Rapid Fire Crossbows - Medieval and Modern 

I love this video and could not agree more with all the conclusions! Greetings from the Shot Show in Vegas.

The latch crossbow seems like the same idea as a modern, low powered, concealed carry handgun. People always argue over stopping power and ballistics but sometimes you just want something that's convenient to use while being just inconvenient enough to get shot by.

Tod was just innocently sitting there, contemplating his collection of medieval crossbows, as he does. But then the Adder bow began to whisper to him, calling in the back of his mind... _"You should show someone their features."_

I remember watching Joerg making the prototype of that crossbow years ago 😊

Honestly, for a civil usage, the latchet crossbow sounds just about perfect. What i'm thinking of is for example home defence, where you dont expect a heavily armoured knight to attack you, but rather a few outlaws or whatever. And there, it would definitely be beneficial to be able to shoot quicker, even if it comes at a cost to deadliness. It doesnt really matter if you kill with every single shot, as long as you can either get a few warning shots or a nasty wound, that should be enough to make the attackers change their mind. Plus, it is easy to use, pretty portable, probably quite simple to maintain/store, and you dont have any detachable parts to bother you in one way or the other.

Love to see Joerg's crazy inventions hitting the mainstream!

You should try making a magazine for that one. I'd love to see that.

I still find that clip of 20 Joe's blasting out a hail of arrows impressive, hilarious and terrifying at the same time 😂

If Jorge Sprave had been born in the middle ages I expect he would have invented plywood *and* weaponized it. He's a mad genius. I really love your craftsmanship Todd. Just beautiful work.

The 400-year-old design is such a lovely example of engineering (and Tod's craft). "Fun, war, civil defence?" That sounds like a great description of this channel.

the way you say Landsknecht has forever been hilarious: you're basically saying "land's snail/national snail". Anyway, I love the dagger and am considering getting another :D

The 800 lbs draw weight made me realise I want to see a collaboration with someone like Eddie Hall, just to see how fast he can reload that crossbow.

I was told the the Border Reivers (not Reavers!) Used to refer to the bow as 'The Latch'. And yes, mine is a Border Reiver clan name. I have one of Tod's excellent Dudgeon daggers. Might have to save for a latchet bow now 😊

I bet there'd be a huge market for a Todd Cutler latchet bow with s "medieval style" magazine. No modern materials - a bow which could well have been built back in the medieval period, but unaccountably wasn't.

Powerful enough being the key phrase

Adder on paper looks like fantastic example of LTL weapon. It prolly wont kill unless you hit in the neck, or face. But on the other hand it goes pretty fast and will hurt even when hit just in extremities. As such I think it also deserves this "rethink one's options" kind of thingie. Also that footage of Joe with several other shots of himself in same screen... Sounds almost like a damn M60 over here.😆👍

As a descendant of those Border Reivers, I am sure that my ancestors would have used the Adder, had it been available to them. They were a practical people if nothing else.

One of those small bolts from the Reivers bow would certainly spoil your day if it didn't actually kill you! As always I enjoyed the video.

Dark Elf general -- you have my attention! For Malekith!

Now I want to play a siege level of a medieval spy game where you infiltrate a castle and then sneak around tossing all the crannequins, goats' feet, and windlasses into the forge to sabotage the enemy's defenses

In the correctional facility I used to work in, we used pepperball guns (think paintball guns loaded with pepper powder) to break up fights. We had harder hitting less-lethal shotguns and 40mm launchers, but the sting of a pepperball was enough to gain compliance in most situations. Even if the majority of injuries caused by this crossbow weren't lethal, the pain of being shot would be enough to deter further hostile action in most situations.

Would love to see a chu ko nu video comparing it to the other crossbows you have made. A general video comparing Chinese composite crossbows to European ones would also be cool.

One should also not underestimate the importance of beauty: If you are walking around with the latchet bow every day as a longer range self defence weapon, then you want something that also puts a smile on your face every time you look at it. And the sheer elegance of this nifty little design absolutely does that.

I see you've taken a cue from Paul Harrell with the meat target, nice!

One of the funniest things I ever saw was in the Chinese movie Red Cliff - they had these repeating crossbows, which were supposed to be a super invention. How did they use them? A couple of individuals (at different times in the movie) ran forward, stood out in the open, and pumped the handle back and forth a few times, firing from the hip. Never mind hitting anything.

