I've just gotten my crossbow project into shooting condition, and fired a couple of shots out in the yard:
Mostly a test-bed, but it works; shot quite accurately if not very powerfully. The silk-backed red oak prod only pulls about 50 pounds, so it's rather light. The roller nut is hand-hogged out of aluminum bar stock, and the axle is actually from an inline skate wheel... (not too traditional...)
Those sideplates are from some stainless stock I found at work, amazingly tough. I had to buy the super-heavy-duty-tungsten drills to get through the stuff!
The bolt has a .40 S&W shell case for a blunt point, and two turkey-feather fletches. Seemed to fly quite nicely.
What a pain it is to brace this thing! I'm dreading trying to brace a "real" prod.
