Airsoft Crossbow, Back, and Far Better

Well a while ago I made a steel crossbow for shooting airsoft bbs. Reliable and worked well, but much was left to be desired, and I spent my winter break improving it the best I can.

Here are the results!


First, I eliminated the weight problem of the steel bow by heavily shortening the bow and adding some very lightweight Maple siyahs. First, this shortens the working length of the bow, increasing draw weight. Second, it quiets the original, very noisy steel bow. Third, it makes it all look FAR nicer and aesthetically pleasing.

Sadly, a magazine could not be accomplished, and I think that would only work with a barrelled bb crossbow, which this is not. Then again, it is supposed to simulate a crossbow at safe levels, and one big thing with a real crossbow is single-shot problems, so oh well.

Accuracy was pretty rough, mostly because I didn't actually have any sort of sighting system, and also because the slotted track for the bb was cut very haphazardly. I fixed this by epoxy-ing in a piece of 1/4'' (around 6mm internal diameter) brakeline, and sanding and filing it flush to the stock.

Thanks to the lower profile of everything, and the tighter fitting, the shuttle for propelling the bb was heavily lightened, and is now much more efficient and accurate.

I've added a primitive yet very functional adjustable sighting system, a spring loaded detent, and a bb feeding tube for easy breech loading. I've also attached a cheapo tac rail to the handgrip on the stock for some airsoft attachments.

Lastly, the bow no longer uses the annoying string method to clamp it in place, and now uses a piece of thick rubber, supported on the back with thick dankung tubular rubber, along with to screws to tighly hold it in place. I found that since the bow was so thin, all of it flexed, so you could only really clamp in the direct center.

Oh yeah, that nail sticking out is the safety, good enough if you ask me 

Heres some pictures:







So yeah, I think I really perfected this crossbow, and turned into something much better than before.

Lemme know what you guys think!

This is an in-depth video I made of the crossbow, for those interested. I explain everything and even do some shooting, too.

Geezer here, on your airsoft crossbow.  Your crossbow is probably much too powerful and the bow- limbs too heavy for your choice of projectile.  There are a number of shot-firing crossbows to be found in european museums.  They're not bullet bows or stone bows.  Instead, there's a small cup attached to the bowstring.  You fill the cup with small shot... in your case, airsoft 6 mm plastic balls would be fine.  You get a pattern of half a dozen balls instead of one, with a much better chance of nailing your target.  I've always suspected old crossbows were refitted as shot-bows for reducing the pest population around the old castle.

The limbs are heavy, but they need to be powerful. I had one of the prototype bows made from some thin bandsaw blades, which were a loose laminate. This laminate was different as each piece was uniform, from that, I did an extreme taper from 1/2'' to 1/4''.
The bow was too long for it's own good, so it's recovery was slow. I went for a shorter, thicker bow to really leech out more power.

The fastest bows I've seen for shooting bbs, and probably the most efficient ones, are the chinese pistol crossbow toys, that shoot steel bbs or toothpick. The main reason I have a bow so large for such a large projectile is that any crossbow under 500 mm is illegal here. Too bad, if that wasn't the case, I'd have a much more efficient bow.

Also, this is guess and less of a thought, but I think fo something so light as a bb, you need some steel, because that seems to me to be the best material for handling dryfires. 

Either way, yes, it is too heavy of a bow. I'd make it lighter, but with a bb, it's always going to be too heavy.

The shotgun idea is interesting, but I'd like to just shoot one bb, so as to simulate a crossbow during the airsoft matches I will use this in.

Thank you for the reply!