I am rather anxiously waiting for a fully operational period crossbow replica. The guild I'm with does mainly talks and demonstrations about longbow archery. As for most of itsuse the longbow's main counter part was the crossbow, I am hoping to be able to do side by side comparative demonstrations. Rate of fire is easy enough. Range is problematic due to space. I would love to find a source for relatively inexpensive breastplates to do armor penetration demonstrations. Any suggestions as to sources? They don't need to be pretty, but actual metal (at least 16 gauge) is a must.