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All about repeating crossbow
One of the oldest crossbow and also long-living bow in history which is invented by china is the repeating crossbow. It is also known as Zhuge nu crossbow. The working procedure of repeating the crossbow is simple. You can hold the bow in a single hand, stringing the bow and placing the bolt. That means you can do separate action simultaneously with a single hand while the repeating bows are stable. Repeating crossbow is invents in 4th century B.C, and it remains unchanging until 20 B.C. though it is a traditional bow, it became famous due to a higher rate of shooting than a standard crossbow at that time.
Repeating crossbow has a mechanism that activates the bow for continuing the fire one after another. The cocking mechanism is a crank system of repeating crossbow. The repeating crossbow shoots the bolts by the cocking handle backward and forward.
History
Repeating crossbow has a simple design in which string is constructing with animal sinews twist into a rope for minimal strength. Repeating crossbow is improve by Zhuge nu, which made the latest version in which you can shot two to three bolts at one time. There is another crossbow in which you can fire at least ten bolts before tiring the magazine.
This repeating crossbow can fire ten bolts in 15 seconds by pushing and pulling the lever for firing and reloading. After doing this process, you have to reload again. Then the ancient militaries improve this version into recurve repeating crossbow. One importing thing is, recurve repeating crossbow is still a weak crossbow than an average recurves crossbow.
The ancient military using a recurve repeating crossbow behind shield cover. The repeating crossbow can shoot within 60 meters, which will be effective, but you can shoot at 120 meters. Repeating crossbow is using last at the Japan-China war.
King Sejong was impressed by its cocking mechanism who introduce this repeating crossbow to Korea. Repeating crossbow is improve last by Dionysius of Alexandria, who links the two flat chains to the windlass. So, when the cocking handle moves forward and backward, the machine fires the arrow until the magazine is empty.
Construction
The construction of a repeating crossbow is unfiltered, and the stock is lamination from plywood. Bolts are constructing from either bamboo or plastic, which is very cheap and available. Yet, you can break the plastic chopstick with the bolts. The bowstring is build of animal sinew, which is a twist for increasing the string strength.
Repeating crossbow is a flat bow, but it beings curve when you put tension, and the prod is constructing with a single piece of ash. When the bow is uncocked, by forwarding the magazine, you can reduce the friction as well as tension.
Design of repeating crossbow
A repeating crossbow can separate action in one time spanning the bow, firing the bolts, and shooting in a single hand movement. This increases the efficiency of this crossbow as well as a higher rate of fire than an average crossbow.
The old design, which is creating by Nu, is different than the latest one. It has a tiller mounting on the double magazine, which is fixed on the top, and under the prods, a pistol-style grip mounted. It has a sliding lever with a handle. The sliding bar is moving forward and backward with one hand while the other hand firmly holds the pistol-style grip. It’s like drawing a regular crossbow.
The lever has a trigger, which is a construct of latch and sear and looks like a crab’s claw arm. When pushing the lever forward, the trigger is lock by friction and also tension forces by moving forward. When you are drawn back to the lever, the bowstring will be spanning until it has been fully drawn, and the magazine-fed two bolts onto the firing spots. The sear comes in contact with the round bar at the end of the pulling action.
Then the bar releases the trigger by pushing the sear forward, and the trigger enables the fire of the two loaded bolts. Though this mechanism is so much complex it serves weaker performance than a normal crossbow.
Utility
The construction, design, and mechanism remain unchanged for a long time, making this repeating crossbow the longest-lived weapons in archery history and Chinese history. It is easy to fire the bolts from the magazine from pulling and pushing the sliding lever. There is a more complex mechanism which is improved by a Korean archery engineer that can shoot ten bolts at a single mechanism.
You can hit the target up to 180 meters and most effectively within 70 meters. Most of the time, repeating crossbow is using for short ranges like the home defensive reason that you can shoot 7 to 10 bolts in 15 seconds that can assaults from the doorway easily. This is the latest version of the Chinese repeating bow, which is comparatively good. But the bolt which is used in repeating crossbow has neither power nor accuracy.
Because they are made of cheap materials and only can break a plastic chopstick. So, it is not used in heavy armoire substance unless you use poison on the point of the bolt in which you can fatal a small amount of wound.
Notes
1.The durability of repeating crossbow is the lowest than any other regular crossbow.
2.The damage buff is 1.33, which is also lower than any average crossbow.
3.The small and lightweight arrow has less penetrative power than any other crossbow. So, sometimes users use poison onto the bolt points.
This is the eldest fashion bow. However, if you want to learn about the compound bow and recurve bow, then you can check out this compound bow vs recurve bow articles.
Conclusion
A repeating crossbow is an old-fashion crossbow that has less power, low durability, lightweight, and also less penetrative power. However, the cocking mechanism of any crossbow is invented from this repeating crossbow. Though it is developed in China, the revolution is in Korea who makes a more complicating repeating crossbow. The repeating crossbow improve by Korean can fire at least ten bolts at a single time, and their cocking mechanism is also different than the Chinese repeating bow.