
The crossbow guide, as the name implies, is designed to hold the arrow and direct it toward the target. Therefore, subsequently they began to put on a protective bandage on such bows, and then completely abandoned this material. Not only was such a crossbow incredibly heavy and massive, it was traumatic, since steel tended to burst at the most inopportune moment, flying apart with sharp fragments in different directions. Previously, when the materials were “strained”, old spring from Moskvich was used as a blank for onions. The most common materials for the production of shoulders – fiberglass reinforced, carbon fiber with carbon fiber, duralumin. Due to these blocks, the process of cocking a crossbow is greatly simplified, while the power of the shot remains the same. In a block structure, blocks (round or eccentric) are fixed at the ends of the shoulders, through which the bowstring is passed. The traditional design is an ordinary bow in our understanding, the ends of which are connected by a bowstring. In turn, the shoulders can be straight or curved (recursive), have a monolithic or separate structure. Designs of crossbow bows are divided into traditional and block. The shoulders are attached directly to the bed, on powerful crossbows – to the bed through a metal block (5). It ended only with the advent of military firearms.Ĭrossbow shoulders are the elastic elements of a bow that accumulate the mechanical energy of a person produced during tension for a subsequent shot. The period from the XI century to the XVI century accounts for the era of the crossbow. The crossbow is an excellent defensive weapon. Recharge occurs in safety, under the cover of a stone wall. In the defense of a reliable stone fortress, the situation is different. The difficulties of its combat use in attack are that the crossbow limits the mobility of the warrior: it takes time to reload and leaves the shooter defenseless at that moment. It was for the defense of fortresses that this weapon was the best suited. Many feudal wars were fought around defense and the capture of then stone fortresses that appeared everywhere.

In those days the typical nature of hostilities changed. She could well have come to the heads of many at the same time.īut the crossbow really became in demand around the 11th century. The idea of inserting a wand between the center of the bow arc and a taut bow so that you do not have to hold a stretch with your hands during aiming is almost commonplace. It is likely that this happened in Europe and Asia almost simultaneously.

Historians cannot agree on whether the crossbow was coined in ancient Greece or in ancient China.
