Crown Bolts - Crossbow blunt trauma ammunition 

"What's for dinner tonight?" "Chicken!" "What was the condition of the chicken before you cooked it?" "Well... tested?" "As long as you washed it properly." - a conversation between Tod and his wife at some point, I'm sure.

Todd's wife: Why does the chicken have holes in... No, nevermind, I know why.

Legend has it that with crown bolts, a skilled hunter could sharpen the fletches and light the bolt on fire, and with a single shot could gut, cook, and carve a bird…

I would really think that the drawings in the hunting books are depicted as close range because that is so much more convenient to draw, not because it represents the actual distances.

Imagine going to the kitchen to prepare dinner and seeing that your husband nicked the chicken and is shooting it with a crossbow. Well at least it's cheaper than the GoPro ;)

Has to be said when with friends and the question "who would you want to share a dinner party with?" comes up, I always think Todd would be an epic guest.

As a man whos entire life revolves around hunting i would say that the bolts you have here are for stunning/dispatching small game, requiring very good accuracy I would say that you would have to be incredibly accurate to kill deer with that projectile as a good head or neck shot would be required. You would also have to be able to approach large wary game to very close proximity, I'm not saying deer cannot be killed with it but certainly there are far more efficient ways that no doubt hunters in history would have been well aware of. As for boar i would think that bolt would bounce off, causing a painful impact site but leaving a very annoyed and aggressive quarry to deal with. Even today wounded boar shot with large bore rifles are dangerous to hunters, beaters and dogs. Thick skinned quarry is best dept with via deep penetration projectiles or weapons (boar spears or sticking knives spring to mind regarding weapons) and doing damage to major organs. Anyone who hunts or stalks deer and boar will know how far adrenaline will take wounded game with substantial injuries to vital organs so i cant see hunters in the past using anything but deeply penetrating bladed heads on arrows, bolts, spears or knives to dispatch large game efficiently. I am very much interested in history and i cant say I've ever seen depictions of blunts being used on anything other than small game or butts, in fact the opposite seems to be true with pictures of oversized blade swallowtail heads being used and arrows deeply buried in deer and other game. In conclusion never underestimate how aggressive and dangerous large game animals can be when wounded and how easily game an be lost when wounded or injured with poorly placed shots or inadequate projectiles. By small game i am referring to game birds, waterfowl, rabbits, hares, otter, fox, possibly wolves. Accuracy of user would be the main factor that would limit this projectiles effectiveness.

Having watched this back, some of the energy of the shot was spent 'collapsing' the pork joint and moving it out of the way rather than penetrating. Whether this was enough to significantly alter the outcome I don't know, but I suspect the test would be worth repeating with beastie with a thinner hide such as a deer, but any hunters out there let me know your thoughts. Another point is about Gaston Phebus and his pictures. Medieval artwork is often constructed to tell a story rather than to be literally correct so some of his pictures squeeze all the action into an unfeasibly small area, however others do not and with relatively slow projectile speeds of very rarely above 180fps/55m/s very close shooting would be required.

A thought occurs - perhaps this bolt doesn't prevent penetration, but rather the overpenetration. Use this, and it's less likely it will bury itself in large game (or a nearby hill) so deep you'll need a shovel to get it out. It looks like a small cash loss at first, but if you are someone who hunts a lot, that cost will add up over time. Perhaps a test of Amazing Flying Mace versus Mother Earth is in order.

In the sixties (when bow hunting was still legal (UK) or the authorities turned a blind eye) my grandfather used 'thumpers' as he called them, for Rabbit, Hare and Squirrel , and other smallest game, as well as game birds. Often the thumpers were DIY and composed of no more than a used, reversed, .303 cartridge case 'secured ' (primer expended) over the naked end of the arrow/bolt. His aim was generally to stun/disable then get in quick and neck them or apply the priest. His bows/crossbows were home made and of far less poundage than you would be used to . There may well have been varied results, but his pot was never empty and he had zero legal bad marks for illicit 'gamekeeping.'

