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21 points

What’s the distance on those things?

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0 points

search YouTube “punkin chunkin”

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-1 points

1000 meters easy.

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26 points

Over 300 meters. Truly the superior siege engine.

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5 points

But I still love the Ballista.

I’ve made several over the years for demonstrations using a couple 2x4s, 2 oak dowels, a steel rod, and nylon rope that’ll hurl a “bolt” (tube used to separate clubs in a golf bag with a tennis ball on one end) 400 yards.

They’re just fun.

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4 points

“They would have been pulled up to a castle, maybe 200-300m away and they could have launched rocks, boulders and flaming boulders into castles,”…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-65099834.amp

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3 points

And cheese my cows. They could launch cows as well.

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8 points

Depends on the mass of the projectile, and how the throwing arm is tuned.

If its release is tuned for distance and they’re flinging period-accurate projectiles, tuned firmly distance a typical period tree could throw stones about 300 meters.

Depending on the kind of fortifications they were against (and if they had siege engines of their own, or other artillery- bow and arrows, whatever) they might set up a little closer and tune instead for more forward velocity rather than range.

The typical mass was about 200-300 kilograms, or a small sedan. You could go heavier, but that typically reduced range.

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6 points
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200-300 kilograms, or a small sedan

A small sedan weighs about four times as much as that

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1 point
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Get out of here with your facts.

(for what it’s worth, a reliant robin was about 450 kilo curb weight. I’m sure we can find a car that weighs in the range.)

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