Crossbows: They Look Cool

and we're just going to start talking about it. You're ready, Chuck, I'm spinning the wheel and stop. Oh shoot, what is it? Almost landed on the batmobile? Oh? What is it? Instead? I can't I can't be bothered to look to the right crossbows? Okay, how crossbows work? All right, let's start talking just off the top of my head, Chuck. Have you ever seen the TV show Walk King Dead? Awesome show in nice choice of weapon. I know you saw it. I just got into it. You mean I watched the

first six episodes the first season. It's so good. Have you started season two yet? Not? Yes? So don't tell me anything. Okay, I don't want to know if Nick Fisher dies, they're still zombies out there. Okay, good, okay, good, Although I have to say I'm not very happy with that one subplot of like the sexual tension subplot, that

conflict that's brewing and hasn't really so um. But overall, I think it's an awesome show, and I think, like you said, Darryl Dixon's choice of weapon is pretty awesome. If not very practical, it's pretty awesome. And that is Yeah. Yeah, it is quiet because you don't want to alert the zombies the geeks, but he has a finite amount of arrows or bolts that he has to go retrieve from the heads of zombies that he's just shot between the

eyes after they fall. I thought was him. I'd hit up a hardware store or a sporting good store, get a bunch of those like in Red Dawn. Yeah, load up. Yeah. Every time I watched that show, I keep telling Emily, I'm like, they have everything they want. Like there, it's like a struggle to get gas. There's cars everywhere, and it hasn't been that long. It's not like a hundred years after where everything has been rated. There's still stuff everywhere. Yeah,

and there's very few people to raid. Yeah, it's fine, alright, go get some arrows. They're reusable. In fact, the shot in Atlanta. I'll tell him where you can pick them up. Norman read us an email. Where would you send him? Go to? Uh, Thick Sporting Goods okay, ten ten for a dollar, not the mom and pop a army navy stores. Uh yeah, I would go to one of those supports small business exactly. Go to Bob's Bolt House. I love Bob's in the bolt district. Uh, it's so Chuck. You've

seen a crossbow before? Then? Yeah, I want to buy one after this? Yeah, I kind of like when to. I don't know that either of us should be trusted with one. Um. Obviously somebody took a bow, bow and arrow, slapped it on top of a rifle and said, I just made me a crossbow. That's what happened, and it's probably a very recent origin. The end, good night, not true, Josh Liar. Archaeologists like Indiana Jones have found crossbows as far back as year old Chinese graves. Isn't that crazy?

That is crazy? Um? And they think that it may be as much as four thousand years old. That that technology in China two thousand BC. Perhaps um. They appeared in the Mediterranean by the fourth century. A d Roman military used them. Was written down in the in the text I love this guy's name of Flavius Vegeta, Vegetius vegetis renatus. His family invented broccoli. They called him flave though you know they did. Uh. They were all over

Europe during the Middle Ages. The crossbow was basically like you said, rifle meets bow, right, But this is long before anybody thought of a rifle. That's true. But I mean think about it, you like, that's what you think it is. It's got like a trigger and there's a stock and all that stuff. But it's it. It predates the rifle by many thousands of years. Didn't Vinci draw one of these up to Yeah, it's a it's a

page zero art chuck. Um. The there's a common among the Mediterranean and the Chinese crossbow where the bow obviously the stock which is also called the tiller, and um the a groove in the stock or the tiller that the arrow or bolt flew down. Um a trigger, but the trigger mechanisms were different. Apparently, if you were in the Mediterranean, you were trigger firing. Your trigger triggered the

firing mechanism by uh not twisted nuts, right, Okay. If you were in China, it used some bolts and levers system of levers that fired the released the string and fired the bolt. And these firing mechanisms are different enough that archaeologists believe that they were independently conceived of in China and in the Mediterranean. That's pretty cool. Yeah, uh most Another common device you'd see most often is a stirrup.

And if you ever look at a crossbow, you'll notice that it has a little steel stirrup on the front of it where you can put I was trying to think of them, but it's a stirrup. So what you do is you put it on the ground and put your little foot in that stirrup so you can hold it down real tight, and you and you pull it back, pull the draw string back with both hands apparently equally on both sides. It's important because you don't want it

out to whack. You know, if it's off balance, the air is not gonna fly right now or true meat. And so you pull it back and you hook it on a You know, they're all different, but you hook it on a little peg device that will be released by pulling the trigger. And that's the basic fundamentals. So the crossbow doesn't just look cool, it has somebody. It does look very cool and has it poses some actual

advantages over the bow. And the bow has been around since before people even knew how to write, or knew that there was such thing as writing, because there wasn't yet. Um. And so what the crossbow does is it takes the bow and all of its disadvantages and says, well, here, let me add this, and let me add that, let me change this a little bit, and all of a sudden, now any fat slob can shoot a bow and arrow. Yeah,

