Solid metal crossbow-bolts

[Dalillama]

A little googling indicates that the current top of the line crossbows launch a bolt at ~460 fps and have a 180 lb draw. The upper range of bolts seems to be ~440 grains , made of carbon.

[Kax]

An inswing cheiroballistra made using spring steel coil torsion springs could be made to an arbitrary strength for a tool-free draw.

Kevlar string, lead-cored hard steel arrows with AP tungsten heads. Not bolts, as a cheiroballistra can have the same length draw as a bow--and the same damage-per-strength calculation.

No problem at all.

Historical note: the cheiroballistras the Romans used had 200gm bolts. Good for hard hitting at range.

[Ottriman]

More people chiming in, well I already drew up the stats I wanted, they made sense enough to me.

The 6d thrust comes from my scaling for thrust damage, then I just add weapon modifiers on top. It being 40x draw weight stemming from how KYOS ST 26 has 40 times the BL of KYOS ST 10.

This bow will also be a long one, and might shoot full sized arrows if that helps at all. The arrow being propelled faster than a normal bowstring is in some ways a handwave from using UT materials, 2x velocity of normal bowstrings seemed fine to us.

Thank you all for further comments, I am already making this thing and decided what it should do based on prior ideas but this is still nice to know.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Ottriman

We are scaling up damage and hp logarithmically by the way, not just lift. The base thrust we got was 6d, and that was before the damage modifier of the weapon itself!

Our only problem is that this manner of absurd draw weight (40 times the draw weight of a ST 10 crossbow) wouldn't lend itself to conventional crossbow bolts.

I don't know what you are using as a scaling law, but a weapon that can deliver 6d that stores energy as spring tension will need to have a spring weighing a dozen pounds or more even if it's made of really good stuff like rubber or spider silk. If it uses metal springs, it will weigh considerably over a hundred pounds.

1. Would a normal crossbow bolt even be able to survive being launched from this monstrosity?
2. If a crossbow bolt were made out a dense and strong metal like steel or bronze all the way through, how would that modify the weapons stats?

You probably aren't going to fire something of "normal" crossbow bolt size out of a spring gun that will deliver 6d, it's going to need to be heavier and probably longer. But you should be able to make such a 6d projectile out of wood or fiberglass easily enough. Not that all metal would be a particularly weird composition for a crossbow bolt. Or that there is any obvious reason making a crossbow bolt out of solid metal would alter it's performance significantly. The thing you probably do need to change is the string - if the draw length is similar, you're putting 8 or 10 times the tension on it, hemp cord probably isn't going to hold up, you're going to need something tougher, or actual rope thicknesses.