Crossbow Comparison

The crossbow looks like a gun or
The crossbow has mostly rifle like characteristics
The truth revealed.

A common strategy when discussing the inclusion of the crossbow into archery season is to argue it's rifle like or gun like attributes. Some organizations or individuals have created illustrations to point out that the crossbow has a stock like a gun or a trigger or a scope like a gun. What these individuals did not mention is the modern firearm has it's attributes due to the early design of the crossbow. The crossbow predates the invention of gunpowder by 800-1000 years.

One of the oldest remains of the crossbow ever discovered is this one dated to 200BC.

A modern replica to illustrate what it really looked like before time withered it away.

Notice this crossbow has a pistol grip with a forearm and a trigger. Would you compare this weapon from 200BC to say a modern combat shotgun? It has a pistol grip and a fore stock just like this weapon. That would be down right ridiculous.

The exact date of the addition of what can be referred to as a stock on the crossbow is unknown. Also called a tiller on both the crossbow and firearm in the medieval time period. It is speculated that it occurred prior to the invention of the Chu-ko-nu. The earliest drawings of the weapon are said to date back as far as 250BC. Also note this bow was a repeating bow with a loaded magazine of quarrels. One could pump the lever back and forth for rapid fire. Repeating firearms did not adapt this feature until when the 1700- 1800's?

The firearm stock

The earliest versions of the firearm didn't even have a stock and were not held by hand. The weapons had no trigger and were too heavy to hold. These weapons were braced in some manner then the powder was lit manually through a touch hole from a distance. Technological advances in metallurgy and chemistry eventually allowed the firearm to be hand held or shoulder braced just as the crossbow had been for over 17 centuries. The earliest attempts to make the firearm as reliable, accurate and comfortable to hold and use as the crossbow often resulted in death due to failed materials exploding on the user. What we would recognize as a tiller or stock did not appear on the firearm until the late 1400's to early 1500's.

The firearm trigger

The first mechanical device for igniting the powder of a firearm does not appear in history until the 1400's. This firearm was called the match lock. This is the earliest possible date that a firearm could claim to have any device remotely described as a trigger. The wheel lock guns appeared in 1509 and had what we could call a more traditional looking trigger. By 1630 the technology had finally allowed the firearm to catch up to the crossbow. Guns from this time period look much like the guns we use today and are referred to as flintlocks.

Some examples of the wheel lock firearms.

The flintlock assembly is what we would refer to as a more modern firearm by today's standards.

So any claim or illustration that tries to portray the crossbow to look like a gun is historically inaccurate. This tactic is meant to distract unknowledgeable people of either weapon to immediately compare the bow weapon to a gun. This tactic is effective to some extent for someone who knows nothing of either weapon. To a person that is ignorant of the facts all they see is the gun and it's image. This is a scare tactic to draw the attention of the gun and use it's horrific image to conceal the facts. Now you know the truth behind this tactic. The gun has the characteristics it does today because of the crossbow. History can produce a shoulder fired bow for the purpose of launching arrows with a trigger centuries before the firearm or it's propellant was ever invented or capable of doing so.

The fact is the gun looks like a crossbow.

Part of Buckeye Dan's Survival Guide To Full Inclusion

by Buckeye Dan