I'd love to see a latchet steel bow reworked to use a composite bow just to see how much extra power the new materials would have made a historic bow have.

it seems that with these inefficient steel limbs you can get more power if you use a heavier bolt. It would make sense to test most of these crossbows with heavy bolts of the same weight.

Holy crap!! That's scary! 😳 Joe Gibbs X 30 all equipped with "Instant Legolas" would have changed history! 😁👍🏼

Considering the big difference in draw weight between the crannequin and the goat's foot, it's a bit surprising how small the difference is between them in terms of energy and momentum. It just goes to show that draw weight is not the be all and end all when it comes to how hard that bolt is going to hit.

There is a crossbow of even more power which is called the arbalest I believe. They are usually very very powerful and rare to find an antique example. They were a bigger deal on the continental mainland (Germany in particular) and were like under-sized balistas (Usually not carried around on campaign but on fortresses and city walls for use by troops and city watch etc).

This was really really interesting. And as you said, 400 years but still so similar. And we think we are advanced now, but just to come up with that idea 400 years ago and make it work as good as it did. That's advanced.

The deal with the modern bow (Jörg's design) is the magazine. That kind of changes everything about the concept, don't you think? If you're in a standing defence system you could make that a 90 arrow magasine which means constant fire, you could make it big to just push down on a wall which means power could be really great, you could make it a longer draw meaning distance shots... If you have a defence position and a crossbow with a magazine for the arrows and a court full of longbows you could take out basically anything along with the other traditional means. Anyway, my point is that reloading in combat is a mindfuck that takes ages longer than what you ever have and I should know.

I've always had a soft spot for goat's-foot-lever crossbows. It just seems like such a nice compromise between power, speed, and rugged dependency. Belt or stirrup loaded bows might be too weak against an armoured target, while a windlass bow is more like field artillery and lacking in ease of use or flexibility. Goat's foot however, sits just in the sweet spot IMHO.

I love the very British mix and match of imperial and metric units in the table. ft/s and kgm/s - not a problem 😂

So you invented the instant legolas thing and Jörg hopefully gives you a piece of the cake

Just the idea of a doohickey, that you do a thing to, then put a mini spear in it, so you can yeet it at someone or something is just so funny to me. The wobbling in the bolt in the footage of you shooting the cranequin and it just wobbling like that was really funny. Idk why.

I love my adder. The adder is a perfect home defense weapon, particularly for those in Europe who can't own firearms like we can in America. Based on those numbers the adder is very, very good all around for the low 130lb draw weight.

Lovely video, was a lot of fun to watch!

I love these videos. I wish you were teaching at uni. One of our lecturers got us to do design and build mini projects on some mediaeval seige engines. But your specific knowledge and passion is unparalleled. Thanks Todd. These videos help keep my engineering brain alive.

I just love these videos. Thanks Tod.

I counted 3 shots with the latchet in less than 30 seconds. Now that's soldiering!

Another great video Tod!!! I enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

Very insightful!

Back in the day the mini crossbows would be kept on your horse and if you were being chased by another horseman you could shoot their horse slowing it with injury allowing you to out run the pursuers.

Looks like the goats foot and the adder shot right , the others knock the bolt up in a unpredictable manner. I always encountered that problem when making mini crossbows too. The head weight and string thickness and precisely where and how the string contacts the bolt make huge difference in elevation accuracy. Sometimes you want it to bump the bolt up if it’s a low power crossbow but I like straight flat shots . Your bolt needs to be as thick as your string if you have a fat string.

Another great video Tod. Thanks

Great video!

Learning that those latchet crossbows were used as civil defense weapons puts the asiatic reflex bow into perspective that I'm shooting for purely recreationally purposes. It has a relatively low poundage (35@33) compared to actual war or hunting bows, but it does manage to get roughly 60 J and 1.3 kg m/s which on paper would beat even the adder.

Wonderful video, great comparison. Than you!

Brilliant video, Tod. Thank you so much! Lots more data to add to my spreadsheets. The 800-850lb crossbow data is particularly helpful. You had done a range test on this crossbow in the past, and you achieved 217m with the 65 (1000-grain) bolt. This chrono test now supports my theory of the speed and weight needed for a 100lb bow (or fast 90-95lb) yew bow to reach that 200m (220-yard) statute distance in my last test. Thank you so much. Of course, I need to test with a bow as well, but this definitely puts me on the right path!

08:15 ... the ancient people of Greece and Rome were just like us in our thinking and our enjoyment of having fun. Just as some of us here in the US who have a lot of property have friends over for a BBQ and bring out the .22 caliber rifle and plink cans for fun, I would not doubt if the ancient people of Rome would throw darts or small axes at old pottery, or the people of the medieval times would have a dinner and wine party and plink with a small crossbow at pottery or anything that would spread joy to observers when hit by a tiny little bolt. How do we know the people of ancient times were just like us? Graffitti... yes, in Pompeii was found a tavern, with the same type of bar we have today that we walk up to and sit on the stool to enjoy a pint or three. On the bar counter was found scrawled graffitti "Bob's wife is a loose woman" or "Jimmy is so fat the butcher thought he was a pig"... insulting and often risque graffiti has been found all over Pompeii... with the exact type of insults we would scrawl on a restroom wall. Ancient people of Greece and Rome were just a few thousand years back. Considering how long humans have been around, the ancient folk of Greece and Rome might as well be immediate family or friends. The tech was different, but the jokes were the same, the pranks, the laughter, dancing and music... we are no different, so with that, we know they enjoyed a backyard party where small weapons or wooden replicas would be used to goof around with, or later, low-power crossbows for parlor plinking. It's a fun concept to think about... some guy a thousand years ago having the same type of thoughts and love of sports as we have today... just with different technology. With a bit of explaining, they would know how to use a modern firearm or drive a car (after they get over the astonishment, of course)... but the ancient people we think are so long ago simply were no different than you or I today.

Interesting as always. Great to see the return of the Joe Gibbs Rapid Fire Group.

I absolutely love it when you do experimental archeology. I would love one of those Latchet Crossbows.

Gotta love an education ad! Well done Todd. Keep them in there.

Fascinating! Thank you!

So nice to see Tod enjoying the spring.

Great video as always ❤

Seems like bows went through a similar evolution to firearms. Obviously over a longer period. But today we use small, fast bullets because even though they may not remove massive chunks like say a musket would, it’s fast, accurate and will still more than do the job.

There's a thing that always got me with these fast reloading small bows. If you can't reload before your - now thoroughly pissed off - adversary can reach you, the reload is a little moot. Different, of course, if you have a mate who is also loading theirs, but ideally you want that second bolt before the adversary can move from just in range to within sword's reach.

wow I love the latchet

Thanks I never knew about the lachet

Not sure it's the right niche but if anyone's in total fixation with hardcore Medieval Art of War (mostly collective tactics rather than individual weapons performance) I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's videos series

The latch bow was used by border horsemen and mainly used against unarmoured targets, and may have been used at Flodden by the border horse to slow the advancing shiltrons which almost turned the right flank of the English line

Great Video, I would love to see this with the magazine feature.

jeorgsprave's got an even smaller faster crossbow now. its like a crossbow smg.

Well... the obvious thing to do is to make your favourite but with a magazine 😀 . Looking forward to seeing how it preforms.

I’d love to see you investigate and compare a classic Chinese crossbow. Not necessarily the crazy repeating one, but I want to know more about things change with their longer power stroke.

That clip of the repeating longbow mag Im imagining You have two guys An archer and a support When the mag is finished you trade the bow out for a loaded one and the support loads the first bow Then repeats. Much like how it was sometimes done with crossbows. A line of those would be devastating.

The latchet crossbow has so much character to it, it's hard not to be fond of it. I realize a lot of time and resources would be needed, but seeing a magazine for the latchet bow (or attempting a medieval version of the adder) would be incredible.

Tour de force! Thanks.

Love this thank you 😊

Amazing content again, nice to see Joerg's invention. I'd love a discussion about the possibilities of compounds bows in medieval times.

I agree on every point that you made, there is both a place for old school and modern.

Awesome video as always

I have the Adder with a 7 shot magazine & a green laser/torch, amazing bit of kit.

I really appreciate the look at these items outside pure military. People tend to get so hung up on military they miss that people still wanted hunting tools or just fun gadgets back then.

Tod, the "K" in Landsknecht is not silent! And I agree, the latchet crossbow is truly beautiful, it's the first time I saw this and I love it already.

