Hi all. This is a fun project I just completed, a interpretation of a late-Roman crossbow. The only evidence that the Romans (this is late period, 3rd and 4th century AD) used crossbows are two grave reliefs from Gaul (France), and a few hard to interpret comments by later Roman writers. It seems that some elite horse units may have trained and used crossbows on horseback, and possibly they were used in hunting.
It is about the strangest little crossbow you can imagine. The image I am posting shows the weapon from the top down, so you can see a bolt groove and a rolling nut. The handle is particularly strange, so it is doubtful these would have been fired by bracing the stock on the shoulder, as was typical of medieval weapons. And, keeping in mind that they would have been used (possible) on horseback, there had to be means of cocking them that didn't depend on a foot stirrup. Notice no stirrup in the grave image.
I build this using some scrape red oak I had for the stock or tiller, and laminated some lignum vitae to the top surface. The handle I turned on my wood lathe out of some nice cocobolo, and the binding block is made from olive wood. It is certain that the original Roman weapons would have had a composite bow / tiller, but I used a spring steel bow I had on hand. It is a very, very low powered bow and rates 65# pull. The good thing about this is it is easy to span, so much so I can just rest the end of the handle against my stomach and pull back. Also, it is easy to span by placing my feet on the prod on both sides of the stock and pulling up to span. If this was composite construction, that would not be a good idea, particularly since Roman soldiers used hobnails in their boots (the hobnails were actually one of the chief ways to differential soldiers from civilians in the Roman world), and that would probably damage the prod.
I do plan to build a few more of these with higher power prods, to see what they can do. This prod is a bit on the wimpy side, so the penetration is not so great on targets, but is a lot of fun to shoot. In made up some new bolts for this little guy using pre-cut feathers and 125 grain tips from Three Rivers. The tickler / trigger is made of brass bar stock, and the rolling nut is made from moose antler bound into the tiller with brass wire, and with a hardened steel sear. The prod is bound into the stock with hemp rope which I then coated with hide glue.
Since this is such a low powered weapon, I figured brass would be fine for the tickler, but at higher power, the trigger would wear too fast, so steel would be the best option.
To shoot this, I place the handle end lightly on my cheek and sight down the bolt, using the tip of the bolt as my front sight. It actually felt natural after I got used to it, and it was pretty easy to get a feel for where this weapon shoots. I kept the distance close, 10 to 20 yards, as it isn't that hard hitting, but more powerful version of this should let me shoot at greater distances.
Dimensions are 19 1/2" long for the tiller / stock, 6 1/4 long by about 1.5" diameter handle for overall length of around 26." The prod is 32" strung nock to nock, and the string is 50- strands of B-50. Serving could be neater, too. The finish is a few coats of true oil. I was finishing this during Tropical Storm Andrea, with extremely high humidity, so the oil finish didn't dry well, but the matt look is kind of nice.
Dane