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Crossbows - Everything about Building, Modding, and Using your Crossbow Gear

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2 posters

    Airsoft Crossbow

    JacobL
    JacobL
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    Post by JacobL Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:22 pm

    So a large reason as to why I've gotten into making crossbows is airsoft. It is like paintball but the guns shoot solid plastic bbs instead of large paintballs-for realism, alot of people say. Anyhow, my expensive gun completely failed me and broke down horribly, and even though I bought a replacement (a very expensive Mauser Broomhandle), it broke as well. So I started with a pouched bullet bow with PVC limbs. 

    Well, the limbs broke, and one slapped me in the face. I didn't have any other resources, and I kept seeing millions upon millions of Backyard Bowyer vids about his amazing PVC bows, so I kept trying, and trying. After a recorded count of 45 failures (I don't really give up), I ditched the idea completely and made myself some slingshots. 

    However, it is very cold here in Manitoba, or at least when its not summer, anyways. So a slingshot performs very poorly, due to physics of rubber. After many experiments, I decided to go back to the PVC bullet bow. Again, it failed, and this time the riser broke, and once again bonked me on the head. Sad, I know, but trust me, it wasn't my workmanship. I did manage to get a coupl of decent shots off of it, though. 

    So after a short break I was looking at the Airow gun product online, and I thought t could be a good idea, so I built my own.[img]Airsoft Crossbow Img_8326[/img] Nothing pretty, as it wasn't finished, but it worked, surprisingly. The bow powered an air piston which spat out a bb at around 200 FPS, with a 30 pound draw. But, after a couple of shots, as you could guess, the bow's shoddy PVC limbs broke on me, even though I had spent abot a good 6 hours shaping them with pinpoint accuracy. So on that day I gave up on that project, though I still have the homemade airow gun in my shop somewhere.

    Recently, months later, I revisited the project, and after many thorough readings of The Practical Guide to Man Powered Weapons, I made a prototype test bullet crossbow.[img]Airsoft Crossbow Img_8327[/img]. It worked!! One of the happiest days of my life. Very Happy. I was too worried about shooting bbs after seeing a couple of posts by Geezer on this site, so I stuck with Marbles and 68.cal paintballs. It shot them at maybe 80 FPS, with a light 10 pound bowmade from an old steel handsaw. Draw length was 8 inches. I shot it lots, and was very happy with it. One day though, I loaded it incorrectly, and lo and behold, it shot a marble up and diretly into my face. Thank the lord for cursing with me with bad eyesight, because my glasses saved my poor face  cheers

    Anyhow though, I decided to use a track and ball shuttle after reading this forum and seeing the Zubin X340. I'm currently working on this[img]Airsoft Crossbow Img_8213[/img][img]Airsoft Crossbow Img_8214[/img]. It is a Reverse Draw crossbow which uses small wooden shuttles to propel marbles, paintballs, and any other type of ball. I'm thinking of adding many other things too.

    HERE IS WHERE I NEED HELP!

    -I am using small Leaf Springs from an old Skidoo that was half buried in the ground. They had a high drw weight initially but as I attached them and set the cams on and tested, the draw weight was maybe around 20 pounds. Why is this? Is there something I'm missing?

    -If a crossbow is shooting something as light as a marble, and using a heavy prod which is more than 60 pounds, will that damage the prod, even if it is made from steel?

    -If a crossbow or bow were to shoot airsoft bbs, would an ultra lighweight string and prod with little draw weight an a long dr length be better than a high draw weight prod? I've noticed that my slingshot with a butterfly draw and some 5 pound Dankung 1632 tubes shoot on par with most airsoft guns.

    -Does anybody know if an inswinger crossbow is legally considered a crossbow by Canadian law? I'd like to make some kind of compact crossbow, but Canadian legality states that any crossbow under 500 mm and that is shot using one hand is illegal.

    -I would also like to hear your ideas and opininons in general about shooting airsoft bbs out of bows and crossbows. I have made many designs and I'll accept basically any idea, as long as there is no airguns involved.

    Thank you in advance for your responses and taking the time to read this.

    -Jacob
    JacobL
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    Post by JacobL Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:24 pm

    I would also like to hear what you guys have to say about a few of these crossbows:

    -The Zubin X340

    -The STS AR480

    -The Twinbow

    -The Kostka Lightning attachment

    -The Woodland Survival Flipper

    Thanks again

    -Jacob
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    Post by c sitas Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:16 pm

    Jacobi, Good to hear from you. You were wondering about Canada calling an inswinger a legal bow. Can't say but, I know for positive sure the US won't call it a bow. Reason being , the energy is not stored in a bow ,period.Lots of modern tech envolved now days but, to no good use  such as hunting.I'm an old archer . I still keep up with the modern high tech stuff. Play careful with the stone bow. One of our older contibutors has a story about them.I still play with the inswinger.One nice thing is-- a dry fire doesn't seem the bother it.  An awesome rig. Keep up your interest and your good work.
    JacobL
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    Post by JacobL Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:03 pm

    Thank you C sitas. And yes I have read the countless replies and comments about Geezer's accident and I can see what he means. I wear a pair of safety glasses at all times now. Hmm, if what you say is true I might look into making a small bullpup inswinger design. I'd prefer springs over rubber as to keep it working well in my environment. Do you use speargun rubber or springs? And also, when you do dryfire it, is it quite loud, or quiet?
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    Post by c sitas Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:43 pm

