Jean Henri Chandler wrote: |
Also if his was so 'overclocked' as you say it would seem to have been an insane risk on his part to shoot the centuries old antique! |
Well. . . presumably he wasn't thinking about that at the time :p
What I was thinking is that if Gallwey really was just really lucky and happened to get his hands on some examples of a really "delicate" style of crossbow which didin't usually survive 400 years and thus doesn't show up in museums very often, that might help explain a lot of the problems Tod is running into.
Tod said earlier in this thread that examples of medieval crossbow typically have a cross-section ratio of around 3:1 or 5:1, which is a big part of the reason they seem to have such a sluggish cast. The steel bow of Payne Gallway's siege crossbow however was 2.5 inches wide and 1 inch thick at the center for a ratio of 2.5:1 (and we have no idea what the dimensions were near the tips). The steel military crossbow he says could shoot a bolt 390 yards was, in the center 1.75 inches wide and 0.75 inches thick for a ratio of 2.33:1 (and again, we don't know what the dimensions were near the tips).
I don't know if tod has tried making steel crossbows that thick before?
Henry,