big catapulta build -- myArmoury.com

Leo Todeschini · Industry Professional

I have been designing and running the build on an engineering and history tv show and last week we built a catapulta designed to shoot 1,5m bolts. The arms are 2.5 m across and the whole machine stands 3m high and the bolts weigh about 4kg. we shot it tonight and with the full length bolts it shoots 270m and with shorter bolts we got 318m.

When i get to proper computer i will post up pics and stats but right now i am just buzzing with what it did and needed to share it did and needef to share it.

I have a great pic of myself and owen bush standing infront with a bolt for scale.
Tod

Craig Johnson · Industry Professional

Glad that project came together for you. I can't wait to see the pics. Who got to pull the string on the first bolt? Eek!

Love this kind of effort to do what they did in the past and have some idea of the efforts and talents they needed to do this type of engine.

Best
Craig

Leo Todeschini · Industry Professional

Thanks Craig,

we ran two sets of arms, one championed by Owen and the other by me, so I got to shoot mine which was great.

Here is another pic of the bolts and string, but I can't post up any moe pics for now.

Tod

Scott Hanson · Posted: Fri 22 Jun, 2012 8:27 pm Post subject:

Very cool. Please keep us updated on the release; I for one would love to see the show when it airs. Not sure if that will be possible, but perhaps I can order a DVD afterwards.

I loved the show that NatGeo or History did on the recreation of War Wolf. This seems even more interesting, as I've long been fascinated by bolt throwing engines.

Johan Gemvik · Posted: Sun 24 Jun, 2012 4:17 am Post subject:

This looks very promising for some top grade entertainment!

Julien M · Posted: Sun 24 Jun, 2012 4:46 am Post subject:

Hey Tod,

Looks like you are both having a great time, and who wouldn't shooting such a monstrous device! The bolt and string let the imagination wander about the size of the weapon and damage it can make...

Nice bit of countryside behind you too, are you guys shooting in Oxford shire?

Cheers and see you around soon hopefully!

Julien

Matthew P. Adams · Posted: Sun 24 Jun, 2012 10:26 am Post subject:

Just the thing to keep gophers out of the tomato patch. Eek!

That's a great picture, the bow "string" looks thicker than your thumb! When will post some results pictures?! I'd love to see what that bolt will do!

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Sun 24 Jun, 2012 5:09 pm Post subject:

First impression: Wow those are really short people holding those arrows and bow ..... leprechauns maybe. Wink

But seriously, I would be curious to hear what these can go through at medium range like 50 to 100 yards ? Quite a few inches of oak maybe ?

Not stopping one of these with a hand held pavise I think. ( A heavy siege pavise if metal faced .... if there where such a thing, or very very thick would be needed to be safe from one of these I think ).

Looking forward to seeing more pics of the catapulta.

Leo Todeschini · Industry Professional

Hi all.

The catapulta was made for a tv show and needed a modern twist, so the version made for the show is not quite what you
would expect. However i could not resist fitting it up properly for a test shoot to see
what it could really do.

Unfortunately we could only shoot 5 or 6 shots off before we had to stop and move on to the
next project. I will post up a link on you tube in the autumn of this version; i am not
allowed yet.

I also belive that alan wilkins may be putting some informatiom about this in an
upcoming publication.

Tod

Daniel Wallace · Posted: Tue 03 Jul, 2012 9:15 am Post subject:

lobs bolts at 300 meters - holy crap man, just when you though you might be at a safe distance on the battlefield someone has to bring one of those along.

even at 300 meters i'm betting that one of those bolts will penetrate more than what you may think.

William P · Posted: Sat 07 Jul, 2012 12:22 am Post subject:

the catapaultas were also surprisingly accurate, theres a story of a seige of the israelites where an office comes up ionto the wall to see whats going on, and peeks out and immediately has his head taken off by a catapault sone, it turned out that a roman crew had sighted in on that exact spot and were just waiting for someone to poke their head up.