Made a small crossbow

T

the possum

Joined
Jul 31, 2002
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I used to make bundle bows out of bamboo like this as a kid, and put one together for my daughter a while back. Turns out she doesn't have the strength to really pull it back, so I made it into a crossbow for her (I still have to cock it). Nothing fancy here. It took real effort to restrain myself- I had to keep telling myself this was just a quick toy; not a masterpiece.
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I'm posting this here to give ya'll ideas. This type of bow could take small game at close range, and takes a matter of minutes to make. Ya don't have to carefully carve the limbs, and instead use overlapping sticks to get the same effect as tillering. Just keep flexing it as ya wrap, and move the string up or down on individual sticks to get both sides to flex evenly. Naturally, you could scale it bigger for bigger critters. I'm sure a carved self bow is superior long term, since that's what historical peoples used, but a bundle bow may get ya by while you're carving it.

The crossbow mechanism is only 2 moving parts, with a piece of bent wire for a spring. The same design was used on some medieval war bows, so it can scale up to serious proportions just fine.

I usually strip feathers off the central rib, instead of cutting them down the center. I prefer turkey feathers (tail feathers for these small arrows, wing for full sized arrows), but ran out of 'em. Gotta sort through a whole pack of shishkabob sticks to find ones that are straight and sound. I used to make steel broadheads for 'em, and then they would fly completely through 2 layers of cardboard & work on small critters.
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The points on these are sorta dull, until my daughter proves she's responsible enough with it. They will fly about 60 yards the way this one's set up; my older ones would go over a hundred.
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I was watching Dual Survival ( I think) and there was this episode where one of them made a crossbow out of bamboo. I have been dying to make one, but can't find bamboo large enough.

That is an awesome looking crossbow, any thoughts about making the arms of metal???
 
Not sure if you're intent on finding and processing the wood yourself, but just about anything can be found on ebay. :) Lots of other woods work nicely for bows too. But part of the reason I posted this, was to show that you don't necessarily need a big piece of wood. If all you can find is smaller stuff and river cane, you should still be able to split and lash them into something that will launch an arrow.

I have thought about making a nice crossbow many times, like a heavy medieval war bow, but I'd want to do it right, which would take me over a year of puttering around in my garage. I've thought about getting a steel prod from Tod's Stuff, but in the end it would probably be cheaper for me just to buy one of his bows & use my time for stuff I'm better at. http://www.todsstuff.co.uk/crossbows/crossbows.htm
 
That is really cool. Could you post some more pics of the trigger mechanism?
 
That's really neat.

It looks like you used the not-straight bamboo skewers for the prod and the straight ones for the arrows? What did you bind it with?
 
That is an incredible build.

I've an on and off history of playing with crossbows, and 'till the end of last year had always been dismissive of pistol bows. The reason being I saw one of the better ones around a few years back in a mate's garden, and it was beyond poor. It failed to penetrate a slice of toasted sliced white bread at 15 paces.

Fast forward to the end of last year and I stumble across a bunch of videos of the below. With an 80lb prod and with little bolts it was still firmly in the toy class, but at least with that power it would do much better than the ones I'd tried before. Above all, as a present for my woman to play with when her mates came round. Good news.

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I grabbed it for her and she loved it. Hours of fun. Two things though: 1] I strung it, and whilst it wasn't at the limit of my force it wasn't easy. 2] My woman is not wimp, she can crank out a dozen chinups without raising a sweat, yet 'till she had mastered the technique she found it quite hard to cock it. Essentially, it is a break barrel action against that cocking spur at the rear. She was having to cock it over her leg in the manner of how one might snap a stick. And she would repeatedly bring herself out in a rash of bruises as a consequence. She's mastered the proper method now so blah, I mention it simply to frame what I will say next:

As a small game getting tool it would suck. At around 20 yards or so the bolts just run out of spunk. Sure I can get them on target at that distance with a bit of Kentucky Windage, but by the time the bolt has got there the target would have to be damn small for the bolt to be effective. And anything big enough that you could reliably hit would would probably just turn round and give you the finger.

Despite the 80lb prod the little bolts [either composite or alloy], just don't have enough energy in them. I know of one pistol crossbow that could score rabbits / squirrels at the 20yrd range and that isn't a true pistol bow. It is essentially a low powered [150lb draw – 210 FPS] full sized bow with the stock cut off. The bolts from that are significantly more hefty and hold a lot more energy.

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In short, what you have made there is well beyond a bit of playful artistry if you could take game and usefully send bolts out to 60 yards. It is genuinely awesome.
 
Not to knock, but I don't think the crossbow shown would really be effective on game - those little skewers are lightweight darts, unless they are very much bigger than the ones in my draw.

Possibly faster than a regular crossbow though, sending the light bolt out fast. Can you chrono it?
 
Look in your local Garden center.
I.N.F.K said:
I was watching Dual Survival ( I think) and there was this episode where one of them made a crossbow out of bamboo. I have been dying to make one, but can't find bamboo large enough.

That is an awesome looking crossbow, any thoughts about making the arms of metal???
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Thanks for the compliments, fellas.

Bore-
I haven’t experimented with shorter arrows yet. The little bows like this I made in the past had a longer draw, so the arrows would be about the right length for those. I’m thinking about making another one, so I decided not to cut the arrows down yet so I can use ‘em for both bows. This is also why they have the long space between the fletchings and nocks- this gives room fer yer fingers when drawing ‘em on a small bow (that’s not a crossbow).

