ORIGINAL: Arthur P
...a crossbow is HELD like a rifle but it SHOOTS like a bow.
My turn to put one out for the record. It is not quite correct that a crossbow is held and shot like a rifle. Since the crossbow is far older than firearms, by some 1,600 years as far as is currently known, it's the reverse. A rifle is held and shot like a crossbow.
In fact, early gunmakers stole the idea of stocks and, later, triggers from crossbows in order to improve their guns.
That's how they went from this
To this
This is true and I love the history you bring up Arthur,but I like eggs for breakfast and fried chicken for dinner and never really concerned myself much with the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg!