Yew and sinew questions

[DC]

I'm thinking about the use of this bow. If it was for hunting you would have to get half the village together to cock it before you went out. This would mean it would be braced for long periods of time. Wouldn't it take a lot of set?
Maybe for war. It could be a snipers bow. To cumbersome to load for volleys of shots.

[lonbow]

Such crossbows were used for war, hunting and target shooting. They became obsolete as weapons for war in the early 16th century (at least in Germany). In Scandinavia, crossbows were much longer used as weapons of war.
Ibex horn was regarded as the best material for crossbow prods. Crossbows with wooden prods were not as highly apreciated as composite crossbows. Wooden bows were made with and without sinew backing. Steel prods first came up in the 15th century.

Here´s Andi shooting one of his reproductions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rV1w8mFDdU

[PatM]

They used a crank or lever to cock these  or the work was done with the legs, not the arms.  Even with degradation of potential performance  they would be fine to sit in ambush with.

[stuckinthemud]

They were also overbuilt/underdrawn, they were drawn to 9 inches,  for example, even though they had the potential to draw to 14, and so by being unstressed could remain drawn for relatively long periods. 

[stuckinthemud]

Crossbows like this were royal weapons even those with wooden prods, and target shooting was hugely important with every village/town/city/country having their champions but also, aristocratic hunting was not done by sitting in a blind, but with animals being driven toward the shooters. In warfare, according to the teutonic knights, teams of crossbowmen operated using a variety of weapons, with nimble, fast loading lightweight bows protecting the slower loading heavy and superheavy crossbows who could then focus on more suitable targets