Crossbow

A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a prod, mounted horizontally on a main frame called a tiller, which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long gun. Crossbows shoot arrow-like projectiles called bolts or quarrels. A person who shoots crossbow is called a crossbowman or an arbalist (after the arbalest, a European crossbow variant used during the 12th century).^[1]

Crossbows and bows use the same launch principle, but an archer using a longbow must maintain its draw by pinching the bowstring with fingers, pulling it back with arm and back muscles, and then holding that form while aiming, which demands significant physical strength. A crossbow has a locking mechanism to maintain the draw, limiting the shooter's exertion to pulling the string into the lock and then releasing the shot by depressing a trigger. This enables a crossbowman to handle more draw weight, and to hold it with significantly less physical strain, thus potentially achieving better precision and enabling their effective use by less-skilled personnel. Crossbows are usually drawn by direct pulling, but windlass-like mechanisms requiring less force were sometimes used.

The earliest known crossbows were made in the first millennium BC, as early as the 7th century BC in ancient China and as early as the 1st century AD in Greece (as the gastraphetes).^[2][3] Crossbows brought about a major shift in the role of projectile weaponry in wars, such as during Qin's unification wars and later the Han campaigns against northern nomads and western states. The medieval European crossbow was called by many names, including "crossbow" itself; most of these names derived from the word ballista, an ancient Greek torsion siege engine similar in appearance but different in design principle.^[4]

In modern times, firearms have largely supplanted bows and crossbows as weapons of war, but crossbows remain widely used for competitive shooting sports and hunting, and for relatively silent shooting.^[5]