After completing an osage longbow some months back, I decided to tackle a project I've always intended; a crossbow.
I made several half-hearted attempts years back, but had no idea of how to make the bow (or more properly prod).
With some bowyering experience under my belt, I decided to give it a go, ending up with this:
The prod is tillered from red oak, the last of a board that furnished two longbows. The roller-nut is sawn and filed from 1 1/2" aluminum bar stock, and the trigger is from an old piece of stainless stock I had lying around.
The stock assembly is just a piece of 2 X 6 lumber.
This is essentially a test-bed, the bow only "weighs" 50 pounds so it's not terribly powerful. Still, my first shot at a cardboard-box target in my back yard went right where I was holding.
Still needs a bit of refining; the nut tends to bind a little as it rotates, and the trigger slot needs to be relieved a bit so that it cocks automatically.
I'll likely build a considerably more potent prod in the coming months.
That's a .40 S&W case on the end of the bolt, a quickie "blunt" tip.
I made several half-hearted attempts years back, but had no idea of how to make the bow (or more properly prod).
With some bowyering experience under my belt, I decided to give it a go, ending up with this:
The prod is tillered from red oak, the last of a board that furnished two longbows. The roller-nut is sawn and filed from 1 1/2" aluminum bar stock, and the trigger is from an old piece of stainless stock I had lying around.
The stock assembly is just a piece of 2 X 6 lumber.
This is essentially a test-bed, the bow only "weighs" 50 pounds so it's not terribly powerful. Still, my first shot at a cardboard-box target in my back yard went right where I was holding.
Still needs a bit of refining; the nut tends to bind a little as it rotates, and the trigger slot needs to be relieved a bit so that it cocks automatically.
I'll likely build a considerably more potent prod in the coming months.
That's a .40 S&W case on the end of the bolt, a quickie "blunt" tip.