I love the knight vision still with the arrow in it :D

A tehory: Perhaps we need to look more closely at the medieval hunting party for the development of blunt bolts. A hunt was also a major social event at that time, especially when nobles took part. Wouldn't it be possible that the bolts were not meant to kill the animals but only to wound and weaken them, so that hounds could be used to track down the escaped but weakened animals to prolong the hunting experience as much as possible? I can imagine how exciting it was to chase your prey in the forest, to finally catch it and finally to kill it. A well-aimed shot with a sharp bolt, at any rate, would certainly kill an animal quickly.

Todd: "Maces! Lovely chunks of nastiness!" The maces: :) :)

Growing up Archery Hunting in New Hampshire I was always told the purpose of Blunts was for the recovery of the arrow that you shoot at small game. If you shoot a regular field tip or a broad head at a bird or rabbit they punch right through and get buried in the soil and foliage. Now you've lost a valuable arrow and have less to continue hunting with. As always great content. Keep up the great work.

Having hunted all manner of small game with a bow, I'd say a blunt ( which I used ) delivers all the energy to target, while a pointed projectile will often simply shoot through, so you don't get the hydrostatic shock of a blunt, nor the hemorrhage of a broadhead. Blunts work fine for small game, but would be inadequate for anything much bigger than a rabbit.

I like the smiley face on the middle mace at #1:41 :)

Why do I think that they didn't use 850lb crossbow to hunt chickens?

Guest: "Thanks for having me over for diner Tod... How come the chicken is smashed to F*?" Tod: "I shot it at point blank with an 850lb crossbow....."

Damn, those maces are gorgeous

Mrs Tod must love you raiding her fridge all the time for shooting targets XD

As they were willing to perform their tests on living animals, I'm sure that skilled hunters of the time had a pretty good idea of what draw-weight bow and style of arrow would be appropriate for which game -- something that's a lot harder for us to test humanely.

Is a yapping Chihuahua a viable substitute target for a wolf? Asking for a friend.

Todd to Mrs Todd. "Change of plan, soup for tea tonight dear, not roast."

You should have used some pork ribs, see what damage is transferred into the animal. Sure, it bounced off the skin, but, could it crack the ribs, or the skull?

The use of these bolts for hunting also explains the need for hunting hangers. The blunt force stuns the target enough to allow the hunter time to approach and dispatch. Your stuff is always the best!!!

So, what we'll be calling on is good ol' fashion blunt force trauma. Horsepower. Heavy-duty, cast-iron, piledriving punches that will have to hurt so much they'll rattle his ancestors. Every time you hit him with a shot, it's gotta feel like he tried kissing the express train. Yeah! Let's start building some hurtin' bombs!

"My reflexes are nothing like that of a deer" LIES!

Ilove tods work and methods!

Tod, your videos are never boaring... until mow.

As always excellent work Todd!

Since I started smithing I told myself “I will never buy another knife or sword again.” But maces, maces are a different story….

Excellent video and excellent comments, as always.

Hi Tod. Great vid 👍👍 If you look at a crown bolt it looks the same as the safety tip used in jousting in medieval days. The tip was designed to not penetrate armour on both lance and bolt. As far as I know the crown bolt was for common people to use wile hunting because it could only kill small game and not penetrate armour. The deer were the kings deer and if you were caught with sharp points you would be charged with poaching or worse , planning a murder. The law remains today in some places with deer hunting like Canada. If your caught out in the woods with broad heads you will be accused of deer poaching, even if your just stump shooting. If you have a deer licence and it’s deer season you will be fine to carry broad heads. I see the art showing men shooting at deer with crown points but maybe that is to scare the deer away from crops or simply target practice that was legal through a loophole of being legal to shoot blunts. Or maybe they hit the deers head then run up and finish it with.a sword or spear. To kill a deer would have to be a head shot with crown bolt and very very heavy bow. Most hunters would be young boys with light bows and blunt points. The rich hunters would have the fancy heavy bows so it was not as common to see I would think. From my experience with archery if all kinds, blunt tips work good for A- legal defence from accusations. B- they don’t get lost as easy going under grass or roots. C- they require no maintenance or sharpening. D- they don’t get stuck in trees or targets. E- they have a slightly larger impact face than a sharp does, so it increases chance of hitting small game. F- puts all the energy from the bolt into the target when a sharp goes right through without delivering energy. If you shoot a rabbit with a sharp, the bolt passes through and the rabbits may run down there hole where you can’t reach them and die. If you shoot a rabbit with a blunt it transfers all the energy and knocks the rabbit silly with a hear stoping punch and the rabbits won’t be lost down a hole or something. It won’t scurry far. That’s the main reason for blunts.

