Crossbow superiority (and adoring of beautiful yet useless stuff)

I

Impenetrable

Joined
Mar 7, 2005
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Hello all, first post written by me, but not read. Still quite new to the forums.

I have been thinking about getting a crossbow at some point but I'm not looking for recommendations here right now.
How do you think crossbow is superior to firearms?
The only thing that came to my mind was that it still (propably) has 99% durability underwater, which very few guns do.
Help me here and let's be rationalistic.

And to another thing that is somewhat tied to the first subject.
During my military service I had a pal who was a slightly experienced katana collector. We had an interesting conversation about the aspects of buying lethal equipment. I asked him why anyone would buy weapons just because they look cool but can't be dealt damage with (correct, I don't like katanas :thumbdn: ).
He tried hard to convince me that they were for decorative purpose and laughed at my talks about the lethality and usability issue. And we just kept argueing, I asked him how he could carry "Gil Hibben The Scorpion GH-2009" with him and it's all weirdly and unsafely build and so on. He kept telling me that is not the point of the thing, it's meant to be on it's table rack, and I kept asking him what is the deal with making weapons that WON'T WORK :confused:
Phew...
Still we both understood the point I was after, the fact that I respect things made with love and purpose, doesn't mean I wouldn't have eye for beauty.
Weapons built for commercial, decorative uses are not in awe of mine.
I bet many of you disagree with me on this but such is life.
 
Welcome to the forums!
-Crossbows are completely inferior to firearms.

-also, I dont think you will find very many collectors here who collect poorly built nonfunctional weapons.
 
and second, I would love to get a good crossbow one of these days. I don't know if I can argue that they're superior to firearms but to my mind they're way cooler than many a tuppergun. I also think a Boss 302 Mustang is vastly cooler than a Nissan Skyline even if the Skyline is superior by the numbers. I hope that makes sense.

Frank
 
You can fire a crossbow in your house without hearing protection. You can fire one outside your house and the people on the next block over are not going to be aware of it. It is not totally silent, but it beats a firearm for not alerting everyone inside a half mile that you used it.
 
I have a Barnett crossbow I bought used (but never fired) for $60.
Still need to take it out and shoot it.
Superior to firearms ? In most scenarios no , but I can think of a few where silent but deadly (and still legal) would come in handy. :eek:
 
I wish somebody would make a @#$%*&^% self cocking crossbow like Barnett did, anyone know why they dropped their's, or if anyone else is making one? I've tried string pulleys and crank cockers, not fast enough :grumpy:
 
Still not sure why but, my crossbow intimidates me far more than my bow or any firearm I have does.
 
A long bow is superior to a Crossbow in nearly every respect, or at least in the manner for which it was designed.
The Crossbow enjoyed a lot of popularity in the middle ages and the French employed a lot of Italian (Genoese) mercenaries to fight the English. Although the Crossbow could fire a bolt over 400 yards, it was cumbersom, slow to reload and the quality of the Yew Longbow improved to such a point that is was out shooting the Crossbow at a rate of about 10-15:1 arrows per minute.

A trained English archer could fire 10-12 shots in 1 minute and hit a man sized target over 200 yards away. This was considered a normal ability.

The famed English Longbow ironically came about after its devistating use against English troops fighting the Welsh in the Early Middle ages. The Welsh used bows not of Yew but of Elm. There are records of Arrows piercing a hands width of Oak door. Even for those of us with smaller hands that still represents 90 mm or 3.5"!

Slightly tangential I know, but Longbows are damned sexy :D
 
The cool factor with crossbows is the sighting options and the silence that
it offers. The one that I own has a laser sight that is sighted into the scope
so when I trigger the laser, it is dead in the middle of the scope.

And yes the crossbow is slower to load than the long bow. However the
motto of the sniper is "one shot, one kill" hit what you are aiming at and
you won't have to reload.

Long Bows are for those who plan on missing. :p
 
One good thing about a crossbow, doesn't take years of practice to get fairly good with one like it does a stick bow. Anybody can learn to use one in a hour or so.

I used to be able to hit a 2"-3" bulleye at 20 to 30 yards with my target compound bow easily, you could with a crossbow too. I'm sure it would take a lot less time to get to that point as well with a crossbow. But learn to do that consistently with a stick bow & you're got a TALENT to be proud of.
 
Easy to maintain, provide exercise, quiet, and (if a person is so inclined) handy for annoying geese... :D
 
I seem to recall at least limited use of the crossbow as a sniper/sentry killing weapon in WWII, possibly by Brit SAS troops. Also, the Montagnard tribesmen used them to good effect in Cambodia.

