Excellent! Imagine that monster on a castle’s wall! I’d love to see a video of you and Leo Todeshini (Todsworkshop) just get together and talk about crossbows. Such a fascinating subject that we are just rediscovering.
Will be making a video about the truth about Medieval crossbows soon, (unlike steel crossbows) 426 JOULES is quadruple a typical longbow in the medieval period. its insane...
The weight is high, but the speed is very slow. If you are the target at 100 meters away, you have about ~2 seconds to walk away. At the pistol ~0.3 sec. :)
Yes but a pistol bullet is very small and light, at 10 - 50 meters the impact of this slow but enormous and heavy crossbow bolt will do a lot more damage to it's poor target !
Remember that this is also energy of a strong push. It all depends on size of the projectile and surface it covers. For comparison, a baseball will have about 5000 lb of force or even more, and catcher catches it in his glove. You can't catch a 9 mm pistol bullet in a glove.
@@Zoltan74 but if you have several of these shooting at you, you will have no chance of dodging any of them. Also, it is hard to keep track of a crossbow bolt flying straight at you. You would have to focus entirely and only on dodging it
@@Zoltan74 Only if you know that you are been shot at. Hard to see or hear when wearing a steel helmet with padding and a visor. On top of that, if you are busy of fighting somebody else, hard to see it coming.
Until today, watching other crossbow tests, I thought crossbows were inferior to other projectile weapons. This video just changed my mind. Awesome craftsmanship.
From what I understand it's a bit like this, high end crossbows could win over bows in terms of raw power, but bows do have a massive advantage of rate of fire, cross bows like these at best two rounds a minute. Where as even a 150 pound longbow can reach 10-15 rounds a minute (though you would likely be a bit worn out after that). So hitting power or rates of fire... Suppression of a force advancing at you would be a lot easier with bows than crossbows, the morale impact of a few thousand arrows hitting your line in the span of a minute or two would be more notable than in the same time frame only a few hundred slightly harder hitting bolts reached your line. The big advantage AFAIK of Cross bows is not any of that it's actually in training requirements, a good Longbowmen could take say 5 years (though a passable one might only take a year or two) to get up to the strength required to operate reliably the higher end bows. A good Crosbowmen perhaps only 5 months or so. So a notably quicker time to train a good user, time in which could be used in other tasks or a notable advantage in savings in terms of "training costs". Furthermore when Guns started becoming popular they where even quicker to train with than crossbows (say 5 weeks), which shows that even though guns did have a advantage of hitting power over other weapons their rate of fire was slow where not very accurate and the weapons where expensive, you could quickly take a "peasant" and after a few weeks have a reasonable solder with a arquebus.
Now that's impressive. Those big limbs look like they give a better powerstroke than a typical medieval crossbow and the resulting 400j is solidly in handgun energy territory. I wanna see this go up against the breastplate that was barely dinged by Joe Gibb's 165# longbow. lol
Yes those kind of experiments are so much fun to watch, and so informative as well. Nothing like dispelling all those myths and legends. IMO I think it's going to produce the same, or similar results. With the exception that the ding is going to be much larger, and the impact would have probably knocked the rider of his horse.
Against well made armor it would be barely fatal is the funny part. Steel armor got pretty insane, able to shrug off 900 lbs without hurting the person inside multiple times. 1250 might do it if the guy just stands there and takes it straight to the chest.
@Turaglas which invention of Joerg are you talking about ??? Also I've read some articles online which mentioned that experienced slingers could sling their projectiles at speeds of at least 90 M/S and yes that's 90 meters per second I'm talking about, However there was no weight of the projectile & type of projectile mentioned, So I'm not sure & I've also read other Articles which mention far lower speeds of 40-50 M/S, typical Slinger projectile tended to be 50-500 Gram with the Lead one's being the most efficient // So If the 90 M/S claim is true and if we take a central weight projectile of 200 Gram Then a 200 Gram projectile being thrown at 90 M/S = 810 Joule (and that's indeed not Funny)
Also very good comparison with Tod's 1275 lb steel crossbow - steel bow IS less efficient simply because it is heavier (no fault of Todd, his craft is awesome). Venetians composite crossbow makers were right when petitioned to kick out these upstarts smiths marking (or even importing!) steel bows and stealing away sales from honest craftsmen...
