This crossbow, with its windlass, massive steel bow, stirrup, bow irons, wedges, long trigger and circular nut to hold the stretched string, shows no alteration from the time it was introduced, to the time when it was generally discarded in warfare, at the close of the fifteenth century.

The sporting crossbow employed for killing deer and other animals with an ordinary non-poisonous bolt, was, for about a hundred years, precisely the same in shape and mechanism - though rather smaller in size - as the large military weapon.

As this windlass crossbow was commonly used in sport and war for a long period, and as it is the one usually to be seen in museums and in mediaeval illustrations, I will describe it in detail, as being the most interesting weapon of its kind to select for this purpose.