With crossbow expert can you wield.crossbow in both hands and what if you take two weapon fighting

Unfortunately no.  Even with those feats you need a free to load the crossbow.  That's RAW.  Technically you can't even preload them to fire later although that's a little silly.

However, crossbow expert mechanically does the same thing as two weapon fighting in that it let's you use your bonus action to fire another crossbow bolt.  You could flavor it that you actually are holding two separate crossbows and it wouldn't mechanically change anything except that you'd need another hand crossbow.  

No. The ammunition property needs a free hand anyway, so might as well use a bigger crossbow. Unless you have the crossbow expert feat, 25 extra GP, and nothing better to do with your bonus action.

[Edit]changed loading to ammunition. Wrong property.

UNLESS you're wielding a Peace Breaker hand crossbow ;)

Even with the Crossbow Expert feat it's not possible. While that feat allows you to ignore the Loading property - Hand Crossbows still have the Ammunition property which still requires a free hand to reload.

And since the feat allows you to shoot again with a Bonus Action with a single Hand Crossbow - using two wouldn't net you any extra attacks or damage even if you could use two.

You *could* load two hand crossbows before combat, dual wield them, and then put one of them away for the rest of the fight. You can fire it, you just cant re-load it.

And the DM might ask you to do a save against accidentally setting them off if you're carrying around loaded crossbows for too long before combat and doing strenuous activity, since crossbows are not like guns where you can just load it as t the beginning of the day and fire when you need to.

Yeah, you can wield two hand crossbows for a single shot each. But for ongoing use, it's going to be super clumsy and require setting one down to load the other, much like one might imagine in real life.

Man, I want dual repeating crossbows.

Ok what about the articifer 8th level ability to magically load weapons. So the reloading requirement is negated. Could a ranger with two weapon fighting use dual hand crossbows?

The ranger would have sharpshooter and crossbow expert feats

Like I said earlier there'd be no point. Crossbow Expert feat gives you the bonus action attack with a single Hand Crossbow. And it also removes the Loading property so you can use the same single Hand Crossbow for the extra attack of the Ranger too. So you can shoot all 3 times with just the one with one feat.

Technically yes the 8th level Artificer's "Repeating Shot" infusion would allow you to use two Hand Crossbows at the same time as long as both were infused. But again - you wouldn't gain any more attacks over just using the one crossbow. You will still only shoot 3 times. And in fact in this case - the only reason you're able to bonus action attack is because of the Crossbow Expert feat. Without it - Two Weapon Fighting only allows for dual wielding melee weapons and wouldn't give you the bonus action attack.

Quote from rakassan101 >>

Ok what about the articifer 8th level ability to magically load weapons. So the reloading requirement is negated. Could a ranger with two weapon fighting use dual hand crossbows?

The ranger would have sharpshooter and crossbow expert feats

1) Yes

2) No

You can never use two-weapon fighting with hand-crossbows:

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand. You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.

If either weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.

A Crossbow, Hand is not a melee weapon.

 Thank you all very much.  Apreciate how quickly and thoroughly you responded.  I believe my hang up was "melee" weapons.  But i got 3 attacks no matter what.  If dual wielding two daggers. Best id get is 3 attacks if throwing or stabbing.

Quote from rakassan101 >>

 Thank you all very much.  Apreciate how quickly and thoroughly you responded.  I believe my hang up was "melee" weapons.  But i got 3 attacks no matter what.  If dual wielding two daggers. Best id get is 3 attacks if throwing or stabbing.

How? You don't have the Extra Attack feature from Artificer, so best is one attack with your action, and 1 attack with your bonus action (if qualified).

I think the idea was to be a Ranger and get another Artificer to infuse their weapons.

Quote from Sigred >>

You can never use two-weapon fighting with hand-crossbows:

 Under the Crossbow Expert Feat:

• When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding.

Generally speaking, the number of attacks isn't really important (unless it's only 1 - which would be lame). 

The important bit is the IMAGE - A character dodging about the battlefield with a crossbow in each hand. Have none of you played Diablo??

Quote from Wysperra >>

Quote from Sigred >>

You can never use two-weapon fighting with hand-crossbows:

 Under the Crossbow Expert Feat:

• When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding.

 This is not "two-weapon fighting" though. In fact, you can't attack with that hand crossbow if their is another weapon in your hand. The feat is to let you make 2 attacks (not counting extra attacks) with only a hand crossbow.

Quote from Wysperra >>

Generally speaking, the number of attacks isn't really important (unless it's only 1 - which would be lame). 

The important bit is the IMAGE - A character dodging about the battlefield with a crossbow in each hand. Have none of you played Diablo??

 I have not.

Sorry if I'm wrong, but I think I'm missing your point DxJxC. With Crossbow Expert, you should be able to dual-wield hand crossbows ?

If you have extra attack, you could shoot both bolts from your "main hand", thanks to the feat letting you ignore the Loading trait. Then, because you used the attack action and attacked with a one-handed weapon (the feat doesn't require it to be melee), you can use your bonus action to shoot another bolt (with the other crossbow, or even the same one).

If you have extra attack, I also believe you should be able to attack twice with crossbow without this feat, if you have one in each hand, since the loading trait would apply to each weapon separately. Reloading would be awkward, but there's no rule saying you need a free hand to reload. You wouldn't get a 3rd attack as a bonus action without the feat though.

This is not technically "two-weapon fighting", but it's an emulation of TWF through a feat. Or am I mistaken ?

What part of the Feat text says you CAN'T make an attack with a hand crossbow with one hand and use the bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow in the other hand?

Everybody should play Diablo III  =)

Quote from ClementP >>

Sorry if I'm wrong, but I think I'm missing your point DxJxC. With Crossbow Expert, you should be able to dual-wield hand crossbows ?

 …

This is not technically "two-weapon fighting", but it's an emulation of TWF through a feat. Or am I mistaken ?

It is not the "two-weapon fighting" rule, correct.

Most players use "two-weapon fighting" and "dual-wield" to mean the same thing, so it avids confusion to not use either term when talking about the Bonus Action attack granted by feats like Crossbow Master and Polearm Master.

Note that the Bonus Action attack granted by Crossbow Master (and Polearm Master) does add your ability score modifier to damage.