BEAR WITH ME

[RikJohnson]

This is going to be a looonngggg intro for very little reward.


The job of a Ranger is to Range! You don’t go into the Field, set up a nice camp and wait for a company of orcs to stumble across you so you can count them and all.
No, you Range far and wide, zig-zagging across the landscape seeking traces of them. An overturned stone, a broken branch, a trampled fern, a pile of orc-poop… Something that will give you info on their presence, numbers and goals. You visit farms and listen to the farmer’s kids tell you about that ‘monster’ in the woods. You sit in the back of a tavern listening to the regulars chatter, hoping for a clue. But you never remain in one place too long and you leave as little spoor as is possible.
This means that you carry as much of your food as possible, but forage as you travel, hiding the traces of your foraging as best as you can.

Ok, you have a 60+# longbow. But do you hint a deer? Probably not. It takes a long time to track a deer, put a broadhead into the (hopefully) heart or lung, then follow the blood-trail until the thing decides to die. THEN you have to butcher the animal in the field and decide what to keep and you KNOW that most of the animal is going to be left behind to rot! You have between 200-400 pounds of meat and hide and bone and you simply cannot carry all that when you are seeking info. So considering that you spend a day or three hunting the deer, then another day butchering the carcass (assuming a quick and clean kill) , you take what you can and LEAVE the rest to rot and have lost near a week!!! A week that will allow the enemy to move a hundred miles.
So what DO you hunt while Ranging? Probably rabbits! Varmants! Small game that are all over the place, will give a meal or two with little effort and even less waste. My morning walk shows a bunch of pigeons and wrens and a few rabbits but only one hawk and no deer. Guess what I will take and eat?

Ok, we’re getting there. Ever shoot a rabbit with a 30.06? The bunny explodes! Plus the sound of that rifle alerts everyone within miles of your presence. You hunt rabbits with a .410 or a .22-short. So why hunt for a rabbit with a 60# longbow and broadhead arrows? You’d probably take a 30# shortbow and blunt arrows. Even if you used your longbow (because that is what you have with you), you’d still carry some blunt arrows so the rabbit would remain intact and not bleed down your pant-legs and attract every wolf and fly in the territory.

Most of the blunts you can buy are plastic! The rest are steel and every expensive. A search this am revealed a LOT of screw-in blunts of a dozen designs but only plastic blunts for a wood-shaft. So we must make our own!

I’ve been working on this for literally months and months and months with every attempt a failure. Fine, the SCA and LARP people make blunts but I’d really rather not have to carry a few arrows with tennis-balls taped to the tip. I want something that looks at least … ‘period’ and works.
I tried taking a wood dowel, drilling an 11/32” hole and modifying the tip… epic fail! I tried.. well a lot of bad ideas until finally, this am I thought of this! Now I have not yet tried it, but….

I am thinking of a thin-walled steel tube with an ID of 11/32” Cut this maybe 1-2” long. Then take a large-head bolt with a short shank that will screw into that steel tube. Maybe epoxy it(?). File the head flat, then notch it with a file for roughage. There it is! Choose cheap Chinese bolts as they will be easier to file that some American Case-Hardened bolt.
If all the tubes are the same length, their weight will be equal. Then I can make one perfect head, weigh it and after epoxying a number of these bolts to the tubes, I can simply file down slowly until the weights match!

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Daerir]

why not just use field tips, combat and hunt worthy; all my arrows are bodkin tipped

[Daerir]

why not just use field tips, combat and hunt worthy; all my arrows are bodkin tipped

Opps missed the part about blood dripping, although bodkins arent designed for mass bleed out so im sure youd be okay

[E.MacKermak]

http://www.3riversarchery.com/the+%26qu ... eitem.html

http://search.3riversarchery.com/buy/br ... lunts-sgps

This might be a bit closer to what you want.

[Peter Remling]

If you want to try out your idea without investing a lot of work: take several .32 auto shell cases and epoxy them you an arrow shaft.

[ineffableone]

http://www.3riversarchery.com/the+%26qu ... eitem.html

http://search.3riversarchery.com/buy/br ... lunts-sgps

This might be a bit closer to what you want.

I use the Hammer blunts for small game, and they work great. I got mine from 3 Rivers. A fantastic place for archery supplies.

Any good hunter should have a few different types of arrows in their quiver. Not only broad heads and blunts, but Flu Flu fetching for shooting birds on wing are a good idea.

[Taurinor]

If you want something based on what is seen in medieval manuscripts, you probably are going to end up with what looks like an arrow with a tennis ball on the end of it. Well, a wooden tennis ball, anyway.

From The Taymouth Hours:


You can see other examples in The Lutrell Psalter and this 13th century bible illustration

Also in the History Channel's "The Real Robin Hood", Mike Loades discusses hunting with blunts in the Middle Ages and shows a blunt similar to the above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krtUcrcjVbs#t=495

That being said, "The Hammer" blunt linked to above kind of resembles a coronel-type lance tip, and is pretty awesome looking!

[ineffableone]

Here is some examples of old Viking style blunts.

[RikJohnson]

I LOVE the "hammer" with the "hex" as a close second. But at the listed cost, I won't be buying many.. .especially after spending $40+ last night on a dozen broadheads that I like.

I keep forgetting about the shell casing option. I should start hanging around the gunshops and get a few.

With Beltane over, my paddling buddies out-of-country or working overtime, I actually have no trips planned so can focus on making a selection of arrows and use up all those parts I've been collecting a bit-at-a-time.
3 years ago I was $30,000 in debt from a divorce and kid's college and Peace Corp bills.
Today, my total debt is less than $1k and will be gone by the end of this month so I actually have money for play!
at a cost! raman noodles, never going into the field alone (share gas), making gear from scraps over buying it, not dating....

[RikJohnson]

I should point out that I am trying to come up with something more "period" than the rubber ones. And more affordable than the ones mentioned at 3-Rivers.
I can make the wooden tips but have trouble drilling the holes stright.
I tried with wood beads.. but they kept splitting. Tried with dowels, but they were always lopsided.
I Don't own a metal lathe so that is out.

one post is correct, we SHOULD have a selection of heads for hunting, war, etc with us which is easier than multiple arrows (I'd grab the blunt when I needed a broadhead which would make that charging orc laugh his head off... just before he split my skull)

So I am trying t ocome up with an idea for a workable, affordable varment blunt that can be easily made and won't clash with the Garb.