I relate to your dismay at the "Lack of intestinal fortitude" displayed by said Archery organizations. The pathetic responses you appear to have suffered I can only imagine. My encounters of politics of this kind never seemed to be fair or anything less than a "Knee jerk reaction" I must say is the weakest and most pathetic form of side step. These "Politicians" shame the very name of 'Archery".Dennis La Varénne wrote:I like 'em too and always have. I had one when I lived in Victoria - one of John Clark's 'Cressy' models, but could not bring it across the border into NSW because this state has had a ban on them ever since I was a kid and pretty much still has (but I am working on them). Like most here, I have never understood the antipathy. For too long, most of the clubs (but not all) within the archery organizations and especially ABA would not tolerate them. For too long, they could be bought by underage youths with nowhere to go to learn to use them properly and safely and the inevitable misuse occurred.
The tail chasing always ensured from the major archery organizations whereby they denied their involvement with them and expounded their antipathy toward them so that they would not have to wear any of the mud from misuse, the result of which can very squarely be laid at their feet as directly culpable for that misuse. And so, misuse continued, denials ensued and so it went round until legislators started banning them as silent long range weapons of assassins and other such rot.
Victoria quite recently has relaxed its laws to the point that one only need to be a paid up member of a recognised archery or hunting organization, and that it must be rendered inoperable when not in use OR stored in a gunsafe if it cannot. The previous licensing system has been dispensed with. There is also an age limit as well or underage persons must use one under the direct supervision of an adult. They have always been legal for hunting Deer and any pest animals in Victoria.
NSW, the only state which still believes that it is a penal settlement, remains in the dark ages.
I thought originally that it would be a good thing to have one for my old age when drawing a conventional bow got more difficult, but crossbows are much more difficult to span if you don't have the right equipment. They need to be about twice the draw weight to get the same ballistics as a conventional bow with a similar mass arrow because of the short prod and very short power stroke.
My preference is for the ancient kind like the Skåne lockbow design which has a pin system which disengages the spanned string. It is VERY primitive compared to the later nut mechanism, but these bows can be easily made by the homecrafter as an all wood project. Here are some pics from the PaleoPlanet site in the US. This is a very attractive bow. To shoot it (bows are NEVER fired - only guns are fired), the string is spanned to drop into the notch in the tiller and the tickler (under lever) pushes a dowel pin up against the string to push it out of the notch, whereupon, the string strikes the butt of the bolt and propels it forward along the 'V' groove - very simple indeed.
Both the prod and the tickler are tied to the tiller with a system known as a bridle - again very simple and effective. The prod is set into the tiller at a slightly forward tilting angle so that the string has minimum friction contact with the upper surface of the tiller as it moves forward. This slight angling of the prod can just be made out in Pic 4 above. The angle is worked out by checking how the string on a braced prod contacts the tiller when it is in position. Then the angle of the notch for the prod is created so that the string of the braced prod is barely in contact with the tiller surface. This may seem to want to induce some kind of rotational twisting of the prod, but using something akin to pin nocks on the prod allow the string loops to rotate on the nock pins as the string moves backward and forward thus preventing twisting. Very simple and ingenious.
Neither is there usually a stirrup on this more ancient design, but it is not unheard of even in contemporary times. Spanning was usually achieved by placing both feet on the prod on either side of the tiller and drawing back the string. As in ancient times and akin to this particular crossbow, the prods were commonly protected in the mid-section by a leather wrapping which provided placements for the feet during spanning.
These crossbows were used mostly by peasants and commonly used for hunting. They were usually not of the massive draw weights required for military use and did not need to be.
Hazard
blushing. It is not often a banjo playing lawyer gets called that - very kind of you. Thing is Dennis, this thread has done what it was designed to do - stimulate discussion and see what pops out of the woodwork - and look at some of the stuff we got to see. That is the beauty of Ozbow - thanks to Jeff, you and the others who do the yakka and our mates who pitch in with helpful comment, advice, ideas, experience. If not for this site I would not have learned what I wanted to learn - and moreover what I needed to learn - persistence!!! This thread is on its second page and it has not gone off topic at any stage. Love it.