Stone bows or pellet bows, whatever you want to call them.  I need some answers, if anyone can field them.
 Firstly... in a regular stone/pellet bow, (not the crossbow type), how do you keep your fingers from being blasted by high speed pebble?
 Secondly... are there any simple locks for crossbow-type stone bows?  I've seen lots of complex metal ones, but no simple ones.  I have thought of a design myself, but I haven't tried it out yet.

whats a stone bow? a bow that shoots a stone? maybe?  ??? who used them? they might make itinto my book :)

I have a bow string I put a pouch in the center of and sometimes use on my 65# compound bow i usaly fire one ounce egg sinkers out of it. And so far have never hit my finger's the truth is
I never thought about the possibillit till now

This sounds like a slingshot with the handle missing.

A primitive stone bow is just a long bow that has a pouch for shooting pebbles.  They are used extensively across Asia, some parts of Africa and even South America.  In China, they developed into crossbow pellet bows, for shooting birds.  These designs were then carried back to Europe where they were very extensively used for hunting.  Italy was first to use them in Europe, but they spread and became quite popular.  In England, they were used until about the 19th century when guns became cheaper, and were used for shooting lead bullets.
 I have used a regular pellet bow before, and it whipped the stone hard across my knuckles.  Not nice.  I was wondering whether a twist of the hand is needed to avoid the pellet.

Hmm. well it sounds cool. maybe you could move your hand farther down the bow ??? Maybe tilter it so that the senter is down a little farther and the place for the stone is up a little higher.  ???

Nah, that would screw up accuracy.  Plus, the way you hold the bow would be different with the handle lower down, and so the stone or pellet would actually go through the same point, by your hand.

hmm so you cant hold one hand lower and the other higer? that sucks. well im drained of suggestions :)

That's probably why the Chinese made them into pellet crossbows.

:) most likely

I have been thinking about pellet bows quite a lot recently - I was thinking about the possibility of a crossbow that could shoot both pellets and bolts, for in tough corners when you have run out of bolts.

well the way i see it is that the pellet bow is just a normal bow with a bit of leather for the pellet?

well you could just make it so the leather slid over the string. The only problem would be you would have to have all that time to unstring your cross bow then restring it up with that rock launcher. Maybe some kinda lace thingey where you put it over the cord and tie it down. that wouldnt be too stabel but it may work.

For a simple pellet bow, I have no doubt you could just use two different strings.  But the crossbow would be slightly different - stringing and restringing would be more difficult.  I guess you could use one string, but it would have to be well designed.

How about making the bow with, or better yet, designed a hard hand guard? If the bow works well why change the design when you can just add a little accessory? But if the string/pellet hitting your hand saps the strength of the draw, perhaps something else is needed :/

The hurt of the pellet hitting your hand is not so bad - it's the fact that the pellet is not going to hit anything if it has already hit your hand, making the weapon a bit pointless.

I saw a picture of a pellet crossbow once.  The design was pretty cool.  It had two bows in the front so that the arms are at right angle to eachother.  If you look at it from the front you'll see that the arms from a big X. I can't remember the details though.  Hope that helps.

Hmm... that's interesting.  Can you give any other information about this bow, ie, it's provenance?

english,

It was a long time ago.  I came across the picture in a book on the history of weapons.  I really don't recall much else.  The device was big, the bows were the height of the shooter and it was mounted on to a wooden base.  There was a cranking device at the back.  It must have been extremely powerful.  

The book belong to my grandfather.  He might still have it at his home in Toronto.  I'll see what I can do.

Thanks, Tint.  It sounds interesting.  I'm wondering what it could be used for - most pellet bows are low power (Chinese ones even took birds alive, to be able to tame them and breed them).

hmm i wonder if you could rig up some kinda tube so the shot gos throu the tube and past your nuckels. not historicaly accurite but it might work.


speaking of taking birds alive i have a slight entrest in falconry. My step father is allergic so i cant get one but im just facinated on falconry. Any one here abel to tell me a little about it?