if you got a bow. If you if you're not, if you're traditional bowman or an archer, is bow and even a word, I think it is now a right. If you're traditional archer, you are probably pretty strong, and you might be sort of tall, and you are pretty quick, because um, it's pretty quick process to draw up the bow, aim it, and shoot it. You've seen Lord of the Rings,

seeing Lord of the Rings. But the longer it takes you to aim, the more tired you're gonna your little arms are gonna be the less accurate you're gonna be with a with a crossbow. You know, you can cock that thing and you're done, right, It just sits there cocked indefinitely until you pull the trigger. Yeah. I wouldn't walk around like that unless you're like a hunter maybe

or some jerk. Yeah, but don't do it in your backyard. Um. So it takes that that need for endurance, yeah, in in you know, holding it waiting for somebody to come around the bend. And yes, and like you said, it also introduced a whole new, uh subpar breed of warrior because if you are a great archer, that means, like I said, you're probably strong, probably a little bit taller for the age because people are shorter. Back then, long bow was stronger, shot, straighter, and further. So you want

to use a long bow. But you know, if you got a crossbow, if you can pull that thing back, that's all you need to do. But sometimes you didn't need need to pull that thing back. Well, you can pull that thing back generally because you're using a stirrup, right, which means you're using your foot and if you have a little hook attached to your belt, then you're you're doing a squat and that's how you're pulling, That's how

you're cocking the crossbow. Right. Well, I imagine it's probably like a dwarf or maybe an elf, like you know, elves are kind of undeveloped. Um, but you're you're standing up basically to cock the bow the crossbow, and um, you're using your buttocks and your thigh muscles, which are the strongest muscles in your body. So you could just be like a total upper body woods but ripped from the waist down. You're a cross bowman or a cross archer.

That's true. But what I was saying was was the krannikin sometimes you didn't have to pull it back at all, because in fourteenth century Europe they began making this thing, this device called a crann Akin that you could put on your crossbow, had little toothed wheel and a crank and it would basically pull the string back for you. You're just cranking it like you're opening, um, your grandmother's windows at her house, you know, like the little crank thing.

But as you're doing that, it's cocking the bow. But it's cocking a bow that you couldn't possibly cock yourself, which means that you're about to shoot a bolt that can go right through a tree or pretty significantly deep into a tree, or better yet, into a war horse or the human being. That's right. The problem is it takes forever to crank the crann akin, and in some cases some models, you had to crank the krann akin, get it cocked, and then remove the crann akin, put

the bolt in and then shoot. So it was very powerful, but it was very slow, which is one disadvantage of a crossbow. I wouldn't have wanted went back in the day, No, But if you were in China and you wanted to get some shots off pretty quick, they had a crossbow for you. They had an automatic crossbows. If that shot several bolts a second, it had a magazine that would just feed bolts into the into the crossbow, which would

um cock through level levers. The moment it was cocked, it would shoot the bolt, and then another bolt would come down, and the moment it was cocked another bolt, it would shoot it, and so on, and so if you were going really fast you could just rain bolts down on somebody. The problem is, um it was fast, but it wasn't very accurate, and it wasn't very deadly, but it probably scared the tar out of people who saw it. And the bolt didn't travel that fast. It

was fast to shoot, but not fast in flight. But I've tried to find a picture of that thing because I could not fathom it in my brain, and I couldn't find any obviously because it was a long time ago before it was pre pictures. Right. Uh, let's talk about physics, Josh, because this is my favorite thing to do. Well, this is a Trace E. Wilson article, So of course there's going to be a section on the physics of crossbows. There is. Um, So, a bow is basically a spring?

Did you know that I used to shoot? Did you really you knew that a bow is basically a spring? Well? Sure, I read that like four times. Really, yeah, I think that's very neat. So like to take a bed spring, all right? And I heard you. I heard that you used to shoot. I want to know about it, but I'm just like knee deep in the physics. Now, um, you take a spring, you stretch it out. What you've

just done is um generate? Well you haven't generated it, but you've just somehow amassed elastic energy, potential energy, potential energy through the elasticity of the spring. Okay, as you're holding it, all of that energy is potential. It's like, just let me go and I'll do some crazy stuff. So much potential. The moment you're like, oh, the potential energy becomes kinnectic energy. I believe we talked a lot about this roller coasters. Um. The same thing with the bow.