Trentu-
It’s kinda hard to see how it works, so I’m also adding a sketch. I’m making the sketch vague on purpose, so you can use your imagination.
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Basically ya just need a round roller (called the "nut") with some hooks filed on top that hold the bowstring. (plus a groove filed down the middle to make room for the arrow nock). Then ya cut/file a sear notch on it, where the trigger sear prevents it from turning. When ya pull the trigger, it lets the nut rotate freely, so the hooks tip forward & let the string fly. The same idea could be easily modified for a sliding trigger or even using a rocker bar, so you could put the trigger about anywhere ya want. Mine was made from a bolt, strip of scrap iron, a .308 casing, brazing rod, and a strip of wire that came off my old windshield wipers. You might prefer a flat lock plate, a couple nails, and a rubber band, etc. I’ve seen several antique ones where the nut (the roller piece that holds back the string) was made of ivory, with a steel sear plate.

Nkt2-
Sure, the sticks for the bow don’t have to be too straight. If ya sort through a package of ‘em though, flex them a bit, and you’ll notice that some of them feel soft and spongy, and stay bent when ya flex ‘em. Save these for the barbecue grill. Some others will feel exceptionally strong and springy, and these are the ones to save for the bow. I do have a chronograph now, but never thought to measure their speed.

I used 60 pound Spyderwire for binding, since I had some layin’ around, but nearly any string will work so long as it’s strong and light, and not too stretchy. At first I used the Spyderwire for the bowstring as well, but it dang near cut into my fingers when drawing it, so I replaced it with some thicker string now. (250 pound braided Dyneema fishing line)

Baldtaco-
Your pistol bows look like they'd be pretty fun to play with.
I should have been more clear with my wording above though; sorry 'bout that. This one is a toy. I think with heavy broadheads (to add momentum, in addition to their better cutting/penetrating ability) it could penetrate a rabbit at 10 yards, but throwing rocks or sticks would probably be just as effective if you’re a good pitcher (I’m not). I mainly used ‘em for frogs, snakes, and fish as a kid, because I’d attach some fishing line to the arrows so I could retrieve them from water. I used my pellet gun or real firearms for everything else, because these little arrows get lost so easily. I meant 60 yards was the max distance these arrows will fly if I point it up 45 degrees; I doubt they would have much killing power at that range.

I didn’t mean to say that a small pistol crossbow like this is a good survival tool. I was just sharing to get the gears turnin’ in all yer heads. :) Think of this one as a model, and you can take the same concepts and scale them up into something serious, yet would be fairly quick to make.

Check out that Balestrino bow on Tod’s Stuff I linked above, though. That one is a small pistol sized crossbow with a 320 pound draw. I’d love to play with something like that & see what it’s capable of.
 
the possum said:
Thanks for the compliments, fellas.

Baldtaco-
Your pistol bows look like they'd be pretty fun to play with.
I should have been more clear with my wording above though; sorry 'bout that. This one is a toy. I think with heavy broadheads (to add momentum, in addition to their better cutting/penetrating ability) it could penetrate a rabbit at 10 yards, but throwing rocks or sticks would probably be just as effective if you’re a good pitcher (I’m not). I mainly used ‘em for frogs, snakes, and fish as a kid, because I’d attach some fishing line to the arrows so I could retrieve them from water. I used my pellet gun or real firearms for everything else, because these little arrows get lost so easily. I meant 60 yards was the max distance these arrows will fly if I point it up 45 degrees; I doubt they would have much killing power at that range.

I didn’t mean to say that a small pistol crossbow like this is a good survival tool. I was just sharing to get the gears turnin’ in all yer heads. :) Think of this one as a model, and you can take the same concepts and scale them up into something serious, yet would be fairly quick to make.

Check out that Balestrino bow on Tod’s Stuff I linked above, though. That one is a small pistol sized crossbow with a 320 pound draw. I’d love to play with something like that & see what it’s capable of.
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Hey

That's fair enough.

Yeah, that thing I got for mah woman is good fun. Anyone even remotely interested in one should grab one, they are a steal at the price. I'm still temped to grab another one for myself. They are pretty darn accurate across the lawn [gives me the edge when we play for forfeits].

I can relate to “as a kid”. As an adventurous child [precocious wee schitt], with an aptitude for blowing stuff up, making incendiary arrows with wire wool, making all manner of darts and other projectile devices I can see how something like that could do frogs and whatnot at close range. Hell, I delivered a cocktail stick through two layers of duvet and a sleeping bag into mah mate's knee back in the wilderness years, sending him to A&E [ER].

Anyway, cheers for clearing that up. All good. And that's some fine looking fletching ;-).
 
Seems to me that it might be hard to find in woods. OP stated that bamboo was hard to find.
baldtaco-II said:
I suspect strips cut from a bit of PVC plumbing pipe and bound together would be easier and deliver far more pleasing results.
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baldtaco-II said:
Hey
I can relate to “as a kid”. As an adventurous child [precocious wee schitt], with an aptitude for blowing stuff up, making incendiary arrows with wire wool, making all manner of darts and other projectile devices I can see how something like that could do frogs and whatnot at close range.
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:D
This sounds so familiar. I think we could have gotten into a lot of trouble if we were neighbors growing up. I never tried incendiary arrows (how did ya do it with the steel wool?), but if ya cut the end off of these little arrows flat, a cap (the plastic ring kind for cap guns, cut apart) would fit perfectly on 'em, so they explode on impact. I scared the bejeezus out of the farm cats with 'em. A small glow stick taped onto the arrows was fun at night, too. I made broadheaded darts to fit in my pellet gun, and there was that time we about gave Dad a heart attack with a huge homemade firecracker, or blew up stuff with black powder filled..... uh, never mind about those. ;)
 
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