07-17-2007, 09:28 PM
"I am going to assume a well trained crew can put quite a few bolts downrange pretty fast, and they, unlike the bowman, never get that tired. No locking of muscles from fatigue, and no real issue running out of ammo."
A few years ago we decided to try to see how many bolts we could shoot off in a minute. Working as hard and as fast as we could we managed to shoot three bolts in just under a minute. Based on the assumption that while we were working to our maximum physical capacity but that a Roman crew who practiced frequently and knew their weapon well would be able to shoot faster, we guessed that a Roman crew might have been able to shoot off perhaps 3.5 bolt per minute on a regular basis. Due to the manner of operation of the machine I cannot see a rate of fire much over this being a possibility.
As far as running out of ammunition goes, catapult bolts are much larger than bullets and it is not possible to manually carry an unlimited supply. Even though I am sure they allowed for as much available ammunition as possible, I can't imagine that they would have been able to keep their maximum rate of shooting for very long, even at only 3.5 shot per minute. Ten minutes' continuous shooting alone would require thirty five bolts, which would be collectively quite heavy and which would take up some space.
Crispvs
A few years ago we decided to try to see how many bolts we could shoot off in a minute. Working as hard and as fast as we could we managed to shoot three bolts in just under a minute. Based on the assumption that while we were working to our maximum physical capacity but that a Roman crew who practiced frequently and knew their weapon well would be able to shoot faster, we guessed that a Roman crew might have been able to shoot off perhaps 3.5 bolt per minute on a regular basis. Due to the manner of operation of the machine I cannot see a rate of fire much over this being a possibility.
As far as running out of ammunition goes, catapult bolts are much larger than bullets and it is not possible to manually carry an unlimited supply. Even though I am sure they allowed for as much available ammunition as possible, I can't imagine that they would have been able to keep their maximum rate of shooting for very long, even at only 3.5 shot per minute. Ten minutes' continuous shooting alone would require thirty five bolts, which would be collectively quite heavy and which would take up some space.
Crispvs
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