TOT; Crossbows

[The Medway Handyman]

Don't spose anyone knows lots about crossbows?

[spuorgelgoog]

I know you can have one in America even if you can't have a gun licence.

See, I told Mum the Dukes of Hazzard was educational!

Owain

[The Medway Handyman]

Apparently they are legal & unregistered in the UK?

Looking at Daisy caused thoughts to enter my head.......

[Nightjar]

It is illegal for anybody under the age of 18 to own, use or have parts for one. It is illegal to hurt or kill any animal, wild or domestic, with one. It is illegal to use broad head bolts. They will be treated as offensive weapons if carried openly in public. You should avoid being at the sharp end when firing :-)

Colin Bignell

[spuorgelgoog]

Apparently she dresses up as Daisy Duke for her husband

And the posters are still available

Do you think Mrs TMH would believe you wanted it for the picture of the car?

Owain

[Brian Gaff]

No but the lady in Relic Hunter was very sexy and carried a tiny one on her belt. I often wondered if one so small could ever actually be any good. Of course it was in the series.. grin seriously though, no I know they ar bloody dangerous though, once saw a bolt go through three planks of wood adt a long distance. b Bernie, the bolt!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes thinking the same here. I domiss my yesight nowadays. Brian

[The Medway Handyman]

I do watch Wheeler Dealers regularly, so I might have a chance :-)

[The Medway Handyman]

Ta. I'd figured out the last bit :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

They are bloomin powerful ...

When I was at school one of my fellow pupils made one in woodwork/metal work, with permissions of parents/school etc. Would that happen today?

Made a pretty good job of it as well.

The school had quite a large playing field behind it, looks at online map, something over 400 m, that then turned in farmland (now built on). I don't think the bolt from the first test fireing was ever found, it's on the farm land. Yes it was fired into the air rather than near horizontal but all the same.

[damduck-egg]

A leaf from an old car leaf spring wasn't a bad component for a home made crossbow, mate and I made one using locally sourced components . In other words what a typical couple of farms could supply in the

1960's Spring from old car abandoned on the farm,piece of stout wood about 2" by 2" for the stock drawstring from binder twine in the days when it was sisal and not the awful orange plastic stuff that pollutes hedges now. To haul back the the drawstring a wire ratchet style fence tensioner was utilised. Bolt was an old fashioned soldering iron,the type that was heated from a an external source like a blowlamp, chosen because it looked roughly the right shape and dad hadn't used it for years and was unlikely to notice it had gone AWOL. Result were mixed ,it sent the bolt through a wooden shed door but range wasn't that far. Main problem was that it was too unbalanced and unwieldy to hold easily.

Quickly looking at the legislation I see we would be under age criminals now,yet i'm sure we got the initial idea from a from A 50 Things to Make for Boys style book that were around from the the 30's to 50's.

G.Harman

[Tim Streater]

Even vermin? Such as rats or squirrels?

[Robin]

yes if they are wild

[John Rumm]

Wild? It will be positively livid if you shoot it with a crossbow!

(with apologies to NTNON)

[Nightjar]

Yes. The only permitted activity with crossbows in the UK is target shooting.

Colin Bignell

[Baz]

This will make them mad as F**k.

[Robin]

Is it illegal to use a crossbow to kill domestic or capitve animals if it is done without causing unnecessary suffering? I ask as, while the use of crossbows for wild birds and animals is clearly an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, I wasn't aware of anything equivalent for domestic and captive.

Of course that's not to say it'd be easy to persuade a court a crossbow was a legitimate tool for slaughtering a chickden for Sunday lunch. And the the RSPCA would very probably argue no crossbow could be relied upon to kill a captive squirrel humanely ;)

[Rick Hughes]

Loads of sites on 'tinternet ... go Google ...

such as:

(this site also lists 2nd hand ones)

[Nightjar]

I haven't bothered to track the legislation down, but all the UK crossbow sites I have looked at say it is illegal and that the only permitted use is target shooting.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think that all came in a few years back in the great Blair we hate country sports years.

You are still allowed to kill certain animals, but you musn't show any skill or enjoyment of it.