Red Combat Crossbow

I decided after shooting combat archery at a handful of events that I had to have a combat crossbow of my own. However, I remembered the hours and hours of sanding that my target crossbow had required. So, I decided to try a new tactic: build from a kit.

I purchased a munitions combat crossbow from a fellow SCAdian, Baron Brun Canutesson, and it arrived as pictured on the left.

This operated on a basic T-post or "plunger" design, where a post lifts the string to release.

I've included his instructions in this post. The instructions can be followed pretty easily, however, I would recommend much more shaping and sanding than outlined in the instructions. I wanted my combat crossbow to match my target crossbow: blood red.

In order to accomplish this, I had to sand considerably and also apply the same barn red wood stain. It took a few coats, but finally took. I also tweaked the string arcade to make it more U-shaped, which seemed to improve action considerably. Sanding and filing was required for preparing the crossbow, but the end result was a functional, battlefield-ready munitions grad crossbow.

Crossbow-Build-Packet-2019.pdf