Hunting with 'throwing sticks'! is it legal?

[Samon]

Can anyone explain, or better still post a video, of the technique to use with those "French/Swiss/whatever Arrow" things please?

You loosely wrap the cord with a knot at the end over a little indent on the upper end of the arrow and tie it to your finger on the other end. You draw tension in the cord so the knot end is not tied to the arrow but more like a bond between friction and tension. You then pinch the tip or pointy end of the arrow and throw it by normal means but the taught cord acts like an extended limb similar to an atlatl.

Lol one of the lads we told about them tried doing one with a dart head on the end.. let's just say it failed miserably and he's lucky he's not blind!

Hopefully you can find a video or intelligent diagram to explain them as they were wicked fun and surely a decent way to primitively hunt.

My dad told me they were 'invented' when archers had broken their bow and instead improvised by using the remaining string and their arrows to continue ranged attack. Doubt that's entirely accurate but it made sense of how it might have came about.

 

[Drain Bamaged]

@ Coldfeet....there is a Dave Canterbury video on youtube that shows and describes it pretty well, search 'Dave Canterbury, The Swiss Arrow (Pathfinder Dart)'.

 

[boatman]

Read The Crossbow by Sir Ralph Payne-Galloway has a section on arrow throwing and lots of other good stuff.

here is a section on arrow throwing it online
http://www.crossbowbook.com/page_243.html

 

[Big Si]

Try looking for "Rabbit Sticks" have used one in my younger days nearly 40 years ago on the farm where my dad worked. My dad used to use a claw hammer, he also used a lump hammer for rats and was pretty much a dead shot with it. French arrows, scotch arrows, throwing arrows, just depends on where you live, they come in all shapes and sizes. The best type is the one you spend the most time practicing with.
Si

 

[mrostov]

Read The Crossbow by Sir Ralph Payne-Galloway has a section on arrow throwing and lots of other good stuff.

here is a section on arrow throwing it online
http://www.crossbowbook.com/page_243.html

Here is that book in several formats for free.

https://archive.org/details/Book_of_the_Crossbow_The_by_Sir_Ralph_Payne-Galloway

 

[Jack Bounder]

I used to make dutch arrows. When I first saw them in action, I was blown away by how far they could be thrown. I was young and foolish and tried "hunting" with them and never met with any success.

 

[mrostov]

If you get a chance, watch a documentary called "I, Caveman". They tried to recreate the conditions of Ice Age Europe in the Colorado Rockies using modern humans wearing only period clothing and using period tools. They managed to kill an elk with an atlatl and dart.

 

[Robson Valley]

Here in British Columbia, there is a law about "no shooting" around the entire foreshore of Okanagan Lake. I lived in a waterfront beach house for a year.
The amount of Canada Goose crap on the beach in the winter was astounding. I had to train my little kids to mind their shoes and take them off to come in, every day.

Then one dark and gloomy day in early December (within the legal hunting season), 2 guys in ghillie suits crawled across the beach in front of my house.
Each had 4-5 aluminum boomerangs in the belts on their backs. Each whacked the heads off 5 geese (the legal limit), packed up their toys and went home.
No muss, no fuss, no noise = clinical lesson. Cleaner beach. I do believe that they wer back a couple of times when we weren't home. I hope that they did as well.

 

[Coldfeet]

Read The Crossbow by Sir Ralph Payne-Galloway has a section on arrow throwing and lots of other good stuff.

here is a section on arrow throwing it online
http://www.crossbowbook.com/page_243.html

@ Coldfeet....there is a Dave Canterbury video on youtube that shows and describes it pretty well, search 'Dave Canterbury, The Swiss Arrow (Pathfinder Dart)'.

You loosely wrap the cord with a knot at the end over a little indent on the upper end of the arrow and tie it to your finger on the other end. You draw tension in the cord so the knot end is not tied to the arrow but more like a bond between friction and tension. You then pinch the tip or pointy end of the arrow and throw it by normal means but the taught cord acts like an extended limb similar to an atlatl.

Lol one of the lads we told about them tried doing one with a dart head on the end.. let's just say it failed miserably and he's lucky he's not blind!

Hopefully you can find a video or intelligent diagram to explain them as they were wicked fun and surely a decent way to primitively hunt.

My dad told me they were 'invented' when archers had broken their bow and instead improvised by using the remaining string and their arrows to continue ranged attack. Doubt that's entirely accurate but it made sense of how it might have came about.

Thanks for the advice, I'll check out the DC vid. I'm sure it's easy enough, just doesn't convey well in words

 

[atlatlman]

Wow this has just brought back some memories. When I was a kid my dad taught me how to make what we called a 'Flying Arrow' which was essentially a length of bamboo about 50cm long with flights slid into the back (like dart flights) made for an old cornflake box, then just below the flights a groove was cut around the stick and a length of string was used to throw it, we used an old bolt to weigh the end down with.Me and my brother would spend hours in the back field throwing them at targets (not animals i should add). I even remember trying to sell them in the primary school paper for something like 50p each! I may have to make one this weekend to show the little one.

I made myself a Swiss arrow a few months back. I can get a good old distance with it but my accuracy stinks.

 

[boatman]

A friend of mine made and gave me three types of ankyle, cords that wrap round javelins to improve accuracy and distance when thrown. They work very well and mitigate the disappointment I feel when trying to throw a reenactment javelin without an aid.

https://www.academia.edu/1406260/Th...nkyle_at_Increasing_the_Distance_of_the_Throw