Guest Post by Black Bear
A little bit about crossbows
So a while back on some forum thread or other, I incautiously babbled a little about medieval crossbows and archery, and my limited experience of same. Strangely enough, Robin then asked me* if I’d consider guest-blogging a bit about archery, and I said yes, with a couple of caveats. The first caveat is, I am a terrible archer. I’m not just being modest—I don’t have great vision to begin with, and astigmatism to boot, and when I shoot on a range there is a better than even chance that my arrows will end up in the target one or two lanes down from my own, if they end up in a target at all. I imagine if I were to spend as much time shooting as Robin does bell-ringing, I might get good at it (though I’m not sure what the archer’s equivalent of ringing Kent would be) but as it is, I’m pretty awful, and I’m sure some people reading this are far better archers than I.
The second caveat is that I am only speaking here of my direct experience with longbows and my own medieval-style crossbow; it’s about as close to a medieval crossbow as one can get in the modern era, honestly, but there’s still plenty of room for argument about what medieval bows and crossbows could or could not do, and you’re welcome to go read any one of thousands of articles on the subject if you’d like further info.
Now, that said–
The basic anatomy of a crossbow is pretty simple. You all know how a basic bow works, right? Of course you do. A longbow, a la Robin Hood, is a 5′-6′ long piece of wood (usually more than one kind of wood, in layers) with a string holding it in a flexed position; to fire, you have to have the strength to pull that string back 30″ or so and hold it while you aim. Your arrows usually have 3 feathers at the end to provide flight stability, and when you release the string, the arrow is launched at your target. (Or at the one three lanes over, if you’re me.) A crossbow, while it works on the same principle, has a slightly more complex firing process.
The body of a crossbow consists of a wooden stock, at right angles to a metal bowstave called the prod, or the lath. The prod is a lot shorter than a longbow—mine’s 28″ tip to tip. However, because it’s metal, it’s got a lot more tensile strength per inch than a wood bow. So you can get much more power, inch for inch, out of a crossbow prod than a longbow stave. The prod needs to be able to flex a bit, so it’s held to the nose of the stock with a binding of sinew or linen twine, wrapped around a chunk of wood called the block. If the prod were nailed into the stock, the stock would crack from the force when the crossbow was fired; the bindings allow the prod to flex away from the stock without destroying it. Attached at the nose of the crossbow is often a metal loop, or stirrup, which is used to help you pull the bow; you brace your foot in the stirrup, then yank the string back to the lock position with both hands.
About halfway back along the stock is the mechanism that really makes a crossbow a horse of a different color. As I can’t remove the plate on the side of my own crossbow to give you a good photo, I’ve made this crude drawing for you instead.
The nut is a small wheel of wood or horn, rotating on a little axle; it sticks up a bit above the top of the stock. This top part of the nut is cut so that it’s got a hook to it, with a notch down its middle to hold the bolt. When you pull the string back, you catch it over the hook, and the nut holds the string in a pulled position as long as you like. A notch at the bottom of the nut is shaped so that the trigger of the crossbow slots into it and keeps it from spinning freely on its axle; when you press the trigger, it slips out of the notch, and the nut is now free to whiz around. So to load and fire a crossbow, you pull the string back to the nut and hook it; you put a bolt (also called a quarrel) into the groove along the top of the stock with its butt against the string, you aim it at a target—taking all the time you like, as the bow’s being held tense by the nut rather than by your muscle power—and then pull the trigger. The nut spins around, the string boings forward, and your bolt is propelled off the nose of the stock and toward the hearts of your enemies.
The assumption that crossbows are slow to reload is based on, I think, ideas of heavy crossbows–125# + on the pull–which have to be cranked back with a special mechanism called a cranneqin. But a light crossbow, 60-70# pull (which is a heavy draw weight for a longbow, but light for a crossbow) is easily pulled back with both hands if you hook your foot into the stirrup. So if you’re in a sitting position with one leg stretched out in front of you, you’ve got your crossbow loaded, you place it against or atop your shoulder, aim and pull the trigger. The moment the bolt’s gone, you can drop the crossbow down onto your waiting foot, put your hands atop the string and either straighten out your leg or lean back to pull the string to the nut in about 1 second. If you’re super-strong and only used one hand to cock it, your other hand’s already catching up the next bolt, you drop it into the groove while you’re swinging the stock back up off your foot and to your shoulder again, and bang! All in all about 5 seconds between bolts, if you don’t bobble anything. Compared to a longbow, the whole process requires a lot less strength and precision, and leverage is working for rather than against you. Of course, you’re sitting on the ground, so in a melee situation the crossbowmen are doomed as soon as the enemy gets close enough to rush the pavise wall… and it’s harder to aim accurately from a lower position, because crossbows have such a flat trajectory. (When I first started shooting, I lost half my bolts on the first day because UNLIKE arrows, which tend to land at an angle in the ground with the fletching showing if they miss the target, bolts hit the ground nearly flat and promptly bury themselves about 1/2″ below the surface of the soil, and frequently they disappear right up to the fletch and you need a metal detector to find the bastards.) And even from a standing position, a light crossbow can be reloaded and fired in about 12 seconds, is my general sense of the thing. I’m likely to spill my quarrels or hit myself in the face with the stock if I’m trying to move that quickly, mind you, but I’ve no doubt others more talented than myself have no problem with it.
This isn’t to say a very good longbowman (or woman!) couldn’t fire, reload, draw, and fire that fast, or even faster. But because you have to hold your pull while aiming, and because longbow arrows are longer and therefore a bit more unwieldy to maneuver into position, the ability to shoot both quickly AND precisely with a longbow is much harder to come by, I think.
That’s all the technical stuff. Robin also wanted to know what it feels like. I’d say it feels… well, different from anything else I’ve done. A crossbow is heavy—they’re made of wood and metal, after all, and mine’s walnut—so there’s a feeling of solidity to it that my longbow lacks. It doesn’t kick, really, as you generally put it atop your shoulder rather than against it; but you lay your cheek against the wood to sight and fire, and so you feel very close with the thing, so to speak. You can smell the wood, and the oil, and the cedar of the bolts. When you pull the trigger, the whole thing kind of thrums for a second… I personally find the crossbows appealing in a tactile way that longbows aren’t, as I like Things With Moving Parts, and the mechanism here is so simple and beautiful. So, there you have it—my ode to geeky medieval weaponry. (And if you’re at all interested in owning a medieval type crossbow, I recommend checking out New World Arbalest**; David built mine for me 20 years ago, and he’s still doing beautiful work and is a very nice guy to boot.)
* * *
* STRANGELY? What do you mean, STRANGELY? –Ed.
** http://www.crossbows.net/ I’ve just been over there having a look, and it’s seriously cool. Note: I do NOT need a crossbow. NOT.
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