Don't forget power stroke. This crossbow seems to have a rather long draw length compared to most medieval crossbows, which allows more energy to be imparted to the bolt.
medieval steel bows had a lower "safe" draw length than the theoretical maximum because medieval steel was not uniform like modern steel is. Bow makers had no way of knowing whether the bar of steel they were working with had any imperfections, microscopic cracks or what not that would cause the steel to fail when pushed to the maximum. That placed a limit on medieval steel bows. It is not the case with modern steel because of modern metal manufacturing science and processes.
That 500gr bolt has about 4 times the kinetic energy of an modern high-speed compound bow. You get some idea how powerful this crossbow is. However it was very unconvenient in a line battle and propably these were never massively used against cavalry, or if, it was propably last thing the crossbowmen saw before they got spear through their chest.
How would it have been inconvenient in a line of battle? And more than probably this would have been used massively against cavalry, specially against a cavalry charge! It's like for the last 20 years or so, you haven't been watching any of the historical documentaries about the subject. At the Battle of Angincourt alone, 6000 genoese crossbowmen were employed. This particular model is not that cumbersome that it could not be carried by a single man, much less not employed easily in battle. As for protection, they would have had a pavise and another men-at-arms to carried it. Also large stakes would have been planted infront of their formations, thus allowing for an extra lager of defense. As a last resort they could always run behind their infantry force or cavalry. The model shown here is one of the last designs constructed of composite materials. Later models were made out of spring steel.
I wonder what size a weapon like this would have been downsized to for the use in field battles? I imagine a similar construction with even ~500 lb would be devastating on the battlefield.
Kind of like the anti material rifle of crossbows, bet that bolt could go through some shields back in the day, imagine you're on the other end of that behind a shield thinking you're safe then wham! A foot long bolt just punches through you and your shield. Impressive!
You may find fragment of "Book of deeds of James I of Aragon" interesting. It describes something like that and more. It has following passage: "But we sent one of our shift crossbow there, and it fired at first two Saracen into the tunnel with such a force that it killed both of them with one shot notwithstanding their shields". Particularly interesting, considering that the book is generally thought to be written by James I himself, and he'd died in 1276. The very powerful crossbows we know about are generally much, much later period, as those reproduced by Andreas Bichler. YT will delete my post if I provide a link, but the book can be found at Google Books and you can search for the passage by typing "shields" or "shift crossbow'.
Must be down to the power stroke then. As you see the other reproductions using steel bows with same draw weight and short draw having the same power as a longbow with 120 lb draw. Makes u wonder if alot of the composite crossbows were more effective than we've been led to believe. Certainly Chinese medieval ones would have been deadly as they had long draw lengths.
Great crossbow, great test. Is sound of discharge authentic? Need more!!!!!! with tensioning bench, prototype and manufacture photos (please please) and with less annoying music :(.
It’s weird that this has 200 J more than what most other test with crossbows of similar weight show (about 180 J). Is a hornbow really 2x more effective than a steel bow or would these other bows also massively benefit from heavier bolts? BTW this also is 2x stronger than the heaviest warbows of 180 lbs (which seem equivalent to what 1200 lbs crossbows in other test achieve )
Well yes, composite crossbows are a bit better, but also this is 2 times stronger than others medieval crossbows because it is 2 times bigger, so it can shoot enormous bolts with good velocity...
is that meters per second? 167 fps is about the speed of an average selfbow. but its firing a much heavier projectile. I wonder if it would be enough to defeat plate armor. that bolt is more like a spear than an arrow though.
