Rabbit stick: a stout stick as long as your arm from fingertip to shoulder. Throw it overhand or sidearm. It works on small game that freezes in place when scared.
Trapping and fishing · Trapping and catching food course
Throwing stick, sling, spear and bow
The manual's killing devices are simple tools you can make in the field. They are also real weapons. Practice aim only at targets, never at animals outside a legal season, and never toward people.
Why this matters
When you have no gun or bow, the manual's simple tools are how you get small game. Making a bow, arrows and a slingsling A throwing tool: a pouch with two cords. Swing it and let go of one cord to fling a stone. also teaches woodworking, patience and aim.
Step by step
A rabbit stick Spear: jab with it; do not throw it. A thrown spear is a lost spear, and a lost knife lashed to it is a disaster.
Bow: a dry, knot-free hardwoodhardwood Wood from trees with broad leaves, like oak, maple and hickory. Burns long and makes good coals. stick about 1 meter long. Scrape the thick end until both ends bend the same. Always scrape the side that faces you, the inside of the bend, or the bow will break on the first pull.
Shaping and stringing a bow For more pull, lash a second bow to the first, front to front, so they form an X seen from the side, and string only one of them.
Arrows: the straightest dry sticks, about half the bow's length. Straighten them by warming over coals without scorching, and hold them straight while they cool. Cut a notch for the string; do not split the end.
Arrowheads can be bone, glass, metal or stone, or simply a sharpened, fire-hardened tip: hold it over coals until it dries hard, without burning it. Feathers help but are not needed.
Sling: two cords about 60 cm long tied to opposite ends of a palm-sized pouch of leather or cloth. Loop one cord around your middle finger, hold the other between thumb and finger, spin, and let go of the pinched cord.
All of these take practice. Set up a target well away from people, pets and windows, and check that bows and slings are allowed where you practice.
Tips from survival instructors
- Practice throwing only at a target like a stump or a cardboard box, with nobody and nothing you care about behind it.
- Fire-harden a wooden spear point by holding it near hot coals until it browns, not until it burns.
Common mistakes
- Scraping the outside of the bow's bend, which breaks it.
- Splitting the arrow nock instead of cutting it.
- Throwing the spear, and losing the knife tied to it.
- Practicing where a miss could hit a person, pet or window.
Practice it safely
Make a sling from two cords and a scrap of denim. Throw soft balls or pine cones at a cardboard box in an open yard or field, well away from people.
Quick check
How long should a rabbit stick be?
- As long as your finger
- As long as your arm, fingertip to shoulder
- Taller than you
Show the answer
As long as your arm, fingertip to shoulder
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Before you rely on thisA learning tool, not a replacement for training. In an emergency, call 911. Do not eat any plant, berry or mushroom here. This app never tells you a wild food is safe.