Pistol Crossbow

[Scythe13]

I think this conversation is really bringing out some brilliant information, and it's so heated that I doubt it'll be killed off by my comment. But, this is my 'thug' view on the situation.

To give you an idea about where I'm coming from. I have never been shot by a crossbow. I have shot crossbows and archery bows (recurve, compound, and a few older examples e.g. straight bow). I have had bricks thrown at me (as a group, not specifically a load of people throwing bricks at just me. Think of it as 2 groups of people that disagreed with each other trying to sort out their problems). I have thrown bricks (for legal reasons we'll say it was in my back garden and not at a person on an opposing group).

I have cut down 3 trees in the garden with a machete. I can use an axe, have done a little fencing (taught in uni by the Welsh Champion...he wasn't the champion when he taught me, but he won the Welsh championship the next year), and I have had a bit of fun with the battle reenactment (viking look alike) society at uni.

Also, I have 'semi-combat' (it wasn't a fight to the death, so I don't think of it as full-combat, but it was certainly full contact!!! haha) experience in the cage, with a record of 6-1-1.

So this is my view on things...

Firstly, if you have a crossbow, and I have teacups, I don't have to do much to distract you before you get off that first shot. A load of cups thrown at you will make an accurate shot difficult to say the least. It's a natural reaction to flinch, duck, close your eyes, or turn away, from a projectile coming at your head. So that should make the shot from a crossbow off target and thus unlikely to be fatal, if my thought pattern is reasonable.

Further to this, my new friend in the mil is teaching me about weapons, and has explained some blindingly obvious things and some less obvious things. One of the obvious things applies to this situation. He said about using a handgun, that if you shoot someone in the head, you're shooting at a very thick and hard target. There's a reason the skull is so thick...for protection. So even if you shoot a bullet, you're hitting a thick, hard, curved surface, and the chances of a glance are 'up there'. You'd be best to shoot them in the eye, if you're accurate enough. It's soft and leads to a much cleaner kill. This makes sense and applied to this situation. If you get shot in the skull and it glances, you're unlikely to get a second shot, because although they'll be hurt, they'll also be p**sed off and still combat effective.

Next thought on this, what distance are we talking about, and what situation?

A crossbow bolt will hurt, do damage, and potentially kill a person. I can't disagree. However, over a 20 feet distance, so could a brick. The thing is, I would rather trust my life to something I knew how to use. Pulling the trigger on a crossbow is easy enough, but doing that when under a barrage of other items...not so easy. I know I can throw a brick back, so I'll stick with what I know.

As for weaponry. When fencing, not just because I was duelling with a champion, but regardless of who I was up against, I was made to look like an uncoordinated idiot. I can't remember which sword was the heaviest, but apparently that could just bat away any other sword, but the speed and skill needed to do so was not something I was able to do. Turns out, they were right. Fencing simply wasn't for me. Even when I was using the weird octopus style grips. I could learn to do it, but I didn't have the patience...or physique haha. So if you're using a small sword, you need to be very skilled on what to do with it.

Next up, the battle reenactment group. These guys were a right laugh. Making porridge in a hefting big cauldron thing on the far end of the hockey pitch...hysterical! The interesting thing was, you would get in trouble for using full force. For one simple reason "any heavy weapon swung with enough strength, will cause damage. Our insurance doesn't cover that kind of thing." Obvious, but also something to consider when up against someone else. If you're untrained with a rapier, and I get to charge gung-ho with my machete and a single tea cup, you'll either bat away the tea cup, and get your arm hacked into, or you'll get hit by the tea cup, have your blade kicked out of the way, and still have your arm hacked into. I'm not saying I'm superman or anything, but I'm a person determined to get what you have, because my family is depending on it. I'm going to go all hell fury against you! Unless you're willing to do the same, you'll be in a world of hurt! Okay, what if I didn't have a tea cup, but a handful of gravel, or sand? Now we're playing a whole new ball-game! Advantage me! Even if you had a crossbow, that distraction will make the shot difficult, and we're back to glancing or non-fatal shots.

Okay, and lastly...I seem to recall someone talking about defending stairs. Not sure who said this, but I'll go from this view point.

Does your set of stairs have enough space for you to swing a machete? But most rapiers are longer, so how will you use one of them? Yes you could just stab and jab, but if they have leather gloves and grab the spine of the blade and move it to the side, so they can get through. What about a spear? It's going to keep people at the bottom of the stairs until they manage to grab the wooden part of the spear. But again manoeuvrability would be an issue, in my view. You'd need to be skilled in use of the spear to be able to have a high level of control in such a confined area.

Personally, if defending the stairs. I'd poor petrol down them and set fire to the whole place, making sure I had an escape route though. If they've made it to the stairs, and you don't have a gun, they'll get to you eventually. Whether they decide to stake you out and attack when you're asleep, or just stand at the bottom of the stairs, or outside, and just throw bricks at you all day long, or make a shield from a door and line it with metal from road signs, or something like that. If they're in your house, you have already lost this battle.

Strike 1 point for a gun licence, 2 points for a shotgun licence with special load ammo!