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Which is really ironic, as my late father is the formal registered inventor of the Folding Crossbow.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4926834A/en
No, this one isn't a folding crossbow, but it does seem powerful enough to potentially be deadly. It's raining today so I'll have to wait for a good weather day and find an old used slab of wood for target practice.
It's a neat toy but the ones I've seen and the one I had were all extremely crappy quality
The string started unraveling after maybe 20-30 shots, then the plastic pieces started breaking off within a month to the point where it could no longer be used.
At most I managed to put 40 bolts through it and it fell apart
That's neat!
I used to have one exactly like that, years ago. Came with about 2 dozen bolts, blue, yellow, orange, and red. It shot ok, about a dinner plate sized pattern at 10 yards. If you shoot a dense foam archery target you'll want a pliers to pull the bolts out, because only an inch or two will be sticking out of the target. Shooting hard wood will break the bolts, if it's half rotten it will be fine.
Interesting, good to know in advance.
I'll probably try it out first by shooting a tree a few times at the park, but of course I ain't gonna make a hobby out of shooting trees ya know. There is a particular dead tree though...
I gotta warn you. That kind is prone to being fragile, assuming my eyes aren't fucked.
I've run across a handful of the no name hand crossbows over the years, and only luck has kept people from injury when they break under load.
I hear ya, I have no expectations, so I'm gonna play it as safe as I can.
I do know where the safety is and do know how to properly cock and load it. I've blank fired it (no arrow, not loaded) a few times, seems solid..
I have one just like that and the strings will break and eventually the bow arms will bend, but you can use it for quite a long time. They are a lot of fun.
I'm gonna play it as safe as I can.
So, get rid of it?
I don't think you're supposed to do that. Firing it with no bolt can cause a lot of stress because the released energy isn't transferred into moving a projectile.
It's a important rule generally, but with steel arms at this small size and light draw weight it doesn't really matter.
Yeah was gonna say. Dry firing a trad longbow is a no-no because of this
Just fyi that’s confidence, not irony.
Sincerely,
A Haughty Brit
it's like raaaaaiiiiiiin...
Oh, leave off. You're just jealous he got a crossbow.
I mean look, it turns out I can’t even spell coincidence so I’ll vacate my moral high ground
If you hadn't pointed it out, I'd have no idea that my brain had corrected it.
In fairness I said jealous when I meant envious. The moral high ground will be turned back into wilderness at this rate
Good man. 🤝🤝
Your neighbor is cool.
Probably has a body on it. Sell it the dark web immediately.
^darkweb^
It's when you shift your browser to Night Mode.
Oof. Yeah, if I had to guess, it originally had 2 more orange arrows, no clue what it's history is, but it's a keeper regardless.
It's a tribute. Your have been a nice enough upstairs neighbour that you finally get one.
I assume that your neighbour didn't know about the patent (wouldn't be ironic otherwise). Did you grow up firing crossbows, or did younger you just think of it as some weird hobby your dad had?
She surely had no idea my dad invented that. I recently made her name Naomi out of coathanger (look at my most recent post history, https://lemmy.world/post/47145754) so even though she had no idea of that, she does know that someone taught me some creative arts and crafts..
Younger me as a child while he was getting his patent registered, I wasn't allowed to use it, but I was totally allowed to see it and watch him use and test it. I had accidentally shot myself in my right arm when I was only 3, with a loaded BB/pellet gun, so daddy played it much safer around me, until age 10.
That's when he took me out for target practice and gun safety training, plus I was allowed to try his crossbow out a few times. His prototype used old Volkswagen leaf springs for the actual bows, but as it turned out, the final result wasn't extremely powerful, but was powerful enough to demonstrate the concept and grant him a patent.
Daddy would actually use his prototype indoors and shoot at the walls though, to kill cockroaches, (sad) LMFAO!
Daddy would actually use his prototype indoors and shoot at the walls though, to kill cockroaches
Uhm what?? With bolts? Or something more likely to hit a roach?
He had originally made 4 arrows for it, 3 with blunt end tips and one with a razor sharp arrow head meant for hunting. He never actually took it out for hunting, it simply wasn't powerful enough for that, but he would shoot those blunt tip arrows indoors at cockroaches (those big waterbug type roaches) whenever one would pop up. It wouldn't even penetrate the walls, it would just leave small dents, but it was his house and he didn't give a shit LOL!