While pottering round the medieval village attached to Castelnaud we spotted a shop that sold - amongst other things - crossbows and trebuchets (not the real things - more kid-sized versions). The shop owner gave us a demo of both with some knights in a wooden castle at the far end of a firing range. Using the trebuchet he knocked them over - incredible accuracy!
So we decided to buy one. They come in kit form so you literally have to build your own. After peeling off all the glue I followed the simple instructions and - 5 minutes later - we were soon lobbing marbles at the dining room wall. Junior then decided to try some live fire practice by tempting the dog into the dining room with dog biscuits then lettingf fly.
The range is about 3 metres - not much to write home about - but the accuracy is quite impressive. We managed to drop a number of shots on the same piece of A4 paper on the lounge carpet and taking out a number of Lego characters.
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| Trebuchet pre-loading |
The 'stone' has to be carefully placed in the leather pouch (one end of the pouch is secured to the trebuchet, the other is loose to allow the stone to fly out). The arm is then pulled down with the stone slid along the trench in the middle of the trebuchet. The arm is held in place by a loop of wire which is pulled by a piece of string. The heavy metal weight pulls the arm down, the leather pouch swings along the trench then up in the air - releasing the stone.
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Loading the trebuchet - note the wire being put in place to hold the arm down.
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Ready to fire. The stone is at the far end of the trench. Note that the pouch is underneath the stone.
Ready for firing. The string releases the catch. |
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| Stone away! |
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| Looking back from the landing zone. An impressive 4m! |
