Crossbow licence announced

nav2022 said:
It's not surprising TBH. I have two air rifles and two compound bows. The compound bows have about 25lb of draw and power wise are about 30fpe of energy. They feel slow but reasonably accurate. I owned a crossbow very briefly a few years ago, it was a mistake. It was a compound type but you couldn't adjust the limb power like on a compound bow. The amount of force needed just to load it was scary. I fired it at my foam bow target which is 12 inches thick. it clean holed it and the bolt smashed into a 1000 pieces on the rocks behind it. Sold it straight away, just owning it scared me. Must have been 100fpe easy.
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The RFD I spoke to had up to 225 fpe.😱
 
Why not ban.... I mean "license"... bows as well? Only about 35 FPE is needed for hunting medium sized game like deer and antelope, making most bows perfectly lethal to humans.

I understand the UK shooters' fixation of energy limits; that's how your legal guardrails are defined, but, when it comes to arrows, lethality isn't so much about the FPE.
 
As for the suitability of a crossbow as a weapon of offence, I'll leave it to a quote from a famous crossbowman. After the first shot the crossbow becomes a very expensive club.
Multi shot examples notwithstanding.
 
It'll no doubt be a part of a bigger agenda, multiple hoops to jump through including doctors reports etc, licencing fee and all that, and a occasional shoot in the garden won't be a valid reason to have one 🙄 all about controlling people as usual 😔
 
Chris86 said:
It'll no doubt be a part of a bigger agenda, multiple hoops to jump through including doctors reports etc, licencing fee and all that, and a occasional shoot in the garden won't be a valid reason to have one 🙄 all about controlling people as usual 😔
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If you can show you have a decent backstop then iI dare say you may be allowed to shoot them in the garden as they have allowed for airguns up here in Scotland. Many claimed they would not allow shooting in your garden here when the AWC came in .

Many brought it up in the consultation and it was added to the legislation that plinking in the garden would be seen as a good reason to get an AWC as long as you can demonstrate its safe to do so.

Not all crossbows are higher power and some are even less than a sub12 airgun .
 
I guess, given other current governmental priorities it may be in the long grass?

I don't mind trying to apply on retrospective ownership, but no idea on what the proposed conditions might be, I'm SGC which is a known/acceptable PITA but guessing crossbow ownership would be less taxing....

I'm also in possession of an offensive wife, could do with failing the application on that.

Any updates on how this is developing, I can't find any?
 
crissdee said:
I suspect it was a 225 lb bow not 225fpe. Still quite a beast though...
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I think you're right draw weight and kinetic energy sometimes get mixed up.
My Excalibur Equinox is 225lb.
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It does seem a disparity that the legal limit for an air rifle is 12ftlbs but you can use a 100ftlb+ crossbow without a licence.

Not sure where I stand on it and don't really have much of an interest in crossbows though I have shot those belonging to friends and friends brothers in the distant past. On the one hand it could be thin end of the wedge for us all even with sub 12 airguns and not many of us would want to see those in similar sports such as crossbow shooting need to have a licence (edit if they're responsible with them), on the other hand the disparity with airguns is glaringingly obvious and seems to so far have been an oversight by those who make the rules... And I did once have a crossbow aimed at me by a drunk bloke, which was more concerning than it would've been having an air rifle pointed at me. It would've been a bit more concerning if I'd thought it more likely he would've pulled the trigger and I think he might have been more inclined to pull the trigger if it was an air rifle.
 
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I'm reasonably strong and can cock my 150lb draw with some effort manually, with a cocking rope it's easy.
I would imagine a 225lb draw something of a strongman competition to draw manually or is the process relieved by advanced tech?
 
Gragson said:
I'm reasonably strong and can cock my 150lb draw with some effort manually, with a cocking rope it's easy.
I would imagine a 225lb draw something of a strongman competition to draw manually or is the process relieved by advanced tech?
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A rope cocking aid generally halves the cocking effort. I've always felt 150lb is a good poundage and you can still cock it by hand.
 
Gragson said:
I'm reasonably strong and can cock my 150lb draw with some effort manually, with a cocking rope it's easy.
I would imagine a 225lb draw something of a strongman competition to draw manually or is the process relieved by advanced tech?
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Some have a cocking crank built in and some can be fitted with one .


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