Using Spears for Survival and Hunting: What do you know? (2024)

I was reading my copy of "Survival Knives" by James Ayres, the Special Forces man who wrote "The Tactical Knife". I have posted on here about his books and experiences before. In this book not only does he give a good overview and details about certain knives, and, has the Spyderco Military on the cover of the book, but, he has sections on survival tools and skills in a wide range of settings, including how to make spears for fishing and hunting.

He recommends extreme caution and my question to you all is this: Have any of you used spears to hunt or as practice in training and also what are some of the upsides and downsides and challenges to hunting with spears?

Our ancestors and even people in different tribes and places around the world today use spears still. There are many different kinds, from elaborate steel tipped spears to hand made fire hardened poles.

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:04 pm

I was reading my copy of "Survival Knives" by James Ayres, the Special Forces man who wrote "The Tactical Knife". I have posted on here about his books and experiences before. In this book not only does he give a good overview and details about certain knives, and, has the Spyderco Military on the cover of the book, but, he has sections on survival tools and skills in a wide range of settings, including how to make spears for fishing and hunting.

He recommends extreme caution and my question to you all is this: Have any of you used spears to hunt or as practice in training and also what are some of the upsides and downsides and challenges to hunting with spears?

Our ancestors and even people in different tribes and places around the world today use spears still. There are many different kinds, from elaborate steel tipped spears to hand made fire hardened poles.

Add a Go Pro before you throw it! :rolleyes:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -cake.html

Something about breeding and training dogs to hunt and catch hogs while the person uses either a long knife or spear to kill the hog harkens to me as a primal, true way to hunt. Likewise with bow or spear fishing. Those methods of collecting meat seem to resonate with me as the only pure ways to hunt, unless it's purely out of need to obtain food to survive, then it's simply use whatever works. Throw dynamite from a boat or set up feed traps and shoot them with a 30.06 from 50 yards away.

But spearing a pig that dogs you bred and trained to catch, bait, and wrestle while you dispatch the animal or using a bow or spear to fish seem primal and fair to all involved.

Extra330SC wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:18 pm

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:04 pm

I was reading my copy of "Survival Knives" by James Ayres, the Special Forces man who wrote "The Tactical Knife". I have posted on here about his books and experiences before. In this book not only does he give a good overview and details about certain knives, and, has the Spyderco Military on the cover of the book, but, he has sections on survival tools and skills in a wide range of settings, including how to make spears for fishing and hunting.

He recommends extreme caution and my question to you all is this: Have any of you used spears to hunt or as practice in training and also what are some of the upsides and downsides and challenges to hunting with spears?

Our ancestors and even people in different tribes and places around the world today use spears still. There are many different kinds, from elaborate steel tipped spears to hand made fire hardened poles.

Add a Go Pro before you throw it! :rolleyes:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -cake.html

I'm from Alberta and I didn't even know about that, but makes sense to ban it for big game. I live right beside a Native reserve so over the years I've learned or heard about a lot of traditional hunting and I've never heard of anyone going after a bear with a spear. Many Natives still make spears to go fishing with in mountain rivers, but tend to use handmade bows for small game.

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:04 pm

hunting with spears?

https://youtu.be/wwNbwPVFkSc

I agree. I have always been for hunting, both subsistence and survival, and I can understand how big game men and women can enjoy going out and getting the beasts. But what I do not like is arrogance and those who get a thrill out of inflicting pain on the beasts. I am sure most do not do that, or at least I hope they wouldn't because that would be very cruel. At the same time, those who want to make blanket bans on hunting for motivations like extremist animal rights reasons are nuts.

I am glad though that you have all shown that it is possible to take down large beasts and small alike with spears.

Here is my next question: How difficult would it be to take down a seriously deadly carnivore or other predator like a polar bear or grizzly or a big leopard with a spear?

A few years back the Cold Steel knife company was selling two types of spears. A good friend of mine bought one of their "boar spears" and I bought one of the "Samburu" spears at the same time. I had wanted to use the Samburu spear to try to kill a deer with. When I was still working in the north Missouri wetlands that place was literally filthy with whitetail deer and I had them come extremely close to me on many occasions and I thought that if I got up in a black oak or pin oak tree ( where the leaves stay on through the winter) that I might get a chance to stab one coming under a tree. But I never got around to it because I was extremely busy when I was working there.

But some day I would love to take it out of the storage unit and give it a try. Because those spears that Cold Steel sold were decent quality. I don't know if my friend ever got a wild hog with his or not. I haven't seen him or talked to him in over 5 years. He moved down south somewhere and I lost touch with him. But I would like to learn more about them and what makes a good quality spear.

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:08 pm

I agree. I have always been for hunting, both subsistence and survival, and I can understand how big game men and women can enjoy going out and getting the beasts. But what I do not like is arrogance and those who get a thrill out of inflicting pain on the beasts. I am sure most do not do that, or at least I hope they wouldn't because that would be very cruel. At the same time, those who want to make blanket bans on hunting for motivations like extremist animal rights reasons are nuts.

I am glad though that you have all shown that it is possible to take down large beasts and small alike with spears.

Here is my next question: How difficult would it be to take down a seriously deadly carnivore or other predator like a polar bear or grizzly or a big leopard with a spear?

How feasible hmmmm....I'll let you be the judge!
Medium sized female charging (BTW....Bears can run as fast as a horse in sprints ) https://youtu.be/wj7Z5oMWuIU

Trying to stop this guy (1000 lbs or more ) with a spear when he's pissed!?! https://youtu.be/RypUdGfiZ6E

I wouldn't want to try :eek: I'd feel very confident with my 300 Weatherby and 200 grain Nosler Partition . I don't shoot bears though!

