Old Chinese repeating action pellet crossbow

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:47 pm

Was I lucky today in Panjiayuan ! I found this beauty !

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:48 pm

The other side...

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:52 pm

working

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:56 pm

detail of the metal switch that lets one bullet fall in the chamber when the side axle brushes past

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:02 pm

detail of the bow : two unglued lams of bamboo

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:14 pm

Last, a view from the front... impressive, isn't it ?

Up is the magazine to load pellets, down is the "barrel" that guide them during launch.

Only the magazine cover and the string are missing.

I heard that the regular arrow launching repeating chinese crossbow was throwing poisoned tip bolts, due to their weak energy, to make them lethal somewhat.

What could be the use of a weak repeating pellet crossbow ? Hunting flocks of birds that would happen to be in your home corridors ?

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:00 am

What use? Target / technique practice rather like a modern BB gun? Also looks bloody good fun!

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:21 am

Just had another thought. I remember reading somewhere that in China pigeons were caught by shooting with a hollow clay pellet from a bow - to stun, not kill.

This weapon would be good for that - non-lethal power and with rapid, repeating action - a scatter-gun effect. Let this off into a flock pigeons and you are more likely to get one - or more.

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:04 am

I have one of these shaped as a gun. I'll post a picture of it. They were just made as toys for kids (and grown-up kids

)

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:50 am

That's why it's not too dangerous... I guess its value is then decreased compared to a weapon...

The strange thing is that I could not find any picture of a pellet repeating crossbow on google, trying many different keywords.

They are either very rare or on the contrary so common that nobody before me bothered to post a picture...

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:39 am

They are quite unusual. In the 1960s, Ju Yuan Hao said, there was a 'destroy all pests' campaign, where people bashed kettles continuously untill sparrows got tired and dropped to the ground exhausted. (Nothing said about what happened to the pot-bashers.) At that time, there was a huge demand for repeating crossbows and pellet corssbows to shoot rats. It is probably possible to find them in villages.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 7:29 am

Interesting. Do you think my crossbow could be that recent ? The woodwork is quite good, I would have thought it was an older production.

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 2:09 am

It could be older. Ju Yuan Hao will tell you.

West · Post by **West** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:26 pm

I know how a normal repeating crossbow works, but how does the mechanism that stops the pellets from all falling in at once work? Do you know where I could find a diagram, or an explanation? It does look good fun.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:52 am

It's not very clear to me either, despite I have the artifact here.

Anyway, we tried with some clay bullets to see if this mechanism worked, but it did not at the time.

Maybe our bullets were of a too small caliber. I'll have to make proper ones and try again and then report here.

Old Chinese repeating action pellet crossbow

Old Chinese repeating action pellet crossbow

How does the mechanism that stops the pellets work?