Picture 1. Daniel Higson, Author of “The Bullet Crossbow" pictured in 1923 witha bullet ‘rosshow by Foster of Presion Introduction With the above words Sir Toby Belch uses an alternative name for the bullet crossbow, which has also been called the “pellet crossbow” or the “prod”, the latter ‘an old English name, The bullet crossbow's probable origin was in China, and it is thought to have been introduced to Europe in the 16° Century. The above quotation ‘evidences its antiquity and, to reinforce this, I was once offered a set of strings from a bullet crossbow allegedly taken from the ‘Spanish Armada (1588), carrying a 200 year old letter as provenance, Basically, the bullet crossbow is identical to the standard bolt-firing crossbow, except that it has two strings held apart by short stretchers, and joined together at the ‘centre by a leather or heavy cloth strip which constitutes the pouch for carrying the sto or bullet, Early 17° Century examples tend to have straight stocks, sometimes ag in aball, and underlever triggers, gland in the late 18° and early 19° century, they developed a more conventional rifle stock and trigger arrangement as in pictures 1 & 2. They were popular in the 19° and early 20° centuries for shooting rooks out of trees, their rapidly decaying trajectory being less marked when fired near vertically. The almost complete silence ‘of operation was also most suitable for use in a rookery, or indeed for the illi harvesting of pheasants in the undergrowth! THE BULLET CROSSBOW By David I. H. Johnstone “Oh for a stone bow, to hit him in the eye!” The popularity of the bullet crossbow appears to have centred on the north of England, most commonly encountered makers being Fosters, Burrow, and Caton, all of Preston, and Bolton of Wigan. Indeed, I posses a 19° Century label by Thomas Jackson & Son claiming to be the only makers of patent steel crossbows in London! Perhaps this northerly preference was dictated by economic factors, rook pie being a poor man’s fare, and the lack of powder requirement of the crossbow possibly seen as a real nancial benefit. In 1850, the cost of a bullet crossbow however, was not cheap at around 7 guineas, ($10, about the cost of a Colt 1851 Navy), whereas today you can pick up a reasonable example for £500 ($700). I first encountered the bullet crossbow when I obtained one by Fosters of Preston at an auction a few years ago. It was unstrung, as they usually are (or with an old string in advance stages of deterioration!), but I was anxious to fire it for reasons of curiosity. The answer ccame at a later arms fair when I found a rare and entertaining old book called “The Bullet Crossbow” by one Daniel Higson (Picture 1), in which all the mysteries were revealed! Construction The main components of the English 19° Century bullet crossbow are shown in Picture 2, These are, working from forend to stock: 1. The foresight known as the “Goalposts” or, more accurately, “Grains”. These are snap up/down and must be down for ‘Shakespeare; Twelfth Night. cocking. The posts are tempered steel, and ‘a moveable bead sight is mounted on a string or wire between them. The wire can be moved up and down for sight calibration 2. Bow or lathe, made from tempered steel 3. String and pouch, constructed as below 4, Lock in forward position attached to pouch loop, 5. Rear leaf sight with four apertures in ‘extended position 6. Cocking lever, attached to the lock, in forward position. It must be back down and locked into the stock before firing. Stringing “This is the most critical part ofthe operation ofa bullet crossbow and can be found in incredible detail in Mr. Higso took, although itis sometimes diffu to follow. I have therefore paraphrased it Somewhat, and have used moder materials Teanga creeks Coking cumple, and have taken one or two shorteus, not necessarily tothe betietment ofthe system, Picture 2, Detailed drawing of an English bullet crossbow from the first half of the 19° Century Board of Trastees of the Armouries Spring 2001but Ican assure the reader that it does work! “Mr Higson recommends sailmaker's sewing twine number 16, but, uncertain whether this could still be found and sure that if it could it would be with some difficulty, I used 30lb B.S. sea fishing Dacron, which does not stretch, and, I was to find, worked admirably. Mr. Higson recommends making up the string on a template whose arms are the saame distance apart as the notches on the bow, this having the advantage that the eyes can be whipped before installing. However, as this requires some bow bending