field point It would have passed on through.

PS
I just remembered I have an ancient solid Mahogany Rudder and Centerboard from a Thistle a friend scrapped out many years ago. These pieces are plenty thick enough for a stock and might be better suited for the purpose.
Never gave them much thought. Perhaps depending on the grain I might be able to cut a short bow stave from one or the other.

[GlisGlis]

there are quite a few trigger mechanism for XB
draw weight greatly influences materials and types you should use

[stuckinthemud]

Rabbit hole warning.   A push pin lock is a beautiful mechanism,  so simple.  A string lift lever is also very effective.   Next up in complexity is a roller nut and lever.  There's some info on my blog you could read as a starting point and the Arbalest Guild is pretty much an essential place to trawl through

https://thearbalistguild.forumotion.com/

https://stuckinthemudsite.wordpress.com/

[Gimlis Ghost]

Great resource. I'll spend a lot of time mining it before I get started.

The Mahogany I have is very old, IIRC the boat was built in the 20's or 30's. Of course the rudder and center board may have been later replacements as they were still in good shape while the hull was a losing battle.

There seems to be a wide range of qualities of this wood depending on origin and species. It may not be good bow wood, even if backed, but should make a good stock.

[stuckinthemud]

Mahogany is good for a tiller

[Gimlis Ghost]

Mahogany is good for a tiller

Tiller was the term I was trying to remember. Guess I should brush up on the nomenclature.

Thanks for all the valuable input so far.

PS
Found a good Crossbow book on the Internet Archive, free download or streaming.
https://archive.org/details/Book_of_the_Crossbow_The_by_Sir_Ralph_Payne-Galloway/mode/1up?q=bow