Crossbow stopping power

I had a friend who kept a crossbow in the bedroom as compared to the shotgun! Not bad stopping power!

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epu...06032241230243

Citation

Julian JW, Todd ML, Marcheschi BJ, Buchanan PM, Spencer AJ, Bitter CC. Wilderness Environ. Med. 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/10806032241230243

Quote:

---

Crossbow Injuries: Predictors of Mortality
Joshua W. Julian, BAhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6215-84501, Maxwell L. Todd, BShttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9514-45141, Benjamin J. Marcheschi, DO1, Paula M. Buchanan, PhD2,3, Angela J. Spencer, MLS4, and Cindy C. Bitter, MD1
Introduction
Crossbow injuries are rare but carry significant morbidity and mortality, and there is limited evidence in the medical literature to guide care. This paper reviews the case reports and case series of crossbow injuries and looks for trends regarding morbidity and mortality based on the type of arrow, anatomic location of injury, and intent of injury.
Methods
Multiple databases were searched for cases of crossbow injuries and data were abstracted into a spreadsheet. Statistics were done in SPSS.
Results
358 manuscripts were returned in the search. After deduplication and removal of nonclinical articles, 101 manuscripts remained. Seventy-one articles describing 90 incidents met the inclusion criteria. The mean age was 36.5 years. There were 10 female and 79 male victims. Fatality was 36% for injuries by field tip arrows and 71% for broadhead arrows, p  =  .024. Assaults were fatal in 84% of cases, suicides in 29%, and accidental injuries in 17%, p < .001. Mortality was similar for wounds to the head and neck (41%), chest (42%), abdomen (33%), extremities (50%), and multiple regions, p  =  .618.
Conclusions
Crossbows are potentially lethal weapons sold with fewer restrictions than firearms. Injuries caused by broadhead arrows are more likely to be fatal than injuries from field tip arrows. The anatomic location of injury does not correlate with fatality. More than half of crossbow injuries are due to attempted suicide, with a high case-fatality rate.

---

London Crossbow Attacks. Looks like that gun control thing is working out great over there...

Is this an introductory thread to crossbows ??

There was a reference to victim stabbed by bayonet mounted on rifle, attack occurred Halloween or costume party IIRC, mentioned in one of Atul Gwande's books think https://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Man.../dp/0312430000

The mass of the rifle behind the bayonet produced much different wound dynamics than typical knife wounds.

The victim was treated at an ER but they almost lost the patient because they weren't looking for mounted bayonet/spear type of wound. There was deeper internal damage that they were not used to seeing from normal knife wounds.

This also lines up with what I read in I think one of Bell's books about Africa/Elephant Hunting where the locals practice rapid stabs with their spears not power blows.

Makes sense that with the additional weight of a spear shaft or rifle with mounted bayonet your going to get plenty of penetration without working hard at it vs typical knife.


I believe the lethality of arrows/bolts and spears/mounted bayonets not sure of "stopping power" though.

Related tangent I don't have my textbook handy about The King site injuries https://www.jstor.org/stable/281247 but recall from the Anthropology/forensic Anthro class where we covered that site that there were lot of injures to legs of dead native Americans consistent with injures from Spaniards Swords of the period.

The Native Americans there and then didn't have much if any experience with defending against swords, so the wound patterns were different than from war dead in Europe for same time period. Though I have no idea where my notes from digging into that have gone, I can dig out the textbook from that class (was back in the '90s) if anyone is interested in full citation.

Historically here in WV you could own NFA weapons but crossbows were forbidden. That has changed over the last couple decades and they are now legal for hunting.

I’m currently using a 200# recurve crossbow and the amount of damage a mechanical broadhead can do to a deer is usually impressive. But last year I shot a medium size four point at 40 yards and apparently hit a thick bone, the recovered arrow only showed about 3” of penetration and no blood trail. That deer was not recovered. The six point I shot the previous year had a much larger body, but the same bow/arrow combo gave thru and thru penetration with the deer only traveling about 30 yards and a huge blood trail.

84% mortality puts the crossbow up there with 5.56 mortality I believe, but I wonder if an enthusiastic attacker would know he was hit with a broadhead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rick R

Historically here in WV you could own NFA weapons but crossbows were forbidden. That has changed over the last couple decades and they are now legal for hunting.

I’m currently using a 200# recurve crossbow and the amount of damage a mechanical broadhead can do to a deer is usually impressive. But last year I shot a medium size four point at 40 yards and apparently hit a thick bone, the recovered arrow only showed about 3” of penetration and no blood trail. That deer was not recovered. The six point I shot the previous year had a much larger body, but the same bow/arrow combo gave thru and thru penetration with the deer only traveling about 30 yards and a huge blood trail.

84% mortality puts the crossbow up there with 5.56 mortality I believe, but I wonder if an enthusiastic attacker would know he was hit with a broadhead.

---

Seems like an attacker would bleed out much faster being hit with a broadhead

This shows the cutting power of a broadhead

https://youtu.be/wrWYuh_s1RQ?si=bVcC9C06dfHY0CDX