A bullet-shooting crossbow, also known as prodd, [1] pelletbow, ballester, stone bow, or rock-throwing crossbow, is a modified version of the classic crossbow. The bow was usually constructed with wood or steel, depending on the preference. It typically utilizes bullets and stones as projectiles instead of the more traditional bolt or quarrel.
The crossbow has been around since the 5th century BC. China was the first to create the hand-held crossbow. The ammunition of choice was the bolt and was often made of bronze. It was used effectively as a weapon both in battle and for hunting. [2] As powerful a weapon as the crossbow was, it didn’t have the capability of hunting smaller animals like birds, squirrels, and rabbits. As a weapon, the bolt crossbow was much more popular and therefore more widely developed than the bullet-shooting crossbow. Consequently, the standard crossbow was more frequently updated with new ammunition, attachments, and other improvements, leaving the bullet-shooting crossbow in the past. [3] However, in discussing astronomical topics such as solar and lunar eclipses, the Western-Han era Chinese mathematician and music theorist Jing Fang (78-37 BC) wrote that the moon, shaped like a ball, produced no light and was illuminated only by the sun, which he compared to the shape of a round crossbow bullet. [4]
The earliest known bullet-shooting crossbow was invented in the 16th century. It was a simple, two-string crossbow that shot small projectiles. The earliest forms of ammunition included clay balls, which were rolled and baked to form round, hard bullets. The bow’s primary purpose was to shoot birds, as conventional weapons lacked the ability to effectively hunt flying prey. [5] The lighter projectiles from a pellet bow flew faster, so the shooter had a better chance of hitting a moving target.
One of the most important changes to the bullet-shooting crossbow was the strong, upwardly curved bow. [5] This allowed the strings and pouch, which hold and launch the bullet, to be placed away from the rest of the gun. This allowed for a straighter stock or body of the crossbow, which utilizes stronger springs to launch bullets faster and more accurately.
Though it was used extensively for hunting, the bullet-shooting crossbow wasn't significantly improved until the late 18th century. The English changed the design to allow for a more powerful spring and larger ammunition. The bow was adapted to shoot half ounce lead bullets, which are more accurate and do much more damage than stones and clay pellets. [5]
The bullet-shooting crossbow featured many similarities to the slingshot, a similar weapon. Both feature a pouch that holds a small projectile. In comparison tests, the bullet-shooting crossbow only shoots slightly faster, but much more accurately than the slingshot. [5] A catapult is faster and can be quite accurate, but is not as powerful as the stronger pellet bows and elastic is a relatively modern invention.
With the invention of safe, more powerful, and more accurate rifles, the bullet-shooting crossbow became obsolete shortly after. By the time the 19th century came around, the bow appeared to be on its way out. Gunpowder is much more powerful and destructive than a crossbow, and guns quickly became the new weapon of choice both for hunting and war.
Because most bullet-shooting crossbows use small bullets, the bullet-shooting crossbow was used primarily for hunting. The small caliber rounds are perfect for killing animals like birds and rats. Being a crossbow, it doesn't give off much sound. Even though more powerful weapons were invented, like the air gun, the bullet-shooting crossbow was used extensively throughout history because it wasn't loud enough to scare prey off. [6]
Many intended to use the bullet-shooting crossbow as a weapon, but it had its limitations. While the bow worked well on small animals like squirrels and birds, it was not powerful enough to be a reliable weapon in war. The velocity was too low for the bullets or stone to pierce skin, and therefore it didn’t cause much damage to humans. The bullet-shooting crossbow had the potential to fracture skulls, but as this was the only effective way to take down the enemy, the bullet-shooting crossbow didn't match up with the standard crossbow, firing bolts or quarrels in wartime. [5]
In addition to the low-velocity shots of the bullet-shooting crossbow, the projectiles were not as effective as the bolt on the standard crossbow. The sharp bolts of the crossbow did more damage than the slow-moving, blunt bullets of the bullet-shooting crossbow. [6] Because the standard bolt does more damage, the bullet-shooting crossbow was reserved for hunting smaller animals. There was no reason to use a bolt-shooting crossbow to hunt squirrels when a smaller, less-powerful weapon could get the job done just as effectively.
Another flaw lies in the material of choice: steel. Steel bows require more energy to return the bow to its original position and therefore deliver less energy to the shot itself. Bows made of wood typically shot much faster than those made of steel. [7]
A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a prod, mounted horizontally on a main frame called a tiller, which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long gun. Crossbows shoot arrow-like projectiles called bolts or quarrels. A person who shoots crossbow is called a crossbowman or an arbalist.
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with both hands and braced firmly against the shooter's shoulder via a buttstock for stability during shooting. Rifles are used extensively in warfare, law enforcement, hunting, shooting sports and crime.
A shotgun is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small spherical projectiles called shot, or a single solid projectile called a slug. Shotguns are most commonly used as smoothbore firearms, meaning that their gun barrels have no rifling on the inner wall, but rifled barrels for shooting sabot slugs are also available.
A sling is a projectile weapon typically used to throw a blunt projectile such as a stone, clay, or lead "sling-bullet". It is also known as the shepherd's sling or slingshot. Someone who specializes in using slings is called a slinger.
A slingshot or catapult is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame, with two natural rubber strips or tubes attached to the upper two ends. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pouch that holds the projectile. One hand holds the frame, while the other hand grasps the pocket and draws it back to the desired extent to provide power for the projectile—up to a full span of the arms with sufficiently long bands.
Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon. Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can be considered acts of shooting. When using a firearm, the act of shooting is often called firing as it involves initiating a combustion (deflagration) of chemical propellants.
A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made in various shapes and constructions, including specialized functions such as hunting, target shooting, training, and combat. Bullets are often tapered, making them more aerodynamic. Bullet size is expressed by weight and diameter in both imperial and metric measurement systems. Bullets do not normally contain explosives but strike or damage the intended target by transferring kinetic energy upon impact and penetration.
An air gun or airgun is a gun that using energy from compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized and released as propellant for the chosen projectiles. This is in contrast to a firearm, which fires projectiles using energy by burning combustible propellants, most often gunpowder.
Terminal ballistics is a sub-field of ballistics concerned with the behavior and effects of a projectile when it hits and transfers its energy to a target.
The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles (arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was common to many prehistoric cultures. They were important weapons of war from ancient history until the early modern period, where they were rendered increasingly obsolete by the development of the more powerful and accurate firearms. Today, bows and arrows are mostly used for hunting and sports.
An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as signaling.
A shotgun shell, shotshell or simply shell is a type of rimmed, cylindrical (straight-walled) cartridges used specifically in shotguns, and is typically loaded with numerous small, pellet-like spherical sub-projectiles called shot, fired through a smoothbore barrel with a tapered constriction at the muzzle to regulate the extent of scattering. A shell can sometimes also contain only a single large solid projectile known as a slug. The hull usually consists of a paper or plastic tube often covered at the base by a metallic head cover which retains a primer, and the shot charge is typically contained by a wadding/sabot inside the case. The caliber of the shotshell is known as its gauge.
Accurizing is the process of improving the accuracy and precision of a gun.
A shotgun slug is a heavy projectile made of lead, copper, or other material and fired from a shotgun. Slugs are designed for hunting large game, and other uses, particularly in areas near human population where their short range and slow speed helps increase safety margin. The first effective modern shotgun slug was introduced by Wilhelm Brenneke in 1898, and his design remains in use today. Most shotgun slugs are designed to be fired through a cylinder bore, improved cylinder choke, rifled choke tubes, or fully rifled bores. Slugs differ from round ball lead projectiles in that they are stabilized in some manner.
Hunting weapons are weapons designed or used primarily for hunting game animals for food or sport, as distinct from defensive weapons or weapons used primarily in warfare.
The crossbow often has a complicated legal status due to its potential use for lethal purposes, and its similarities with both firearms and other archery weapons. The crossbow is, for legal purposes, often categorized as a firearm by various legal jurisdictions, despite the fact that no combustion is required to propel the projectile.
It is not clear where and when the crossbow originated, but it is believed to have appeared in China and Europe around the 7th to 5th centuries BC. In China the crossbow was one of the primary military weapons from the Warring States period until the end of the Han dynasty, when armies composed of up to 30 to 50 percent crossbowmen were not unheard of. The crossbow lost much of its popularity after the fall of the Han dynasty, likely due to the rise of the more resilient heavy cavalry during the Six Dynasties. One Tang dynasty source recommends a bow to crossbow ratio of five to one as well as the utilization of the countermarch to make up for the crossbow's lack of speed. The crossbow countermarch technique was further refined in the Song dynasty, but crossbow usage in the military continued to decline after the Mongol conquest of China. Although the crossbow never regained the prominence it once had under the Han, it was never completely phased out either. Even as late as the 17th century, military theorists were still recommending it for wider military adoption, but production had already shifted in favor of firearms and traditional composite bows.
The following are terms related to firearms and ammunition topics.
An underwater firearm is a firearm designed for use underwater. They are in the arms inventories of many nations. A common feature of underwater firearms or needleguns is that they fire flechettes or spear-like bolts instead of standard bullets. These may be fired by pressurised gas.
Varmint rifle is an English term for a small-caliber precision firearm or high-powered airgun primarily used for both varmint hunting and pest control. These tasks include killing three types of pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock: