The Practical Guide to Man-Powered Weapons and Ammunition: Experiments with Catapults, Musketballs, Stonebows, Blowpipes, Big Airguns, and Bullet Bows

David slew Goliath with his slingshot: for millennia that was the norm, as men used a variety of non-explosive weapons to fire small stones and carefully rounded bullets of clay, glass, and even steel and lead. This unusual study explores in practical detail the many ways, old and new, in which man shot projectiles without recourse to gunpowder. They include the bow and arrow, a favorite for the last 10,000 years; pump-up air guns; blowpipes; catapults; and homemade lead musketballs. There's information on ammunition and velocity, as well as a lively personal narrative filled with humor and the spirit of experimentation.

Richard Middleton is Reader in American History at The Queen's University, Belfast. He is the author of The Bells of Victory: The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years' War: 1757–1762 (1985).