Catapults and trebuchets

[a_majoor]

Building and firing replicas of ancient tension, torsion and counterpoise weapons is becoming more popular. I see these things at science fairs and (on TV) pumpkin chunking. Knowing that some people here are into backyard engineering, I offer this variation of a trebuchet, which uses some interesting mathematical principles to extract as much energy as possible from the falling weight:

http://vtpumpkinchuckin.blogspot.ca/2011/06/murlin-trebuchet.html

 

[the 48th regulator]

This is Uncanny!!

I am building one with my kids right now!!!  Pics to follow.

dileas

tess

 

[Danjanou]

This is Uncanny!!

I am building one with my kids right now!!!  Pics to follow.

dileas

tess

Turf wars in the Kingdom of Scarberia getting that bad? 8)

 

[the 48th regulator]

Turf wars in the Kingdom of Scarberia getting that bad? 8)

Preppers worry about guns and ammo, pfft, the Government can track you when y ou own those.  Siege engines, can be used to tear down homes of gun owners, after the appocolypse,a nd we can get free guns and ammo!! 

 

[Danjanou]

Preppers worry about guns and ammo, pfft, the Government can track you when y ou own those.  Siege engines, can be used to tear down homes of gun owners, after the appocolypse,a nd we can get free guns and ammo!! 

I tell ya malvern has really changed a lot in the past few years.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

My friend built a 10' trebuchet for his son's birthday. We took it down to Spanish banks to fling rocks. the bylaw officer came by and said "you can't do that". We asked exactly which statue we were breaking. He flipped through his book, but curiously there was no prohibitions on siege engines on a public beach.

 

[Robert0288]

My friend built a 10' trebuchet for his son's birthday. We took it down to Spanish banks to fling rocks. the bylaw officer came by and said "you can't do that". We asked exactly which statue we were breaking. He flipped through his book, but curiously there was no prohibitions on siege engines on a public beach.

Excellent.  I made a turtle battering ram as well as an onager in the past.  One punched fairly decent sized holes in things, and the other exploded gloriously.  A trebuchet might be a nice next step.

 

[Kat Stevens]

http://www.backyard-ballistics.com/

You're welcome  ;D

 

[Scott]

I'm sure some of our more "seasoned" members here were a part of a trebuchet platoon at one time.

FYI, cops can confiscate potato guns - Red Deer RCMP relieved us of one a few years ago.

 

[Kat Stevens]

Need to hide my grapefruit mortar a bit better then. I swear, if the guy down the road doesn't start bringing his bins in.....

 

[Retired AF Guy]

I'm sure some of our more "seasoned" members here were a part of a trebuchet platoon at one time.

FYI, cops can confiscate potato guns - Red Deer RCMP relieved us of one a few years ago.

Reminds me of when I was in Cold Lake in the '80s. A couple of us would go out shooting at the local gun range in Bonneyville with two constables from the local RCMP Det. One day we were out there pistol shooting when a couple locals drive up in their 1/2 ton with a replica Civil War era muzzle loading cannon that they had a built in their machine shop. Off comes the cannon and they start blasting Coke cans filled with cement downrange (400 yds at least). That's when one of the RCMP guys went over and was looking at the cannon when my buddy shouted, "Don't worry Mike, its perfectly legal; its single shot and has a barrel length over 18 inches."

A good laugh from everyone, including Mike and we just carried on shooting. 

 

[a_majoor]

The ancient Greeks were no slouches in the seige weapon department; they used torsion powered catapults similar in concept to the one on this webpage. Naturally, they did not have hydraulic cylinders to apply torsion, so you have to give them lots of credit for developing and refining devices that could shoot large stones or spears several hundred meters built and set up entirely by hand.

The Romans made much smaller versions of this (known as "Scorpions", capable of shooting spear sized arrows several hundred meters), but eventually went to much simpler and cheaper torsion weapons called the onager.

This site is great for budding backyard engineers (or anyone getting ready for the Zombie apocalypse  >)

http://www.siege-engine.com/MistaBallistaTorsion.shtml

 

[Devo3733]

"Don't worry Mike, its perfectly legal; its single shot and has a barrel length over 18 inches."

Hah!  now this is funny.  Interesting to think about too on the heels of announcements of possible loosening of various restrictions and prohibitions on firearms ownership.