Groove vs. Rests

I am building my first crossbow for hunting this fall. It will be the only weapon I use to hunting with for large and small game.

So, knowing this, would it be better for me to go with the bolt groove or the bolt rests??

I am going to cut the groove with a mitre table...

I build lots of bows with rests and like them very well, but honestly... for your first bow, use a groove. It's a bit less fiddly and holds the bolt more securely. Geezer.

Here is a track profile and guide “shuttle” that could give more
consistent bolt path. However the shuttle must support and center the bolt at
rear and have an arrow rest at front of the tiller. In other words these balls
or arrows never contact the track. A gap is provided between shuttle bottom and
track. My activator or”wippe” fits the shuttle exactly so the bowstring is
always drawn back the same. Use of a projectile shuttle is an ancient idea, but
I came up with this design after experiments with round shuttles and “V” groove
tracks were disappointing.


Below is a removable ¼” high track on my ball shooting
crossbow. The track is attached using Loctite spray adhesive and has survived
thousands of shots. Note the blue lexan ball retainer; it swings up as the shot
is fired. Of course at this low velocity the balls do not make clean holes so targets
are 1 shot each at 12 bulls designed for army small bore training. Ammo is
.375” steel and .400” lead seated in a conical socket. The consistent shot placement is well beyond
my hand held ability.

Geezer here re: stonebow 'shuttles'. You're right, these stone-bow adaptors are well document in the literature, and in fact I have seen them on renaissance bows. There's a shuttle on a nice little combination crossbow/gun/stonebow in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Of course the weight of the shuttle eats a bit of power... your plastic ones will be more efficient than period steel ones. A bone shuttle might prove useful, but I've only seen metal ones. Anyhow, it should serve you well for ball-shooting. Glad to see somebody's tinkering with such things.

Geezer ps: And yes, modern Swiss crossbows use a pusher-shuttle to ensure the bowstring is always perfectly centered in the track. The perfect centering probably far outweighs any loss of efficiency due to their weight and friction.

Geezer





Yes I saw that museum item awhile back. That wide sloped
track profile was a dramatic improvement over the narrow V and slot types I started with. The whole thing is an ongoing fun experiment. I am 75 and regret not getting into this a bit earlier.
Sep