device to fit it, Telected to tie the string in situ, and, because of this, had to omit whipping the eyes. Nevertheless, by the time the ‘operation was finished, the string was good and tight and remained so, ‘To start, ran the Dacron from notch to notch of the bow taking 40 tums, and finishing it off with a reef knot. Itis a good {dea at this stage to tie the top and bottom. strings into separate hanks with short pieces of Dacron, asa temporary measure. ‘Then, from a distance of around two inches from the centre point, commence whipping the hanks with the Dacron, for about 4 inches outward, top and bottom, left and right. Next stage is to fix the stretchers (or stringers), These I made from 5/16” brass rod, cutting two pieces each 1-3/4" long and with a 3/16” wide slot cut in from each end about 3/8” deep. These slots I filed smooth, to avoid fretting the string, then I inserted the stretchers about an inch to the outside of where the whipping finished, lashing them into place and whipping about ‘one inch either side, Then I brought the upper and lower hanks together outboard of the stretchers and whipped them firmly inplace towards the bow notches. Not being. able to get close to the end with the whipping, I did a few tight hitches to form ‘an eye around the notch. You can see most of this in picture 3 Finally, the pouch has to be fitted. Firstly I made separate loops, one around the top and one around the bottom string, in the centre. I did this by using a small ‘Tabasco sauce bottle and wrapping forty tums of Dacron around the bottle and the string. The loops so formed should be whipped to the strings for about one inch, then both brought together and whipped at the centre to form acral. A curved needle is essential for this operation. For the pouch, ‘The Texas Gun Clesor Picture 3. Close-up of my stringing! Tused a three-inch piece of sling webbing, drilled some holes at regular distances along the edges with a red-hot wire, and tied it into place inside the cradle. No sides are needed to the pouch as the faces pull together and hold the ball in place during cocking The above is about a full day's work. Shooting So now we have our bullet crossbows, how do we shoot them? A lead ball would be the preferred ‘ammunition, although clay balls or even stones have been used. Higson calls up a 36 to 40 bore ball, and I used a 50 cal ball in my experiments. Before cocking, make sure the trains (foresight) are down, for safety reasons, then raise the cocking lever out of the butt, bringing the lock and loop hook forward to pick up the loop. Before pulling back on the cocking lever, insert the ballin the pouch, as you will not be able once itis cocked. Then pull the lever ‘back and lock it down into the butt, You ‘can now raise the grains and rear leaf sight, and you are ready to shoot Sighting is done by viewing the front bead through one of the three or four apertures in the rear leaf, trial and error finding the right combination of aperture and bead position. Once you have found the correct rear aperture, you are recommended to block the others wi wax! [have to say I found it very difficult to sight, the trajectory being very much ‘downward, as occasioned by the angle of the bow and low velocity. I found myself aiming instinctively shotgun-style, and as such I was able, with practice, t hit a gallon paint can at ten paces! Higson claims that they can be set to be very accurate at short distances, and quotes “ ‘candle can be snuffed at about a dozen paces"! Powers also disappointing, my paint can receiving a fair dent, perhaps enough to incapacitate a rook, but not much more. Another bullet crossbow expert, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey stated (Bibliography 2. p97) that, a 32 bore ball, shot at an iron disc at ‘distance of one yard, would be flattened into a hemisphere. He also claimed that he could hit a playing card eight times out of ten at 20 yards. Perhaps my old crossbow had lost some of its temper. 1 find it surprising that today, when the crossbow is experiencing something of a revival in the UK, the bullet crossbow has. sunk without trace, not having been used to any real extent for about 70 years. Perhaps. its uses are too restricted. After all, no one cats rook pie any more! Bibliography 1. The Bullet Crossbow” by Danie! Higson, pub. Chorley: WJ. Sandford, 1923. 2. “European Crossbows ~ a Survey by Joseph Alm” Royal Armouries Monograph 3 pub. Henry Ling Ltd., The Dorset Press, Dorset. 1998 Picture 2 by kind permission of Royal Armouries, Leeds, UK. a ‘Spring 2001