A well made well tempered armour of the time would have been undefeatable by any impact weapon. It wasn't until the much later development of more powerful guns that armour started to become somewhat obsolete. The bulletproof armour was a concept developed to provide some sort of protection against firearms. The only means by which an armour opponent could be defeated was by attacking the openings and weak spots of the armour. The areas were armour could not cover the body properly...
@@tatumergo3931 for your information, i learned of the "Arbalète à ressort" from a French picture book called "Les Arbalètes du Moyen Age" not some lame missinformed documentary and all the heavier crossbows had clearly visible springs and coil. The most powerful one had to be reloaded or rather draw'd back with a combination of pedals and gears because otherwise it was simply too hard to draw back the string. I also had the chance to see the real thing in action and its actually more powerful then most guns. Penetrates armor as if it were made of paper.
@@tatumergo3931 i saw a live demonstration, try to deny it all you want, i don't care, because you wont change the fact i saw it happen with my own eyes.
@@tatumergo3931 Also had you actually done research you'd find out that crossbows were banned in multiple wars because they were too deadly and killed too many knights in armor.
A use in the open battlefield is difficult, because you need a big spanning device too. My sources speak about such types of crossbow only in castels or towns....
интересно как роговые полосы сокдинены в единый гладкий элемент как это все держится при нагрузках это по настоящему впечатляющее оружие большая энергия
Definitely a purposely designed Pavise for crossbows, would have been much better! But not until recently has the information and technology been available to start reconstructing one. I believe some German kid recently built one from images and descriptions found in an old treatise. Not to worry though, after the next WWIII, those of us who survive will be making plenty of shields and swords to fight the next World War...!
The hunt of elephants is a very difficult enterprise, but certainly Cape Buffalo would be taken down more easily. A Cape Buffalo is certainly a worthy beast to take down and requires much care. Even after being shot with modern high caliber rifles, the beast can turn around and charge the hunter or his party.
Respect for prepare this test, but final results is almost this same as normal bow, longbow ow strong horsebow (speed, distance). All power is going to shoot heavy belt, which have more posibility to penetrate target, but mediaval arrows can do this. Again - very nice project and great job, but this crossbow havent any advantages.
>> which have more posibility to penetrate target, but mediaval arrows can do this Nope. Imagine two stones, flying with same velocity - one is 50 gram, second is 300 gram. Which one will hurt more? Same with arrows - yes, even light arrows may hurt but this monstrosity will be devastating on the same range vs same target
For the late 14th century early 15th, and the materials/ type of construction. It was pretty good, and something not to sneeze at. Ofcourse if I had a jeep and a Thompson submachine gun at the battle of Agincourt, I would have become the king of Rome!
@@tatumergo3931 Mongol composite recurve bows existed in the same period. With that construction you get a much higher power stroke at a lower draw weight. A crossbow made from those prods are much more efficient that metal prods. I’m sure during that period Europeans had plenty of contact with mongols already.
@@MarkMiller304 . You're thinking the type of communication between people like the internet today, and jet travel across the world. Sure give me an HIMARS tank in 1453 and you would not have seen the name changing of a city! Anyways why argue with me, go ask Tod Todeschine why the power stroke on European balestras (scussi crossbows) is so short.
@@tatumergo3931 Mongol bows weren’t rocket science, literal dudes living in tents were able to make them you’re saying Europeans were too dumb to understand how they worked?
@@MarkMiller304 . Do you know how to make hollandaise sauce? It's not rocket science, you know... P. S. The point is that is a recipe which today we could easily access through the internet or at any library. But back then these were well guarded secrets. Sure they could have figured it out, and they did. The longbow was not the only archery bow in use and existence in Europe at the time. Why they did not choose to implemented in the way you described. Well there are many reasons to enumerate, but for sure we will never know. Maybe the main reason is availability of materials and cost/time of production. A longbow can be carved in hours, a crossbow in a few days. Then also take into account that the Mongolian horse bow doesn't shoot heavy arrows, at least not as heavy as longbow arrows or crossbow bolts.
