Boomerangs and throwing sticks

[Modern Savage]

Hi does anybody know of any good websites or books that could help me in making my first boomerang. It is one of my winter projects. Anything to stop me watching tv!!!

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

[takujohn]

I made and used a boomerang when I was  kid in school, but I couldn't say where to find the book I used, that was almost 50 years ago. As for throwng sticks, I use the Apache style, very easy to make and use. Just cut 2 sticks the exact same length and bind them together in the middle, kind of like a KungFu throwing star. The size of sicks you use depends on what you want to hunt. Smaller for rabbits and birds, bigger for men. Good tool for survival use, as all you need is your shoe strings to make one. if you don't have a pocket kniife to sharpen the ends, just scrape them on a flat rock until sharpened. I beleive there is a web site that gives more detailed instructions on the Apache throwing stick, I learned how to make one from my Great Grandfather, when I was around 8 years old. I came from a very poor family but after I learned how to make and use one we ate a lot of rabbits. Have a good one---Taku John

[Modern Savage]

Thanks for the info. I have looked into the Apache throwing stick. I don't know why they didn't show us that one while I was doing my Survival Instructor training. So easy to make!

I used to poach as well, mainly pheasants and rabbits and the occasional squirrel! Mainly using snares and other naughty little traps

My next project after the Boomerang and Apache Stick is a set of Bolas. Mainly used for Estaurine birds.

I have just started Archery so I guess a Bow and Arrows are also on the cards in the near future. It will be something I can do with my son in the winter when its not nice outside. As this is the best way for knowledge not to be lost. As knowledge is the greatest tool we possess and also the lightest.

[takujohn]

I put a lot of meat on the table with a bow in my teens, mainly deer. After my Great Grandfather taught me how to track a rabbit from the corn filed to his hole, he showed me how to catch it using a stick and my shoe strings. Tie the string around one end of the stick and make slip knot loop with the other end of the string and put it around the hole. When the rabbit sticks his head up you pull on the stick which pulls the rabbit out, then you crack him on the head with the stick. This sometimes take many hours of waiting, but you will get to eat that day.

[Modern Savage]

I have heard of the stick and loop method, but never actually known anybody to use it. I used to get rabbits with a catapult and small stones. If they were stunned a quick jerk of the neck to break it. Pheasants usually were caught with raisins and fishing line. Squirrels were normally caught with a snare on the tree trunk. When the animal gets caught it tries to kick off the trunk/branch the snare would tighten and it was long enough to ensure the animal could not get any grip. Hence meal on a piece of line


Was your Great Grandfather associated with Jim Bridger and the  Mountain Men?

All my survival training was received in the British Army and through my own learning from various other sources. I specialised in Temperate and Jungle survival.

[takujohn]

My Great grandfather said he met Jim Bridger at a rondevous once, but that is all he said about it, it was his first season out and he was only 14 at the time. My Great grandfather taught me from the time I was 5 until I was 12 when he died, he was in his late nineties. That winter I started working a trap line and lived off the land while I was out. Sometimes I would be out for as long as a month before my Mom would send my little brother out to find me. Mom didn't really worry about me, except that the school would keep buging her about why I wasn't in school. I ran the trap line until I was 16. At 17, I dropped out of school and joined the military, and was gone for 12 years. I did later graduate from college though. There I got a Chef's Degree and used it to travel around the world about 4 times, finally settled here in the Arizona desert after 13 years in Alaska. Pretty much have done most of what I set out to do when I was 17, except I have not been to Australia yet. That will be coming in the next year or two, if Obama dosen't really screw things up more than he has already. Have a good one-- Rev John

[Modern Savage]

Sounds cool. I am going to start teaching my kids when they reach 5. My son is 4 and loves fishing. They know where fruit and vegetables all come from.

I made an Apache throwing stick in about 5 mins on Friday evening and used it this morning to catch dinner!!! Rabbit stew! Thanks for the tip on that one. My son wants one of his own. I know what I am doing one evening this week now.

I hope you get the chance to go to Australia. One day I hope to visit there.

Happy paths

[pandorum]

here you have an excellent site for throwing sticks and just about anything paleo
everything about primitive skills and so

it is a huge and very good site (I'm a member of it to for a long time)

http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/

have fun

[Modern Savage]

Thanks for that. Its really informative.   

[pandorum]

Thanks for that. Its really informative.   

that is way I shared it
that site serves as my "paleo-bible"