I was told that this small lever action crossbow was a Border Reivers bow from around 1600 and used for raiding and civil defence. I have never been able to find similar bows to compare it against and group it with so have never been able to know if this was true; and I still don't.
So the next best thing is to run it through some trials and practical tests and find out if I think it would be suitable. Accuracy, power, penetration, rate of fire and ability to use whilst moving.
So that is what I did.
I now have a Patreon page where you can sign up to see bonus films, build blogs, behind the scenes and loads more stuff and just finishing a step by step build of a ballestrino (assassins) crossbow https://www.patreon.com/TodsWorkshop
For budget medieval replicas of fantastic accuracy and value https://todcutler.com/collections including targets
For commissions and custom work https://todsworkshop.com
For those who enjoyed Arrows vs Armour https://todtodeschini.com
Some merch also available here below the video
https://todcutler.com/collections/tods-merchandise?page=1
Andreas Bichler's film that is NOT about a Da Vinci design but actually came from the Codex Löffelholz of 1505 can be found here https://youtu.be/kXli68FbqTE?si=Ro4wDinRdx5OVyG7
Massive apologies for the confusion and mistake
Codex Loffelholz - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Codex_Löffelholz