If you have a thing for weapons and you have watched Robert Rodriguez’s From Dust Till Dawn (Dimension Films, 1996), you may have noted the kick-ass weapon, a pump action crossbow used in the movies by Kate Fuller (played by Juliette Lewis). Now, if you have any idea how a crossbow works, you will know the pump action crossbow in the movie was nothing but “movie magic” (i.e. it won’t work), or so we thought… Famed slingshot enthusiast, Joerg Sprave of The Slingshot Channel is a fan of the movie and as connoisseur of all-thing-that-shoots without gun powder, he pondered if he can make a magazine-equipped, pump action crossbow.
Well, you know what? He did and with much success. Sprave did not actually make an exact replica of the movie’s prop, though. He did, however, made the concept work. But he did have to make some changes to the design, such as using a Barnett Vortex Youth Bow as the bow in place of an actual crossbow’s bow cos’, as he explains, a crossbow’s bow will be too heavy to make pump action possible. Less, you are Popeye, of course. Anywho, he custom a crossbow body out of wood, complete with fore-end slider for pump action, a trigger (obviously), gun grip, a magazine that holds up to six arrows, and rubber bands because, The Slingshot Channel.
The end product is a super dope, fully functional From Dust Till Dawn pump action crossbow. It does not look like the one in the movie’s, but it sure work like one. Keep going for a video of Joerg giving a walkthrough of the crossbow, as well as seeing it in action. And yes, this thing does shoot and penetrate its target at a reasonable distant. Very, very cool!
Images: The Slingshot Channel.
