Compared to the ordinary bow, the crossbows have good and bad sides to them. They fire much stronger and much more accurately than ordinary bows, and shooting accurately with a crossbow is easier to learn than shooting with an ordinary bow. On the other hand, because the prod is short and therefore very stiff, a crossbow will take much longer time to load, and a crossbow does not have as good accurate range than a longbow. Many crossbows have crank or windlass mechanisms to pull the string in drawn position. Also many crossbows do have safety mechanisms to prevent an accidental shot.