When you pull a string, it's connected to either end of the bow. You're pulling the bow back, you're changing its shape. It's slick a spring being stretched out, but in this case, the bow is just being brought together the limbs um and then when you let go, the bow springs back to its original shape, drawing Suddenly the string highly taught. You have an arrow attached to that string, and it sends that arrow shooting forward at incredible speeds. The physics of a bow also apply to the physics

of a crossbow. Yeah, and if you never thought about it, it's it is interesting because it's not a little toy string that's elastic string stays the same length. You know, right, you're pulling the pulling the limbs together, and then when you let go, the limbs go away from you very suddenly. The amount of energy of boken hole, Josh, you can figure that out. Actually, it's draw weight is the amount of force required to draw it back and straw length.

It's a distance between the bowstrings position at rest and when drawn. And the total amount of energy that the bow can hold is approximately equal to the draw wait times draw length divided by two. Yeah. And then usually that's that's expressed in um jewels, footpounds or jewels. Yeah, I was getting around. No, that's the bow's energy. Um. You can also impress a cross bowman by talking about the errors velocity, which is measured in feet or meters

per second. That's right. And a lot of things can affect this. Obviously, if you have a long bow, it's gonna be more powerful than a short boat because it just makes sense. So the size affects it, the shape affects it. A recurve bow, which is one of the ones I had grown up, is uh, it doesn't just come back into you. It comes back into you then flares back out away from the other direction. Yeah. Um.

And at the top end bottom right. And what this does is it shortens the bracing height, which is the distance between this ring and the bow when it's at rest, which means that since that's shorter, when you pull the string back and release it, it has a longer distance to travel before it comes to a stop, which means it gives that arrow or bolt a little extra push. Right. And also the recurved bow uh makes the bow even string springing ear adds a little spring to it. Step

composition is another thing, Josh. Density intensil strength determine how much energy it holds. And uh, obviously back in the day they made him from things like you y e w very strong and very elastic. Not you, not you, but you. Modern bows a lot a lot of times are composite bows, which means, when they need it to be rigid, they'll make it out of one material. When they need it to be flexible, they'll make it out

of something else. And then they put it all together to make a killing machine, exactly to make a zombie killing machine. Uh. And then there are compound bow those which I had one of those two. A compound boat is uses pulleys, little wheels and pulleys to make it easier to pull back and hold once you get it there. And that's called the let off once it reaches a certain point. Do you ever shot a compoundbo I have? And that that sensation of pulling and then all of

a sudden, there's no resistance like this. Basically this very cool was cocked. It's a very cool feeling, like I could hold this all day. Not all day, but it is very cool. And I had one of those, and I had a regular little record alright. Now, my dad he gets into phases. He got into a bow and arrow, He got into an archery phase and built a thing on on our property. And you know, as my dad does, he went out and bought like a seven hundred dollar compound boat. Yeah yeah, but he bought me like a

little miniature versions of everything he got. And he was a principal at my school, like I've mentioned, so he had like, all of a sudden, there was an archery program at school, and uh it was fun. Man, I shot a lot of arrows growing up. Did you hunt anything? No, not a hunter targets. Did you have a crossbow? Uh no, never even shot a crossbow. But I had a little compound and a little recurve. That's very cool. But after this article, I'm dying to shoot a crossbow. Yeah, I

don't know anybody who has one. I bet, I bet bet you do. Is there like a whole like a group of people that had crossbowsy, and I'm not familiar. I bet Matt Frederick has a crossbow. Man, do you have a crossbow? No? He did, never a crossbow. Um, he has a laser gun though, the functioning laser gun. That will just disintegrate to you. Um, let's talk safety, Chuck. In this article, Tracy Um turns into Tommy Lee Jones and No Country for Old Man when she says do

not point when at anything you do not plan to shoot. Yeah. I don't like that rule. I think it should be that. And you don't point it at anyone period. Okay. I was gonna say, like it as an account for just goofing around. Yeah, that's that's the what they say with every gun is don't point it at someone unless you plan to shoot them. But my rule of thumbs, don't point it at anyone. Because a crossbow. I looked it up to see if it was a good home security feature.

It's not your insurance come to be, Like, wait, what you wanted us to reduce it because you have a crossbow. They make a little pistol ones too, with a little short had a pistol one, No, he had a bow caster. It's like a pistol. Call, it's like a pistol crossbow, right, and then it shoots energy. Okay, but it's the shape of a crossbow. That's a pistol. I thought it didn't have a stock. I thought it was a pistol. Was it. Maybe it's just so big it looked like a pistol

on him. We'll hear about this one for sure. Man. Uh safety, Josh, you want to place the stirrup at the ground. I don't want to point it at you at all, or have a friend hold the stirrup while you cock. It's terrible. No, no, no, no, I'm saying, do not do that. You do not do that. You want to point it to the ground. Put the stirrup on the ground. Put your foot in the stirrup. You want to brace it very firmly. Sure your foots all the way in there. Because this is a lot of energy,

