[Archers] Crossbow tripod

[Siegfried]

Yes, beautiful pictures, and thank you for sharing.

The crossbows they are shooting I've seen referred to in some books as
"half bows".

In 15th century Germany for example, you start seeing classification of
crossbows with full, half, and quarter bows.

Quarter bows, are what we traditionally shoot today, meant to be
hand-held only.   The Half Bows, like those shown in those pictures,
were so long (and powerful) as to really need support to be accurately
fired.  You 'could' hold them by hand, but using a shooting bench like
shown was more likely.  I actually haven't found any period descriptions
of "half bows" being used for target use.  Only for defensive military
fortifications.

IIRC, that crossbow guild, shoots in a castle and their traditions go
back to those who defended the castle wanting to practice their art.

Then you have the full bows, often known as Great Crossbows.  Which were
monstrosities that looked just like the crossbows you see today
proportionally, but were 6ft long.  These were full siege equipment, and
required crews of at least 2 people to operate them.

Siegfried


On 6/6/11 11:45 AM, Garth G. Groff wrote:
> M'Lord Siegfried and friends,
> 
> Agreed. And after I made my post, I found a more detailed picture on
> their site which shows how their crossbows attach. It is almost like a
> mounting for a machine gun, in that  the crossbow has a large swivel pin
> which fits into a metal hole in the stand. However, like I said it isn't
> exactly the tripod we were originally discussing, but the concept of
> locking the crossbow into some sort of mount is what I understood we
> were originally talking about.
> 
> Still, I hope all of you who were interested enjoyed looking at the
> site. They seem like a very serious group, and we could all learn
> something useful from what they do, whether it is history, costume, or
> their shooting competitions.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> 
> Lord Mungo Napier, Shire of Isenfir TA Marshal
> 
> On 6/6/2011 11:02 AM, Siegfried wrote:
>> I can say for myself, that the special made shooting stations that those
>> people use, is certainly not what I am talking about.  Those are not
>> portable at all, (IE, a shooter wouldn't be carrying that around from
>> station to station at a competition) and if ever appeared for an event
>> would be for a custom shoot where it was provided to all.
>>
>> My post was referring to simple wooden sticks ... or slightly enhanced
>> versions with a V at the top, such as seen here:
>> http://is.gd/kIA4cP (URL shortened)
>>
>> When discussing tripods, I am discussing simple wooden ones, such as:
>> http://is.gd/T8AjSe  or  http://is.gd/dDv4YI
>>
>> ( And there's also bipod versions: http://is.gd/m9psgE )
>>
>> My own experiments in the past were with a simple stick, ala a walking
>> stick.
>>
>> Siegfried
>>
>>
>> On 6/6/11 7:44 AM, Garth G. Groff wrote:
>>> Noble friends of the bow,
>>>
>>> While this isn't exactly a tripod, the shooting stand used by the
>>> Federazione Balestrieri Sammarinesi gives you a pretty good idea of what
>>> we've been discussing:
>>> http://www.federazionebalestrieri.sm/page.aspx?x=GUGbmI7OPWV15JD19XfuNmD5F39HS68b04GTwHGrt8osY9%2bgokAVmQ%3d%3d
>>>
>>> . Thumb through is album and you will see how they shoot their
>>> competitions. It is pretty hard to miss the target with a rig like this.
>>>
>>> Even if you aren't a crossbow shooter, you might enjoy exploring their
>>> site:
>>> http://www.federazionebalestrieri.sm/home.aspx?x=k3ZKA5hfSVvR9n6sxLjPlyDarO1cuodb
>>>
>>> . Lots of interesting costumes and pagentry.
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>>
>>>
>>> Lord Mungo Napier, Shire of Isenfir TA Marshal
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> 
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-- 
Barun Siegfried Sebastian Faust - Barony of Highland Foorde - Atlantia
http://hf.atlantia.sca.org/ - http://crossbows.biz/ - http://eliw.com/