That is interesting. For big prey I can only imagine that was by standing up in a tree stand... The closest I ever stood to a deer in the wild is 20 feet, and I might be underestimating the distance...
That is the whole point of having it as a secondary knife... The reason I would make it a dagger is that being narrow and ground on both sides it is lighter per blade inch than any other design ground of the same stock... I would concede a sling bow would be much better and more accurate in the same weight range...
That is also why I chose a non-essential dagger... Also the shape of the dagger would be far more likely to slip out from the weight of the shaft... It seems very unlikely to me that such a shape would hold in the whole weight of the shaft...
Interesting, but it still sounds like a great challenge...
This is where I disagree: A slightly tip heavy spear is a more natural thrower, as the drag of the lighter shaft adds a bit of self-correction in flight (provided the shaft is dry!): This reduces the need for practice. Also there is no comparison in the injury that would be inflicted with a twin sharp edge versus the shallow rapidly healing ragged hole of an improvised point.
While the CS Bushman is more utilitarian and certainly attaches better to a shaft, one of my objections to it is that the broad very thin blade would "catch" the wind and worsen any induced yaw in flight... Also the single edge design is a shape more prone to staying stuck in the animal, and the flat spine might be oriented in a way that minimizes the injury, where the double edge would have broadened the cut from the weight of the shaft...
I think from the minimal chance you might get, you want to hit with the best point possible...
Gaston
The closest I ever stood to a live, wild deer is six feet. While bow hunting, he walked right past me, three feet away on a game trail on the way to a watering hole, then stood six feet away drinking water (I was on the ground). There are ways to get very close to big game, for example snare them first. It's not that hard to snare big game. And yes, tree stands. I know a guy who killed a black bear with a spear from a tree stand. The video and others used to be on You Tube. I also know a guy who killed a bear with an axe. The bear was denned. Denning bears goes on all the time up here, check it out. There was a public TV special about it.
I didn't see you mention a secondary knife, you may have. I would carry one large knife, take care of it and make my spears with other things.
It is a challenge, but survival is a challenge, jabbing is way less of a challenge than throwing. These are things I know from first hand knowledge. Either my own experience or from close acquaintances. By the way, early man didn't throw his spears, not at bears, not at mammoths, they jabbed.
A knife tied to a stick is not a slightly heavier tip, it's a grossly overweight tip. I give you javelins for instance, they do not have a heavy tip. Arrows with overweight tips fly horribly. Historically spears were not a throwing weapon, they were meant to be a jabbing weapon.
I can (I have) make a savagely sharp and deadly, double edged, spear tip with a large animal leg bone that would give any knife you want to carry a run for the money.
I think most of what you say is conjecture, I am not sure if you have tested many of the theories you have. I'd love to see you test them and show us the results. Maybe throw one of your spears at a target in the middle of a tire rolling past you.
In reality, much of this talk about big game is purely for academic reasons, in my survival trips I primarily depend on small game and fish for protein, I'm sure this would be true for most anybody in a survival situation.
Er...what?
