Can a Compound Bow Shoot Steel Balls? Here's the Honest Answer
No, a real compound bow doesn't shoot steel balls — but there's a whole class of repeating crossbows people mean when they search for one. Here's what actually exists, and one safety catch worth knowing.
By the Archery Care Editorial Team
Short answer: a compound bow shoots arrows, not steel balls, and no reputable maker sells one that does. If you've searched for a "compound bow that shoots steel balls," what you're really circling is a different tool entirely — a magazine-fed repeating crossbow. A few of those exist, they're genuinely fun, and one of them fires spheres. Just not steel ones, and there's a reason.
Why a compound can't shoot a ball
A bowstring pushes a nocked arrow — it needs something to grab and guide down the shot. A loose ball has no nock and nothing to steer it, so a bow limb has no way to launch it with any accuracy or safety. The energy a compound stores is built to move a long, spine-stiff arrow, not a marble. The premise of the search is the misconception; the products people land on solve it a different way.
What people actually mean: repeating crossbows
The gadget that shows up under this search is the magazine-fed repeating crossbow — a pistol-or-rifle-style frame that self-cocks and fires several short bolts fast. The real ones worth knowing:
- Steambow AR-6 Stinger II — the popular one: a six-shot repeating crossbow (Tactical and Compact versions) that reloads with a lever and shoots short bolts.
- Steambow AR-Series M10 — a larger ten-shot platform in the same family.
- EK Archery Cobra R-Series — the other mainstream repeating crossbow line, self-cocking and magazine-fed.
- Steambow B08 — the outlier that fires .68-caliber spheres rather than bolts. This is the closest thing to a 'ball shooter' in the category.
The steel-ball catch worth knowing
Here's the safety part most listings bury. The one product that actually launches balls — Steambow's B08 — is built for .68-caliber foam, nylon, paint and pepper rounds. The manufacturer specifically does not intend it for steel, and firing hard steel spheres from a device like this risks ricochet and damage. So the honest version of "a bow that shoots steel balls" is: the reputable ball-shooter is a crossbow platform, and it's designed for soft or marking rounds, not steel.
You'll also find cheap import bows marketed outright as "steel ball compound bows" on the big marketplaces. Treat those as novelties — thin documentation, no real support, and the same ricochet concerns. They're a world away from the gear the rest of this site covers.
If you want a real repeating shooter
Want the fast, magazine-fed experience for target plinking? Look at the Steambow and EK Cobra repeating crossbows, shot with the bolts and rounds their makers specify. Want to actually hunt or shoot targets seriously? That's a job for a proper crossbow or compound bow, and our reviews are built exactly for that call.