James

For those of you interested in Hunting, Peter Capstick's book, Death in Silent Places is a fantastic read.
It includes a Story about the Tigererro, Sasha Siemel, who hunted Jaguars in Brazil using only a Spear with considerable success.
Not my cup of tea. I figure One would need Cajones the size of footballs for that..

On the Spear subject, I've just received a upgrade for my Crawford Walking Staff,
http://www.crawfordknives.com/SURVIVAL% ... GE%201.htm
which I've had for approx. 3x years.
Also some big bore blowgun darts and the Spear (3x prong) + the Gaff/ Fruit hook.

Great bit of kit which even though it is not cheap, is jolly well made and well thought out with a versatile set up.
So, when walking through the Bush clearing tracks last year, I came across lots of Pig sign.
Being only armed with my clearing Kukri and folding hand saw, it was time to revaluate my sanity and gear list.

So, as I always travel with the Staff, a Spear Point ( double edged knife) and adaptor seemed like at least a good idea.
Will I ever use it to stop a Boar (or Sow) charge? Doubtful, but at least it is a option if it can be screwed in quickly (unlikely) but as someone who used to hunt them in Jungle with rifle or preferably shotgun, I've had a few incidents where it would have been great to be able to put some distance between us.

My Father spent a night up a tree after his dogs were killed and he dropped his sawn off 410g shotgun when climbing up tree.
To add insult to injury, He had to listen to the Boar eating His dogs under the tree overnight.

kiwisailor wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:41 pm

For those of you interested in Hunting, Peter Capstick's book, Death in Silent Places is a fantastic read.
It includes a Story about the Tigererro, Sasha Siemel, who hunted Jaguars in Brazil using only a Spear with considerable success.
Not my cup of tea. I figure One would need Cajones the size of footballs for that..

On the Spear subject, I've just received a upgrade for my Crawford Walking Staff,
http://www.crawfordknives.com/SURVIVAL% ... GE%201.htm
which I've had for approx. 3x years.
Also some big bore blowgun darts and the Spear (3x prong) + the Gaff/ Fruit hook.

Great bit of kit which even though it is not cheap, is jolly well made and well thought out with a versatile set up.
So, when walking through the Bush clearing tracks last year, I came across lots of Pig sign.
Being only armed with my clearing Kukri and folding hand saw, it was time to revaluate my sanity and gear list.

So, as I always travel with the Staff, a Spear Point ( double edged knife) and adaptor seemed like at least a good idea.
Will I ever use it to stop a Boar (or Sow) charge? Doubtful, but at least it is a option if it can be screwed in quickly (unlikely) but as someone who used to hunt them in Jungle with rifle or preferably shotgun, I've had a few incidents where it would have been great to be able to put some distance between us.

My Father spent a night up a tree after his dogs were killed and he dropped his sawn off 410g shotgun when climbing up tree.
To add insult to injury, He had to listen to the Boar eating His dogs under the tree overnight.

Wild hogs are no joke and they are breeding at enormous rates worldwide, especially in the USA. They can, and will, kill you and eat you. They can reach enormous sizes. A half ton is not too unusual. Plus, they have an armored plate behind their heads that is difficult to penetrate with a firearm, much less a spear.

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Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King--
Else, wherefore born?" (Tennyson)

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Extra330SC wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:44 am

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:08 pm

I agree. I have always been for hunting, both subsistence and survival, and I can understand how big game men and women can enjoy going out and getting the beasts. But what I do not like is arrogance and those who get a thrill out of inflicting pain on the beasts. I am sure most do not do that, or at least I hope they wouldn't because that would be very cruel. At the same time, those who want to make blanket bans on hunting for motivations like extremist animal rights reasons are nuts.

I am glad though that you have all shown that it is possible to take down large beasts and small alike with spears.

Here is my next question: How difficult would it be to take down a seriously deadly carnivore or other predator like a polar bear or grizzly or a big leopard with a spear?

How feasible hmmmm....I'll let you be the judge!
Medium sized female charging (BTW....Bears can run as fast as a horse in sprints ) https://youtu.be/wj7Z5oMWuIU

Trying to stop this guy (1000 lbs or more ) with a spear when he's pissed!?! https://youtu.be/RypUdGfiZ6E

I wouldn't want to try :eek: I'd feel very confident with my 300 Weatherby and 200 grain Nosler Partition . I don't shoot bears though!

I have a very good friend who has one of those 300 Weatherby Magnums and it is a powerhouse rifle I'm here to tell you>> and when I was still hand loading the Nosler and Sierra bullets were my two picks for sure. Another pal of mine has a .375 Holland & Holland and I'm beginning to wonder if that was the cause of my shoulder having to be replaced a couple of years ago :o I had never been kicked so hard by a gun until I shot that bad boy a few times :o . I don't see how any living mammal on the face of the earth could take a shot out of either one of those guns ( providing they hit a vital organ) and keep coming at you.

Now back to the subject of spears. There were thousands of documented accounts of early Native Americans ( mostly indigenous Indian Tribes) that have killed every North American mammal with either a spear or some type of archery. That's all they had back in those days. The Europeans who settled this country didn't even have really good guns till about the late 1800s or early 1900s when you think about it. Many of the earlier flintlock or black powder guns were just nominally better than Native American archery at the time.

But yeah there were a lot of brave Native Americans that did kill Grizzly Bears and every other North American mammals with spears and archery.