That pic of men practice shooting and dogs fetching back the bolts is absolute gold.

Finally! A ranged attack option for enemies vulnerable to bludgeoning damage. Bravo, sir. :-)

Thank you , Tod

Flying mace eh? I'm delighted by how Todd still find bits of kit that I'd never even heard of previously. Love when I learn about new old tricks on this channel. So it's essentially a metal "bunny buster." Aka the medieval version of those rubber blunts we often top our fedders with. Looks much more brutal than the modern equivalent. Judging by the tip I'd venture to colloquially dub it the flying meat tenderiser. It looks an awful lot like the head on a meat tenderiser mallet. Great vid, Todd!

Mrs. Tod's Workshop: "Oh, my favorite. Grass-seasoned blunt-trauma chicken."

There are a number of modern options like this for bows and crossbows for hunting birds and small game animals. I have both plastic and metal screw on heads for my bow. I will now always refer to them as flying maces.

Press like first and then watch the video, it's gonna be fantastic

having seen endless pigeons, crows, etc taken out with .177 and .22 airgun pellets, I cd have told you that the energy rqrd to knock down a chicken is not going to require a 'flying mace' - a flying pencil wd suffice, but the off switch for birds is the spine or head. Accuracy is paramount. Even more so with pig, they will just tank the bolt shots except to the head.

Seeing Tod cranking up the windlass at the start of the video, my excitement level peaked! "How do you like your pork? Tenderized?"

Awesome stuff as always! Would love to see you continue your "boiled" leather series if possible. Trying different recipes and layering would be very interesting! Thanks for all the content

I love the idea of shooting a crossbow, then having your dog retrieve the bolt. I might have to try that some day

"My reflexes are nothing like that of a deer" but far more graceful!!

Hey Tod, I had an interesting thought the other day when I realised how many of your videos are shot on nice sunny days (ideal for lighting I suppose) but hardly representative of our rainy little island. I wonder how rain would effect the range of bows/crossbows. Of course the bowstrings getting damp would be a huge factor, And though archers could carry spares to change, crossbowmen would have to just be very protective of theirs. The other thing though is just the pure interaction with the rain. Surely the rain would slow the bolts/arrows in flight and would that be significant for long range shooting? What about if the ammunition itself got damp?

As a bowhunter I think this bolt design makes more sense for use on small game and smaller furbearers like mink and otters and beavers. You hit a rabbit with one of these the blunt force alone would kill it same with any other small animal and many of them would likely not be penetrated by it. Rabbits in particular have extremely loose skins.

I suspect that if you wanted to kill an animal with this bolt and keep the hide intact, you would probably do your best to hit it in the head or neck. You are probably most interested in the hide on the body, so caving it's skull or breaking it's spine is would be what you are after.

1:40 I love that the middle mace has a cute little smiley face on it :)

what we all WANT to know is: what would it do to a dude in armour?

I have reliable second-hand accounts of two of the most unusual deer hunting techniques. One was a man who was extremely sneaky. He was a traditionally trained Yaqui hunter and Marine Vietnam veteran. He would walk up to calmly grazing deer, rapidly slice the jugular and step away so the others could panic, and his target would bleed out in a minute or less. Another was a family friend who hunted deer by jogging after one until it gave up (usually after three times of running and pausing) and lay down, then he would dart in to control the head, cut the neck arteries, and jump back to let it bleed out. This man was a poacher feeding his three kids on what little money was left after paying alimony.

Those blunt points started to appear in archery in the 1960s because most small game do not have large arteries for broadheads to be able to kill them effectively but blunt force trauma works. Its not designed for large game and to save the skin, its just to take small game since slicing cuts dont work when the animal has small veins to bleed.

there's a bit of a gap between animals with tough enough skin and animals that will be killed by this bolt

Great video!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!

