The Greek Gastraphetes

[joec123able]

Damn nice penetration tht now mustve been quite powerful

[deejayy2k]

i love the what the ..... did for us series, there was quite a few think it started with stewards then victorians and also another, then this one which slightly changed format as it had other presenters.

[jgn69]

i have build a gastraphetes really nice weapon and fun to shoot

watch it on my channel

[deathbyazure]

I think this Chinese versus Greek versus Medieval debate is getting kind of mean and non-constructive.It seems to me like a simple trade-off between power and rate of fire. Repeating crossbows have to have a relatively light draw weight (and power) in order to fire faster, and a high draw weight Western crossbow such as an arbelest is a slow-firing high-power weapon. Because of this, the tactics used to employ them were totally different. I suggest there's no such thing as a perfect crossbow.

[MrLantean]

@deathbyazure The repeating crossbow is uniquely a Chinese invention and no other cultures had developed their own version. The problem is that people thought that the Chinese only had repeating crossbows unlike the single shot crossbows of the Europeans. But the Chinese had crossbows 1000 years before they appeared in Europe. From the tomb of China's First Emperor, archeologists had discovered hundreds of bronze crossbow trigger mechanisms.

[MrLantean]

@deathbyazure Chinese also had single shot crossbows and are more powerful than European ones. Weapon expert Mike Loades explained that the prod of the European crossbow is so short that its fulldraw is located barely halfway of the wooden stock. It is very effective at short range. The fulldraw of the Chinese crossbow is located at the end the wooden stock like an archer on fulldraw. The bolt is able to hit its target futher and had deeper penetration than its European counterpart.

[deathbyazure]

@MrLantean That sounds very impressive. Now I'm interested in reading about them, since I have to admit I'm mostly ignorant about the construction and variety of Chinese crossbows. By the way, I am a great fan of Mike Loades. Did he make a television demonstration of Chinese crossbows, or something like that?

[MrLantean]

@deathbyazure There is an episode of the series Weapon Masters where he asked his co-host Chad Houseknecht to improve the repeating crossbow. While Chad is brainstorm for the design of his repeating crossbow, Mike Loades explains the history of Chinese crossbows and its difference with its European counterpart. It is an interesting program where Chad manages to create an improved version of the repeating crossbow.

[loadedClownZ]

@ComradeMing chinese crossbows werent effective cause chinese people cant see

[DragonOfQin]

@loadedClownZ They dont have to see the Chinese crossbow bolts have heat sensors.

[loadedClownZ]

@DragonOfQin i'm talking about the ancient chinese crossbows

[DragonOfQin]

@loadedClownZ You said ancient Chinese crossbows didnt work because Chinese cant see. I replied Chinese didnt need to see becuz their crossbow bolts had heat sensors. You talked about how Chinese cant see which would have made their crossbows obsolete.

[aznlilhero]

lol at the end, he's like a little kid hahah

[WPUSMA1]

now they have guns, forget the past!

[X1107450X]

@WPUSMA1 Still, the invention and creativity of this marvelous crossbow is extremely...how you say....FUCKIN' AWESOME!

[BCI9279]

If you pause as soon as he fires the shot.. 1,2,3..go.. at around, 2:36.. you can see his arrow goes no where near the melon xD and infact goes way off up to the left hand side, towards the trees in the background xD

[eduds6]

For what we need a Medieval Crossbow If We Have some Magnificent Engineered Weapon From The Greeks? :p

[deathbyazure]

@eduds6 I know less about this weapon than about medieval crossbows, but one thing is that this looks less like an infantry weapon and more like a siege weapon in a support role. The gastrophetes they're using can't be fired from the shoulder because it's big and it needs a tripod. With a crossbow you can carry it everywhere, fire from the shoulder, and its small enough that you can hide behind a portable wooden shield while you load it. Each weapon has a different use and both are good.

[supersmash43]

@deathbyazure I wonder how this compares to an arbalest in penetration power.

[5tonyvvvv]

they dont tell you the wood or the bow weight..

[TheWhoaDude]

Blueprints? I got some neighbor kids that won't stay out of my yard. ;)

[Intranetusa]

@TheWhoaDude

The Gastraphetes is a poor man's crossbow. Just find yourself blueprints to a real crossbow.

[HepheistoBD]

ancient weapons expert ... one of the best jobs ever?

