Balester
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Armbrust_MK1888.png/220px-Armbrust_MK1888.png)
Balester illustration from Meyer's Konversationslexikon 1888
A Balester (also ball ballast, Schnepper, Vogelschnepper, Kugelschnäpper, ball crossbow ) is a medieval, light crossbow that was mainly used for bird hunting.
description
Unlike traditional crossbow are as bullets no stud , but used balls. This is where the name ball crossbow or ball catch comes from. The clay balls mostly used for bird hunting are called shoters .
One version of the Balester is the fire crossbow .
literature
- Auguste Demmin: The historical development of the weapons of war from the Stone Age to the invention of the needle gun: a handbook of weapon science , Verlag Seemann, 1869 ( DNB 450901122 ) Original from Bayerische Staatsbibliothek , Munich.
Web links
- Association of crossbowmen in Austria
- Balester in the Dresden armory
- Kugelballäster in: The large art dictionary by PW Hartmann .