potential energy you're building up here. Um. Like I said you earlier, you want to grab it, pull it equally on both sides, lock it into place, and the modern crossbow will automatically have a little safety that that happens there, and there may be an additional safety that you can set after that, which is good. You um also want to stand out of the way of the front of the bow. And I'm not just saying in the path

of the arrow, but that bow. Remember it's stretched towards you when this when the string is cocked or when the string is pulled back, and when you release it, the bow flies forward and outward, and if your hands there, it's going to smack it and probably break every bone in it. And also if you're hunting or you're shooting a target from behind a tree, um, you don't want the uh the crossbows bow to smack into the tree or else is probably going to break the bow. That's right,

it's pricey. And never dry fire. Yeah I didn't. I knew that just from common sense. Most types of things that you shoot you shouldn't dry fire. But that means shooting it without a bolt. But it's made to shoot a bolt. It's configured to shoot the weight of a bolt. So when you shoot it dry that waits not there, so you could potentially break your bolt. And Tracy points out that dry firing voids nearly all manufacturers warranties, so don't try fire. And again, never go for the extended warranty.

And if you haven't listened to the Extended Warranty podcast yet, should go back and listen to. It's pretty good, really, Yeah, Man, I didn't know they were good back then. Yeah, they're good, all right. Yeah, because we just took this completely boring topic and really went to town on it. It was a good one, Chuck. The last piece of safety advice is get a bolt that has rated for your crossbow. Well, yeah, because you don't want to. You can't just put any

size and weight in there. It's figured very specifically exactly. You can't just say, man, look at that big bolt, let me put that thing in here. Yeah, so when the zombie apocalypse comes, you better know what your crossbow is rated for. Um, and don't drive on the auto bonn in tires that are rated for a lower speed than what your car can drive. Things you should know. Uh, if you want to know more about the Auto bon I just change the name of our show, by the

way you did. If if you want, do you want to tell them the real stuff? You should know Okay, if you want to know more about the Autobahn, extended warranties, and crossbows, you can type any one of those three or all three together and see what comes up in the handy search bar at how stuff Works dot com and uh that means now, friends, it's time for listener mail. Josh. This is another soldier shout out work suckers for those

and the one Norman Torsia to day we mentioned. I forgot to mention that's the dude that I sent the jump drive to. Okay, with every single one of our podcast on it. Man, that must have been a huge jump. It was about as big as my pinky. And you know I did it because he asked. You are going to be doing that a lot more often now. I have a feeling that you have to prove that you're saving lives and Afghanistan in order to get that. So this is from another dude. This is from Sergeant Gabriel Everhard.

Greetings from Iraq. I'm writing you today from the Center of Civilization a k a. The Fertile Crescent, Iraq. I'm a combat engineer in the U. S. Army. On my second combat tour, I've had the opportunity to have wireless internet and have been downloading many of your podcasts and I listened each evening during the day while on patrol and m R A P Mine resistant Armored Patrol em RAP. I've heard that these are like hurt locker dudes I

make I'm not positive. I relayed the plot. I relayed the podcast I listened to the night before over the headset to the guys. It is great for breaking up monotony of looking for ied ease. Oh yeah, I guess they are hurt look at guys, huh and talking about the usual army related stories. My soldiers have learned about many interesting things like human cannonballers, schizophrenia, parkour, and con artists. They especially like the play by play on shrinking human heads.

I bet they did. Uh. In summary on behalf of myself and my soldiers just wanted to extend our thanks to both you guys. Sitting in a convoy of vehicles with the same dudes for up to twelve hours a day, it's kind of like taking a year long road trip, but on the same roads. Well, it's sort of like a Twilight Zone episode. And guys, in your own way, you're both doing great things for your country. I don't

know about Matt, but I'll take care. So I told Gabriel everhart Is Sarge that we would give those guys a shout out then the Mason Province of Iraq. So dudes, if you're listening, we love you. Be safe and come home in one piece, seriously, and uh, thanks for everything you do. Yeah for slubs like us who just run off at the mouth and we're sorry. Out the park Core podcast. And if you have a special request, we will strongly consider it. He did. Actually I didn't leave

that part in, but it was about Mesopotamia. I think we did that one. It was Mesotamia the Cradle of civilization. Well there you go, Yeah and done. If you have another one that we haven't done before, send it in email chuck back and we'll see what we can do. Uh. And if you have a request special request, UM, let us know why we should entertain it, what it is, and we'll see what we can do. And there's three ways you can contact us, aside from saying hi through

our system of campbell, soup cans and string. UM, you can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. UM, you can visit us on Facebook, Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know, and you can send us an email. It's Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our new YEO podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join Housteffwork staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you