Medieval people didn’t need a bolt magazine because they usually had two or more crossbows and someone to load one wile the shooter shoots the other one. It’s still practiced with shot guns by pheasant hunters in England

"It's not a very powerful bow" Nope, but it's powerful ENOUGH to make a speculative raider 1) go down or 2) go away. It has exactly as much power as it needs, with a high fire rate to match!

A magnificent example of convergent evolution!

Tod, you should do a follow up video in 400 years that compares the newest version with these two.

Side note: there is a family business over at the Borders, it’s called Border Archery. If you’ve never seen their bows or know about their very rich history in making their recurve bows and crossbows, I highly recommend it. Take care Todd!

Beautiful. Even though it is small and low powered, being hit with that latchet bow would definitely make me want to be somewhere else.

I also would love to own the latchet bow, just because of the history, the beauty of the materials . . . Your comment about the plywood and the gib being different measurements made me smile. My grandad built his holiday home from shipping dunnage he recovered from the beaches of Great Barrier Island. It had been thrown overboard from shipping that was leaving port, and the different Nations that shipped here, had different sizes and lengths of dunnage So when we went to put new roofing iron up, it was mindbogglingly difficult, none of the purlings and rafters actually matched up, and you couldn't find a single line for the nailing down of the sheets.

"historical people were no different from us" Hear hear!!! So rare for people to aknowledge this.

This is so cool. I love this.

Very interesting, Mr. Todd thank you😊

Ummm that opening, mind Blown

I would love to see a latchet with 'fibreglass' prod and dacron string to get an idea of how much improvement the modern materials make. The rest of the bow would be identical

I'm still working on the spring mechanism that gets lighter in force the more you pull. Do you remember? The assisted instant legolas? Yup, still working on that design.

I finally have a good bow to keep in mind when ttrpgs talk about a hand crossbow

Fascinating. For some reason I'd always had it in my head that Windlass Crossbows could reliably launch projectiles at over 100m/s, but apparently not. As an aside, seeing the Goat's foot and Windlass used alongside each other has me wondering. I'd love to see some comparative armour and rate-of-fire tests for those two. To the best of my understanding, even a Windlass Crossbow can't penetrate a well-made cuirass, so it would be really interesting to see if some other variable showed up explaining the decline of the Goat's Foot, or if this is just another misconception. Great work as always.

Oh god, now Todd's bows akimbo! Fleeee!

I found this very interesting. The 800lb Windlass shoots at 161fp/s. I have a 55lb recurve bow that I have clocked at 165 fp/s at a 26" draw using modern carbon arrows with field tips. It is amazing how the differences in technology can achieve similar results. It fascinates me how the evolution of bow technology is so vastly different but has a realm of limitations that keep them within range of each other performance wise.

Great video! woud love to see the same with medieval and compund bow

Great video! Jeorg has created some amazing things the guy is a modern genius. Similarly, our ancestors were just as innovative with what they had available to them at the time. I hope Jeorg is a made man after all of his hard work getting these design functional and to market, I know he's a humble man that wasn't in it for the money but he certainly deserves it with the effort he's put in ❤️👌

Awesome comparison! I like especially that you add the energy/momentum, to give a full picture.👍 It‘s very enlightening to see that modern materials have 3x the energy here, didnt expect that. Just seen recently a comparison of a sinew/horn/wood bow with a carbon/wood bow from Armin Hirmer,both from Grozer, same parameters except thickness-and the same arrow weight achieved the same speed, nearly no difference! Looks like Steel is suffering of an density malus, beside other parameters. You touched the magazine question, and that one is open to me, why this was not considered desired-and the same with pistolgrips, that truly help with precision/safety-but it was considered not relevant-May be the mindset was not exactly the same, but things like pistole grip come in the way when worn on the back together with other items? We don‘t fully understand the european mediaval constraints, as I generally find the crossbow history odd-less and less powerstroke, more weight, bulky. Some say bows covered the fast-repeatin shooter role, so crossbows developped to mobile armor piercing artillery instead. That sounds feasible to me.

Fantastic film!!! You would love to shoot the new crossbows that are rated at over 500 FPS for speed.

This video makes me really want a latchet crossbow.

I was waiting for you to say that you and Jorge were teaming up again to make a 6 foot wide carbon fiber crossbow with a 1 foot draw and a 1000 lbs windlass in order to take the record for worlds most powerful human charged crossbow.