This is a complete tutorial on how to make a very big Trebuchet. I call this one "The Behemoth" because its the biggest siege engine I have built. Some quick specifications are that it currently shoots a 6 pound rock about 140 feet (without any tuning). The swing arm is ten feet long and as you see it in the picture below the height is about twelve feet. The counterweight currently on it is 220 pounds. And this is adjustable. It cost me around 300 dollars to build and that doesn't include any cost for the weights (I had those available) and your cost would vary depending on how you improvise things. I just used the round metal weights that you use on a barbell.

I also have a gallery of photos for this trebuchet. You can check it out here

The thing about a trebuchet is that is actually a pretty simple siege engine. There is not a whole lot to it and for the most part it is just a seesaw with a weight on one end and a string and pouch on the other!

I will show you how I built it and more importantly I will give you some rules of thumb on how to make a good one and how to get some efficiency out of it. I do have a youtube video showing me firing this thing off. You can watch this video at the bottom of this page.

The following picture shows the trebuchet loaded and ready to fire. All it needs is to pull the trigger rope.

And this picture shows it just at launching. The projectile has just been released. It is a 6 pound rock. You can see it having just left the pouch.

Ok, let's move on to the tutorial on how to make this massive trebuchet

The Video of Firing off this Trebuchet