[Archers] Crossbow stock rule interpretation

[Garth G. Groff]

M'Lord Siegfried and friends,

Nope. I washed out. All the stocked crossbows I could find in my two 
books were at least 17th century. Most were more modern and some even 
had triggers. I am willing to go with Siegfried on the example I cited 
as being at least 17th century.

I am reasonably certain I have seen other near-period stocked crossbows, 
but not being a crossbow shooter, it didn't register with me. I think 
now it may have been in a show on the History Channel or something like 
that. There is a wonderful private museum in London which has a 
marvelous collection of crossbows and other period arms that has been 
featured in some TV programs, but I can't remember its name. I will keep 
looking, and if I can find anything more, I will post this for everyone.

I think I see the reason medieval crossbows didn't have rifle-type 
stocks. Most of the medieval crossbows in my books shown being cocked 
has the butt braced against the archer's stomach, and so the ends are 
blunt. You can't have a pointy musket-style stock poking the archer in 
his tummy, even if he is wearing a gambezon and mail. On some later 
crossbows with narrower stocks, there is a large knob at the butt end, 
probably metal. All of the stocked crossbows shown in my books are light 
sporting models, and were cocked with a goat's foot or a built-in crank, 
so a horn-shaped butt like a 17th century musket wouldn't be an issue.

The two (mostly) crossbow books I have in my library were not of much 
help, but do have some very interesting information on crossbow history 
and illustrations of various types:

Middleton, Richard. THE PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MAN-POWERED WEAPONS AND 
AMMUNITION. New York: Skyhorse, 2007. ISBN 9781602391475.

Payne-Gallwey, Ralph. THE CROSSBOW, ITS MILITARY AND SPORTING HISTORY, 
CONSTRUCTION AND USE. New York, Skyhorse, 2007. ISBN 9781602390102.

The first book deals mainly with modern crossbows, slingshots, and even 
air guns (shades of Sherlock Holmes!). Interesting, but not particularly 
applicable to our period. The second is a reprint of a work from around 
1900. It is long on detailed illustrations, but short on good dates and 
other references. It includes crossbows, stonebows, blow pipes, Turkish 
horse bows, the Chinese repeating crossbow (dated to the 19th century), 
and even some neat siege engines. Both of these books are "remainders", 
and can be purchased for around $10-15 (IIRC) from E.R. Hamilton 
bookseller, or possibly through Amazon. For the price, they worth having 
in any Scadian archer's library.

Kind regards,


Lord Mungo Napier, Who Would Use a Latch If He Shot a Crossbow



On Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:21:42 -0400
  Siegfried <siegfried at crossbows.biz> wrote:
> In the case of this crossbow, the front sight would have to be removed.
> One assumes it is probably screwed or bolted in place. Too bad if this
> crossbow is an accurate model of an original from our period that was
> made with two sights, but those are the rules.

Lord Mungo, I'd love to see any documentation you have for crossbows in
period with two sights!   I always hear people bringing it up as a
possibility.  Or people talking in hushed tones about existing
documentation but that it needs to stay hidden.

But none of my research has ever shown a crossbow, dated in period, that
has a front sight.

There are a number that have them in 17th century, and a number of those
are unfortunately erroneously marked as 16th century sometimes in books,
but these are fairly easy to spot, due to their overall nature compared
to others of the period.

Siegfried - Crossbow Geek