Morning from Arizona

"Chicken dinners" _Wait, I thought no stunt chickens were harmed in the making of these videos_

Nice Video.

Enjoy picking out the bits in your dinner, Tod!

Said "Boarskin" several times without a slip, Well done :)

If my wife caught me in the kitchen with a whole chicken while I was making fake skin and plumage by taping feathers to piece of paper so I could test a tiny mace with it she would have me involuntarily committed. Happy to live vicariously through you, Tod.

some time ago, joerg speave was investigating case in germany. Deer was shot with 3D printed mace bolt. Shot penetrated skin and went deep into animal, fell out and left huge channel that caused quick bleed-out of the animal. Acused man claimed, that it was training arrow, that his daughter shot from her training bow and deer jumped right into shot. But pretty clearly it was shot from high--powered hunting crossbow. Take a look at that, it is very nice video.

Lovely plumage, the norwegian blue,,,, 😉

Hell yeah brother.

3rd ineffectual cup of coffee in hand I lumber sleepily around the house then "Ooo a new Tod Vid" and instantly I perk up.

Things I love hearing: "A clutch of maces"

I actually have your type 7 mace head. I mounted it myself, and the fit it's on right now was supposed to be a test fit, but it ended up seating so tight I couldn't get it back off. Even made a leather belt holster for it that looks like dragon scales. Fit pretty nicely at the fantasy themed wedding I went to. Plan on getting a few more once I have some more muniez, some as gifts and one more for me :)

Maybe a similar reason as the crescent pointed arrows you tested a while ago: prevents the bolt that missed or went through the target, from burrowing as deep into the brush, ground or sticking into a tree, being lost forever

Awesome crossbow test Tod! I have an idea for a sliding crossbow bayonet if you interested?

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kinda hjoped you woul shoot an actual mace but I guess that would be more of a Jörg thing :-D

with the chicken, I suspect the fact the cavity was empty would have made it much easier for the bolt to penetrate. Had the cavity been filled with organs, as it obviously would have been for a live chicken, I think the chance of penetrating would have been much less. Obviously getting hold of an un-gutted chicken isn't especially easy, but filling the cavity with chicken livers, and sausagemeat to fill any gaps, then sewing the cavity shut would probably give a better analogue

Kitchen Tod : "dinner's ready, love." Wise Wife : "no need pet, I phoned for Chinese."

"a clutch of maces" is not a phrase one hears that often (which arguably is probably a good thing...).

Seems that the real benefit is not that it doesn't penetrate, but that it won't put as many holes in the pelt as a multi-bladed arrowhead would. Once a blunt head makes it through the skin, it poses no possiblity of continuing to cut up the pelt, while a sharp bolt could create any number of cuts and holes once it's lodged in a body.

Great video! I use my 175 lbs recurve big game crossbow for small game with a very heavy cut down aluminum arrow with a 125 grain blunt tip, hare mostly. At super close range, itll blow right through and wreck everything. At a proper 30 meter and up distance it will mangle all the bones and wreck the pelt. ( i dont keep the pelt so I dont mind. I'd like to but not currently able to process it) 50 or more meters, which i wouldnt shoot unless in a survival situation as i'm a bad shot, should keep it intact IMO

I love how the middle one of the cudgels has a small smileyface at 1:39

I like how the mace at 1:39 has a little : ) on the wedge

Perhaps for smaller game smoother headed bolts were used or perhaps a leather pad put on the front of the bolt?

Todd, you need to launch maces from crossbows! I am sure it is not historical, but some guy must have thought "This mace would hit harder if I launched it from this crossbow.. or better yet from this here ballista.."

An alternative explanation, for those game animals it can penetrate, is that a crown bolt was the medieval equivalent of a hollow point, something intended to cause the maximum amount of trauma possible in one hit so you didn't have to waste time and energy chasing down a wounded animal.

For small game I've used a bolt about 40 grams sent at 75 mps, the head about 17mm diameter Vantage Point Archery brand small game blunt. And I've had a complete pass through (a skunk) and several more that penatrated half way through. I haven't shot anything terribly tough, but at the size of skunk or raccoon, I would expect to need either a weaker bow or accept damage to the pelt.

Weirdly entertaining lmaoo idk if I'm the only one but I feel like playing Skyrim after watching this 😂

Omg I love that 🎯 do u have how to make that 🎯 sir ?

Bow hunter here. Given how this test went, I'm thinking that perhaps the crown bolts were meant to be a bolt that imparted a lot of energy without getting lost or killing a bystander. Speaking from experience, a broadhead shot from the ground at close range will blow through an animal and won't necessarily come out at the same angle it went in. It could keep going for quite some time. That could be very dangerous with people hunting all around.

These look like they would devastate plate armor with a high pound windlass... or at least feel far worse than an actual mace strike

A farmer I knew back home used a crossbow to hunt rabbits and possums, he two pot glued .270 casings on the bolt to do basically the same thing, it works a treat.

I would hazard a guess that the deceleration of a sharp bolt is slower than that of a blunt bolt, so the blunt would deliver its energy faster? Counter to that i will say the bouncing back is energy not spent on the target. In the old pictures the shooter and the target both need to be in the picture.(you could say im wrong on that but than look at te video Tod did with Capwell, thay show pictures of Agincourt where the French ad English are 3 meters apart...) Like in Tod's duck hunting video, if you miss the bolt is easier to retrieve.

Used for breaking bones, ribs, legs etc, like modern xbow blunt heads or judo tips.

Hi, Tod. Have you tried wire wool dissolved in white vinegar to age wood? It's incredibly effective.

I would say that it makes sesne, since at least around my parts, boar has been a classical hunting trophy for ages and even though a few small holes in the pelt can be mended pretty easily and hidden in the hair, it is still a blemish. Now the question from me is if that would be enough to put a boar down! I would imagine one would need to crack the ribs and puncture the lungs, or shatter the skull, and given the triangular nature of it, oooh, I do not know! Either way, even just the skin is remarkably tough, and I do have to make a boar-pelt cloak one of these days! Pigs and boars are such wonderfully tanky creatures! I still miss my little pet piggy who passed away on Valentine's.:( Cheers for the vid, Tod! Beautiful maces, too!

You are supposed to attach a bag of old breadcrumbs and spices to these bolts. That way when the bolt goes through, it smashes out the innards and replaces them with stuffing.

I would assume those were used to kill game for their skin without damaging it. Think about foxes, otters, etc. Also probably shot from weaker crossbows.

When I read flying maces for hunting, I immedieately thought throwing a morning star like a tomahawk to a deer, good thing I was wrong

1:39 are there smiley faces on top of those maces

I was thinking about problems you were having with those broadhead crossbow bolts wondering if twisting those barbs the way you twist fletchings might help stabilize them without having to tweak every single head to perfection... Just a thought.

In Finnish context, where the crossbows were relatively same, light though packed a punch (Their looks are also are of early crossbows of Europe, when they were made of metal, I believe laminated wrought iron and mild steel, sort of 'composite', being forge-welded), according to sources, people had to keep it around their hip, rather than shoulder because of the damage it would cause. There's this one picture, but yes, they shot squirrels from high up trees/bit of distance with those blunt head bolts, from the hip. Rabbits also and so on, though hell no deer and hogs I haven't heard anywhere. Not sure about birds even with those. Just small mammals mostly, and if the shock and blunt damage didn't kill them, a hunter would go up to them wring their necks. There were also blunt head arrows, with bows more so being used and the Finnish tribes were known for being big exporters of fur, especially squirrel, not sure if it was exactly way back in Roman empire times, but for quite a while to say the least. So probably was quite a lucrative business. And as mentioned before, I doubt they would use this for anything bigger than a fox/swan, or even a rabbit.

Pig skin is incredibly tough, I'm a butcher and cutting pig skin is pretty much the fastest way to ruin a knife edge, outside of hitting bone. We even started using Stanley knives to score the skin on roasts in the end.

In your previous videos you showed how the range dropped off with the weight of the bolts how about the other way how does it drop off with progressively lighter bolts?

Hello Mr. Cuttler I like you Experiments Take care Yours Frank Galetzka

There are modern blunt broadheads used for fishing and bird hunting