[petekicksass]

By the time I reloaded that Chris Moyles would have ran over and killed me with his awesome witty jokes.

[tubveh]

0:21 This is the Oxybeles! Not the gastraphetes! 

[Tethyrin]

@tubveh

No, this is a Gastraphetes...the Oxybeles is larger still, and uses a torsion spring.

[lewisgunner1]

i want one

[jabames]

this is great

[mightysalacc]

I am acting with the guy in this vid. :)

[Crossbowman]

It's fake when he hits it.

[7JDH7NL7]

@Crossbowman yep!

[soylicantropo]

hahahahahaa Fantastic !!! it is the first time I see a working model of this ancient Greek bow

[Ordon44]

very nice vid

[appa609]

they should have taken advantage of the great force of the string with heavier arrows.

[TheAlexagius]

headshot!

[whowantsabighug]

Surely they made smaller ones?

[y2kEveryDay]

@whowantsabighug yeah. they made one man ones. also less mechanisms

[100000000years]

weak compare to chinese crossbow

chinese have range of 1500m

[whowantsabighug]

@100000000years Depends on which crossbow, the repeating crossbow wasn't as good as a regular one since the bolts didn't have flights and lost accuracy quickly.

[BVargas78]

@100000000years gastraphetes wasnt intended for long range combat but a short range infantry killer in siege defence.

[lewisgunner1]

it was invented by the ancient greeks 2500 years ago

[BVargas78]

@lewisgunner1 lol the 10000000years is just the name of the user i was responding to :)

[lewisgunner1]

i know i just wanted to tell u

[lifes40123]

haha greeks invented the giant crossbows. chinese invented handheld crossbows. they greeks knew how to make handheld crossbows but they just didnt make any

[canadianfirzen]

actually Gastraphete, if it exists, it is a self bow according to its record. Different from composite bow, self bows must be really big to fully wield its power such as the long bow. Whereas composite bow doesn't need to be long and big to wield its power. So the greeks crossbow can't be handhelded.

[lifes40123]

crossbows didnt depend on the shape of the bow... it uses the power of the string instead. crossbows are small but the strings are very hard which makes them powerful...

[canadianfirzen]

I didn't mean shape i meant self-bow needs to be wider to wield its power than do composite bow. Therefore, self bow like the Gastraphete must be bigger in order to be strong. The power of string? what do you mean by that? The power of a bow or a crossbow comes from deforming of the bow itself not the string, I don't know what do you mean by that. The string only affects a little, well if you use good string then there is no problem.

[lifes40123]

string. thats why u cant pull crossbow strings without using a cocking method... its hard as hell which makes it strong

[canadianfirzen]

OK maybe you don't understand self bow and composite bow. Composite bow is a combination of different material, and is usually made in three years or so, it has to go through about 100 procedures, and the materials must be collected in certain weather, so making a composite bow such as the Chin crossbow takes at least 3 years according to Chin record . While on the other hand, the self bow also requires a lot of procedures, but it is much simpler than composite bow, it takes single materi

[canadianfirzen]

and the spring effect of the self bow is much lower than composite bow, therefore, one need to increase the size of the bow to increase the spring effect, while composite bow can be much smaller. Therefore, Gastraphete can't be made small or handhelded.

[elgostine]

@canadianfirzen hat doesnt add up, the greeks used composite bows al the time and they had plenty of experience with them

[canadianfirzen]

@elgostine according to Greek's own record I remember I read Gastraphete is only composed of 1 material, so if it exists it is a self bow not composite bow... By the way I didn't say Greek don't have experience with composite bows.....

[elgostine]

@canadianfirzen ah, now you mention that. fair enough, i guess i just imagined it to be... smaller somehow. probably due to age orf mythology (the Hades specific unit is a man with a gastraphates nd its not earl that big, and the quick video on the right byt artehistoriacom

[TheArtistOfKuroo]

@canadianfirzen Can you tell me the resource you found this information in? I just made a full sized gastraphetes, and we have a red oak pyramid flat-bow on it right now, and if a self bow is accurate that would be great to save effort later.

[sushanalone]

well its a castle weapon fair enough .

[sushanalone]

good weapon but the trajectory(cant fire over friendly troop lines), and loading time must suck :S.

[Thrashgu]

@sushanalone This weapon is from III BC what do you expect?

[Solarian2495]

nice, very basic, yet genious at the same time

[ESWtagteam]

awesome