Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/25/jorg-sprave-is-back-with-a-new.html
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His “he, he, he” laugh is divine.
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“Ooooops! Ha ha ha.”
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But will it punch through armor? That’s kind of the idea with a crossbow.
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I like his BFG9000 iteration of an airbow best.
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The idea here isn’t to replace the functionality of a crossbow, it’s to build a bow that can shoot several arrows in quick succession.
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I know, just as you have trick shooters using a bow that has too light draw to be useful for anything but trick shooting. It’s just worth pointing out that these aren’t useful as weapons.
When it comes to your picture, I remember an old fantasy novel where a mercenary had a heavy crossbow, and the man who wanted to hire him complained that those were too slow to be useful as they had to be reloaded with a winch, whereupon the mercenary just pulled the string back with his arm. He got the job.
The vast majority of archery nowadays is for sport. People who care about stopping power switched over to firearms centuries ago.
That said, I can’t see any reason this basic design couldn’t be adapted to a bow with a heavier draw weight to make it a useful tool for hunting.
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How can this guy just keep on reinventing centuries old technology? I love it!
Alternatively, you could just practice.
As for the idea that “every archer will want one of those,” I don’t think Mr. Sprave understands archers very well.
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As an archery hobbyist it looks like something I’d like to try, if not something I’m likely to purchase anytime soon. I could definitely see the plastic/rubber band version marketed to kids though.
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“Bing! Heh heh heh.”
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Point taken; I shouldn’t presume to speak for all archers as we are not a monilithic group.
I’m a bowyer — I handmake longbows and crossbows — and I practice (recurve, barebow) for an hour three or four times a week. For me, shooting is about getting control of my body, focusing my attention, and releasing my energy and the energy of the bow cleanly. His device is really cool, but it eliminates a lot of the things I like about archery.
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This is a pretty cool idea, as Jorg himself says, this is likely most suitable for people with no or little experience so if i had a shooting range i would be comfortable giving something like this to a novice. Once someone gained more experience and confidence they could slowly move over to a regular bow, the biggest part for a novice is learning discipline and consistency and this device would make it super easy to focus on that. A standard bow has more elements an archer has to refine, if someone isn’t going to take archery seriously then there’s not much of a point having them go through the effort day 1.
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As i mentioned in my previous post my impression is that this is for someone that doesn’t know anything about the sport. Equating it with guns i wouldn’t give a big ass gun to someone that had no experience handling one, you’d start with the easiest thing to shoot and start from the basics. This bow could be a good thing to start on, even if it was for a few minutes 
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Came for a Hawk The Slayer reference and I am not disappointed.
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It’s a good point. I’m not sure why I’m being such a jerk today.
I didn’t think you were being a jerk if that helps, seems like this is not just a simple hobby for you but something you’re involved in so i assume you would want others to not overly simplify or overlook some aspects you enjoy. And i would say you’re right, but done properly Jorg’s device could be implemented as a super easy “toy” that could get people excited to try archery
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At least one bow hunter out near me doesn’t follow the rules with this potentially lethal weapon in what’s supposed to be a shared space (town forest running trails).
This shit is terrifying.
