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The Atomic Bomb of the Middle Ages

The Sherman Oaks Skeet Club

Here in southern California we have the advantage of a huge desert to play around in. My friends and I like to take our treb out with a load of watermelons, 10 lb bags of flour, gallon jars of mayonnaise, and a few other assorted targets, and of course our shotguns!

Here's my pickup truck loaded with the treb. The amazing Ken Allen and I (that's me in the black shirt) and my little dog Daisy are preparing to unload the beast.

Now that everything is set-up, we take a break in the shade (it's well over 100 degrees in the desert this day) and pick out a few melons to start with.

We discuss the plan for the day. Whenever ballistics are involved, it's always a good thing to have a plan.

With 450 lbs of weight driving the launcher, this thing is a burden to cock.

Here I am, ready to fire the first shot!

The launch. This one releases just a little too late for a perfect flight. Notice how we shoot right down the middle of the road. We were on this road all day long, and never saw any other cars at all! Funny how that is.

The first lob. Ken stands downrange to videotape the melons as they make a low altitude fly-by.

Here's one making a splash! About 280 feet. We can do better than that!

Ok, enough waste. Time to get in some target practice. Chris and Ken shoot, but unfortunately this melon gets away (at least until it hits the ground. Ouch!)

Here's a stop-action sequence of a hit. Chris has just yelled "Pull!"
I've released the trigger, and a 10 lb bag of flour is just beginning to swing out.

Here it is 1/6 of a second later....

And another 1/6th of a second. This thing is really moving!

Can you see the bag of flour? It's that small brown speck in the sky. (for the sake of brevity these next photos are spaced at 1/3 seconds each)

It's really hard to see here. If you look really carefully, you can see sharpshooter Chris in the distance. He's just barely to the left of my hat and is wearing a white shirt.

A HIT!

And the cloud of flour grows. Buckshot packs a nice punch.

The cloud of flour begins to drift in the breeze.

Well, it may seem silly to some people, but you know what they say- Everyone needs a hobby!


-- Ron Toms

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Interesting Notes

Some Trebuchet History:

From the 13th century writing: "Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi"

In June and July of 1191, Richard the Lionheart (the Duke of Normandy) laid siege to the city of Acre as part of the medieval Crusades.

The Duke concentrated on constructing siege machines and placing trebuchets [petrariae - literally, stone hurler] in suitable places. He arranged for these to shoot continually day and night. He had one excellent one which he called "Bad Neighbor" [Malvoisine]. Its continual bombardment partly destroyed the main city wall and shattered the Cursed Tower. On one side the Templars' trebuchet wreaked impressive devastation, while the Hospitallers trebuchet also never ceased hurling, to the terror of the Turks.

Besides these, there was a trebuchet that had been constructed at general expense, which they called "God's Stone-Thrower". A priest, a man of great probity, always stood next to it preaching and collecting money for its continual repair and for hiring people to gather the stones for its ammunition. This machine at last demolished the wall next to the Cursed Tower for around two perches' Length [11 yards or 10 meters].

The count of Flanders had had a choice trebuchet, which King Richard had after his death, as well as another trebuchet which was not so good. These two constantly bombarded the tower next to a gate which the Turks frequently used, until the tower was half-demolished. Besides these, King Richard had two new ones made with remarkable workmanship and material which would hit the intended target no matter how far off it was. . . . He also had two mangonels [traction trebuchets] prepared. One of these was so swift and violent that its shots reached the inner streets of the city meat market.

King Richard's trebuchets hurled constantly by day and night. It can be firmly stated that one of them killed twelve men with a single stone. That stone was sent for Saladin to see, with messengers who said that the diabolical king of England had brought from Messina, a city he had captured, sea flint and the smoothest stones to punish the Saracens. Nothing could withstand their blows; everything was crushed or reduced to dust.