When I was in Germany back in the 60s, there was a local museum which had an impressive collection of mideaval weaponry. Among the pieces were some beautifully made crossbows, with extensive engraving, chasing, and even etching on the steel bow. Of course, such things were made for nobles to play with, rather than footsoldiers, but still impressive works of art.

The main advantage of the crossbow vs. the longbow was that you could train someone to use it in a relatively short time. The English trained their archers from childhood, cullling the very best for warfare.
 
mwerner said:
The English trained their archers from childhood, cullling the very best for warfare.
Click to expand...


Exactly and this is the only reason firearms took off. When they first came on the scene, a Longbow man could kill 12-15 of them in the time it took a rifleman to load one shot. Penetration was also better from the Longbow, but training was long and one had to be made of stout stuff. Drawing a 100+ bow was not uncommon and food availability in the UK (not a place associated with giants) to keep someone in top form must have had an effect on the usable number of larger men. Recovered skeletons of archers showed them to be 5'10~ and with significant development and one could say distortion to their right shoulder and shoulder blade bones.
 
where the hell do you come up with all this good stuff? :D

Barnett made the Commando, of which I happen to have one. They are very cool. The brass rails oxidize when you look at them, so I lacquered them to help reduce this vexing condition.

Velocity seemed to be the killer of these bad boys. Barnett sells more Rhinos and Quad 4's due to a much higher velocity(compound crossbows)

The Commando II was also very cool, but very expensive to produce, and STILL not as high velocity as the above mentioned. I tried to get my hands on a CII at SHOT 3 years ago, and they had just been discontinued. I was particularly enamored of the fiber optic sights.

The Commando is easy to shoot, has reliable trajectory and knock down power to 35 yards, and is easily reloadable. I see cocking kits available for a number of nice crossbows, but they take a while to use, being a sort of cord winder activated by a crank assembly.

The real advantage is that I can shoot it in the garage without raising a ruckus. The thing is absolutely terrifying with broadheads. Field points are simply scary.

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson
 
I have a commando II recurve, its a nice bow, very powerful. I dont get much chance to use it unfortunately.

It does seem a shame they stopped making such a classic design.
 
Steve,
I am a bit of a history fan and medieveal projectile firing weapons really turn me on :o

The Longbow is about as pure as you can get with a weapon IMHO and I have read a fair bit on its history from an excellent authority called Robert Hardy. If you can find it the book 'Longbow, a social and military history' is an excellent if somewhat 'dry in parts' book.

The British 'Giving the finger' by using the fist two fingers of the right hand like Churchill mistakenly did (They should have been facing the other way to indicate victory, the way he did it was rather rude, but since we were at war I guess it was appropriate :D ) Stems from the Britsh victories over the French. The French archers had their fingers cut off to stop them from using a bow again. The two fingers is obviously an 'Up yours pal, we won' and have our fingers to prove it. :cool:
 
You said - "The Longbow is about as pure as you can get with a weapon IMHO and I have read a fair bit on its history from an excellent authority called Robert Hardy. If you can find it the book 'Longbow, a social and military history' is an excellent if somewhat 'dry in parts' book."

I personally don't care too much for stickbows myself (don't like the stack or the action) but most of the guys I used to shoot with would agreed with you 110%. I have a longbow a friend made, s'ok. I have a couple of asiatic styled bows I love though! Recurves are dead sexy! :D

I looked up the Hardy book you were talking about, I think I have flipped through if before (pretty sure a friend owns a newer copy). Have you ever heard of a book called "The Grey Goose Wing" by E. G. Heath? I just purchased a first edition after lusting over my local library's copy for about 15 years. (Also got a 2nd edition of "The Crossbow" by Sir Ralph Wayne Gallwey). Both are amazing books.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the French took the first three fingers of any English archer they found & that's where the "I've got my three" salute started.
 
I used to have a Horton compound crossbow that was topped with a 4x scope. Then I saw the light and bought a regular compound bow instead that had a peep sight woven into the string. The compound bow was far more accurate than the crossbow, and quieter as well. It was also a good bit lighter. Crossbows are also noisier than suppressed .22s.
 
Rrrright... I'll soon start working on my propellant gas -powered, carbon fibre base, self-levitating, 0.8 pound exclusive elite version with explosive titanium arrows (cupholder included, comes with supscription coupon to order live fieldfades for target practice... Am I mean or what :p )
And THEN we can start talking about piercing power :D

Thanks for interesting replies.
 
If you are interested in longbows, you've got to go to the accompanying link. This gentlemen showed up on another forum I'm on and I found the link in his profile. One word for his ability with the longbow: Amazing!

When you go to the site be sure and watch the videos!

http://www.shrewbows.com
 
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