Normans finally develop WMDs!!!

Nine-hundred and forty-three years since the first mechanically fired bolt streamed across the battlefields of Europe, the crossbow has been upgraded for the 20th century (yes, yes I know its the 21st… read on).

British foul keeper known as TheDuckman666 has developed a fully auto-loading/firing crossbow – an invention prompted by his increasing arthritis -and can be seen in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS4RKoRyTik – Embedding Was disabled :/

A motorized variation of the Chinese lever-action repeating crossbow of the 2nd century, it holds 15 bolts in its internal magazine and gets a shot off every 2 seconds or so. Far and away from any Thompson gun, its still a dangerous and effective gadget. I mean, should a disgruntled Medieval Times worker get the notion, they could go on a rampage and still stay in character. NOT advocating, just saying.

I do fear for those ducks in the background though. Friendly fire isn’t limited to M-16s.

And think of the various subcultures of nerds who’ll rejoice that such a thing is possible! Man, slap some copper plating and superfluous gears on that thing and it just screams STEAMPUNK!

For the accuracy minded, there is a semi-automatic version too which just loads the bolt into place ready for the shooter to take aim. No scopes or laser sights, however.

Another Brit’s got that bit covered… Following the recommended vids we come to preyingforburglars‘ channel. He’s tacticalized a popular crossbow pistol with a 11 shot magazine and break “barrel” loading:

This is great for thatched hut village fighting, and is just the thing the Grand Duchy of Fenwick needs should they attempt another invasion. Still, given some R&D grants, the manual cocking would be more discreet than the whirring motors of the previous model.

Either case, it’s good to know that when Armageddon comes and black powder is scarce we’ll still be able to defend our compounds with somewhat-rapid-fire.

Thanks to [Neatorama] for the lead.