16th century Spanish "ballesta" crossbow - with shooting videos and testing info

[Shaun]

That came out wonderfully. Nice video of shooting. I am still tinkering with mine and wondered how to stop messing with it. You have the perfect answer, start another! Thanks

[Del the cat]

In my experience with those big long triggers, the 'safety' is just holding the stock with all your fingers between stock and trigger so it can't be pressed.
The trigger pull is more like squeezing a grease gun rather than a hair trigger.
Del

I believe you Del, but remember that I intend to hunt with this crossbow.  You have to consider the dangers associated with getting the bow into a tree stand, spanning it while 15' in the air...standing on an 18"x24" platform, then safely hanging it from a hook so that your hands/arms don't go completely to sleep while you're waiting  for game to show up.  Worse yet, I sometimes sit in a ground blind with a 9 year old granddaughter who tries to hold still but fails...and gets into everything.   Believe me, Murphy loves bowhunters...so if something can go wrong it will, and at the worst possible moment.  The arrows have broadheads on the front; I neeeeeed a safety.

George

I see the problem!
Del

[gstoneberg]

Well, I actually left out the most significant issue...my ineptness, especially when a nice deer comes in and turns my brain to jelly.  You really should visit some day my friend, so you can get your own big dose of adrenalin.

George

[Dane]

Thanks so much, Shaun. Crossbows are addictive. Make another one.

Here are just a few shots of the work I was performing earlier today, and has nothing to do with the Spanish. This is that 750-850 lb. German crossbow. Some lessons learned in this build gave me the tools for some areas I wasn't quite sure about, like how to inlet bone bearing blocks. Because of the massive weight of the German, tolerances are much, much lower, and mistakes can blow up in a very spectacular way. I spent months designing this trigger, for instance, and the time was well worth it. What you see here is the toggle and the trigger. These are both going to be case hardened.






George, I heard that happens when you get a deer in your sights. I've never hunted, so I can't speak from experience.

Dane