2,200 year old crossbow with a 2,600 ft range???

[Averageman]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3004149/2-200-year-old-crossbow-powerful-modern-day-assault-rifle-discovered-Terracotta-Warriors.html

A 2,200-year-old crossbow which some experts believe could have been almost twice as powerful as a modern-day assault rifle has been discovered among the Terracotta Warriors.

The crossbow, which was found intact this week, could have shot an arrow up to 2,600 feet - about the length of nine football pitches, the People's Daily Online reported.

The discovery is particularly exciting as experts believe the crossbow may hold the secret to the success of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang

[Whiskey_Bravo]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3004149/2-200-year-old-crossbow-powerful-modern-day-assault-rifle-discovered-Terracotta-Warriors.html

A 2,200-year-old crossbow which some experts believe could have been almost twice as powerful as a modern-day assault rifle has been discovered among the Terracotta Warriors.

The crossbow, which was found intact this week, could have shot an arrow up to 2,600 feet - about the length of nine football pitches, the People's Daily Online reported.

The discovery is particularly exciting as experts believe the crossbow may hold the secret to the success of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang




Holy crap. 2,600 feet is a long damn way. Crew served cross bow?

[Averageman]

The Author says 5 feet in length and 50 inches in height.
Just guessing that 2,200 years ago that might be a crew served weapon based on an estimate of the size these guys would have been. Kind of the M240 of its day I would imagine. Somebody is going to have to assist the bowman or he would have had to have been a relative giant of his day. In this case the assistant gunner would always get the "shaft" as it were.

[crusader377]

Holy crap. 2,600 feet is a long damn way. Crew served cross bow?

Probably this Chinese weapon filled a similar role to the Roman Scorpion which was in fact a crew served crossbow. Each Roman century would be assigned one weapon (60 centuries per legion). Here is some more information on the Scorpion

http://www.romanarmy.net/artillery.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpio_(weapon)

In addition, a very similar weapon called the ballista was used in Hellenistic Greek times

[Averageman]

I went to an arms museum in Coberg Germany and they had similar cross bows that were fired from the prone position. I was told they were specifically made to take armored knights off of their horses during battle. If I remember correctly, they were about six feet front to rear and six feet from bow tip to bow tip.
They required a cranking mechanism to draw the bow. There is no way one guy could have carried much less load and fire that sucker on his own.
I would imagine upon impact you would be knocked out of your saddle.

[Ned Christiansen]

I read a book 20 years ago by some English noble-type guy who traveled around Europe studying, examining and testing old bow and crossbows. He went to museums, castles, and private collections. One old piece, he weighed the draw by actually hanging it from a castle beam ("rafter" or "joist" seem inadequate terms for castle construction!) and hanging weights on the string until it would catch the nut. It was over 1200 pounds! So yeah, you needed a winch and three wenches to run some of these (Hmm. "Crew served" suddenly sounds a bit more interesting).

He talked about how archery was the sport of royalty and that Turks and their short bows competed for distance only. He claimed that in the 'hood of 800 yards was accomplished. Bows were laminated-- yew wood and horn. I can't imagine what glues they had back then that would do that...?

I bought a couple copies of that book for friends but now I have no idea the title and author, but I'd like to read it again..... anyone...?

[nova3930]

Just as a SWAG, given the weapon size, depending on the stiffness of the materials and construction along with the bolt size, that seems a plausible number for range.

[sevenhelmet]

Pretty impressive, but I wonder what the rate of fire was? One round every 10-15 seconds?