    Jacobi ,I like the divers rubber. I use 5/8" outside diameter with an 1/8" hole in the middle. Awesome strong stuff. The way I have mine made up is they are like a two inch long rubber band. I joined them with a piece of 1/8" nylon almost tight end to end. The way I'm rigged up I can use up to 14 of these "rubber bands".I have to use a winch to cock it. I have never attempted to measure the pull weight,but it's quiet stout . I purposely have dry fired and it's no loader than a shot fired normally. Unlike a 
    regular crossbow that would blow up. I use dynam bow string material and make all my own strings.I also use what is called a D loop on my string. My bolts" or arrows" use a normal heavy arrow nock. I shoot cock feather down as i'm also set up with a anti dry fire.The whole thing is just "home made crap", but, I love it. It's also not legal to hunt with, so just don't get caught.I talked with an older gent on here about this thing, his name was JEEP. He  passed on now. He was the one that hooked me on this thing.He also posted articles on you tube and on this site.
    JacobL
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    Post by JacobL Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:07 pm

    It's good to see how much of an imprint he made before he passed. May he rest in piece. I have seen many of his works and I am quite impressed with the power behind them, as well as your work. Very great! Does the rubber suffer from any hysteresis loss? I.E. Does the power of the rubber get lower the longer it is cocked? Also very interested about how it's still quiet even during dryfire. Does the string suffer any damage? I might try out an inswinger once I finish my current crossbow  scratch
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    Post by c sitas Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:44 pm

    Jacobi,As far as the hesteresis goes, everyone says there is some. I don't know how to figure it,so it doesn't bother me. When shooting I can't say that I can see it bothering . Penitration seems the same all the time . I shoot all summer and all winter . The reason I think it stays quiet even when dry fired is because the limbs are not held solid by a steel cable , as like a conventional crossbow. Instead they can rebound against the rubber. There is absolutely do give in the string material, that is like steel. Same stuff they make super fishing line out of.When you can get 14"of penetration with a broadhead in a good excelsor bale ,it will surely zip an animal clean through. That's about what I get  with a 70# compound bow, at 20 yds.I can still hand cock it with 7 rubbers, but ,you need leather gloves.I'm a puss.
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    Post by JacobL Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:28 pm

    I might consider rubber. possibly. The biggest thing I have against it is the wear and the thermal stuff. It's very damp and hot right now which is fine for the rubber but any season besides summer is totally freezing and rubber just won't perform. And I agree, hand cocking a crossbow seems impractical to me, unless you're up for a workout. A built in cocking lever would be better on just about any crossbow. How much penetration could you get into, say, a wooden board?
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    Post by c sitas Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:03 am

    Jacobie; I ve only done this by accident, you know poor aim but, I know for sure I can poke out the backside of a standard 3/4" pine board maybe a couple of inches. You'll never pull them out . You have to split the board to recover them ,and then the broadhead is junk.That is why I don't do this kind of test. Toooo costly.
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    Post by JacobL Tue Aug 01, 2017 6:48 pm

    Well you could say it was the cost of eperimentation  Laughing
    Anyhow though, the Reverse Draw Crossbow I was making turned out to not be powerful at all. With the cams attached it had an intensely weak draw weight of 18 pounds. I was very surprised. The original Leaf spring limbs were 60 pounds if used in a normal mediveal crossbow configration. Sad, really. I've had enough of limbs. Time to make an inswinger!
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    Post by c sitas Tue Aug 01, 2017 7:43 pm

    Jac; I 've made and have hanging 7 different rigs. Six are made from from repurposed compound bows. Limbs and in some cases cams also.I use the reverse draw on all except the inswinger. All easily exceed 100#. I tried a 5 piece metal laminate.It shot ok but, was heavy and had a hell of a recoil. I still have it but I don't count it. I like mostly making the trigger set ups. I can do small metal pretty good. I have a table top mill called a taig. I converted it to cnc. I also have a small 6" lathe. And  I also have a cnc router that I made from scratch. I live in my shop when it's to hot or to cold  or when you can't hunt.You know of coarse that just about any set of compound limbs would pull a bout 100#scratch, no aids.You'll find this more true with the older stuff. They will not stand a dry fire though, pieces will fly and they do hurt.I'm 74 and been slinging arrows one way or another most of my life . I'm a trail and error engineer,hee hee. Also be extra careful when starting with this kind of power, your eyes won't grow back .Also as long as I'm preaching, I never, ever, try to shoot extra light arrows . No sense begging for trouble.
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    Post by JacobL Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:55 am

    Interesting, I'd be tempted to learn more about your setups as well. As with the lightweight arrow case, well, I'm shooting 6mm airsoft bbs, and they amount to nothing when it comes to weight. So I'll make sure the power of the limbs isn't very high. I will make a rubbe powered pistol first, and then try out some inswinging designs.
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    Post by c sitas Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:07 pm

    Jacobie, As long as you like light and fast, take a look at some of the factory setups to combat  limb fatigue. Excaliber from  your end of the contintant has a kind of an over run stop for the limb. I'm not smart enough to know the tech term for this. It just amounts to a shock absorber and simi-positive stop.More crap on the bow.  They are a top of the line machine though. For the money they should be something ---EH?
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    Post by JacobL Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:11 pm

    Ahh yes, I've shot an Excalibur and was VERY impressed. With just a simple recurve prod they can shoot over 300 FPS, which is insane. I believe one of them shoots almost 400 FPS, which is just as crazy. 
    I've seen the string stopper that you are talking about, butI always thought those were for silencing the string. Am I wrong?

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