Archery for Prepping and Survival

good evening my name is Scott Moore and I would like to welcome you to the SOS summer survival webinar series I have been asked tonight to answer the question does archery have a place in a survival or preparedness scenario and of course I feel that the answer to that question is absolutely tonight I’m going to discuss how to choose the proper archery equipment the use of archery equipment for hunting and food procurement the use of archery equipment from a tactical perspective and white archery equipment at times can be better than firearms and lastly I will discuss the making of field expedient archery gear first and foremost how to choose the proper archery equipment as far as bows are concerned we first have to make a decision if we’re going to go with a traditional bow a compound bow or a crossbow I’m going to say that my choice hands down for archery equipment for a survival situation is going to be a traditional bow with that meaning a self bow a longbow or a recurve bow and the reason very simply is because a compound bow or a crossbow for the most part has moving parts that need maintain that we would not be able to repair ourselves in the field without some specialized equipment and with a traditional bow there’s few moving parts there’s very little that can go wrong with that bottle and it’s easy to maintain so as we start discussing the different types of traditional bows we start with a self bow which is very simply a bow that has been carved out of a piece of wood I’m going to call this a last resort the next beau up in the line would be a modern manufacturer laminated longbow this is a very good buzz very consistent it’s very easy to shoot but it has a limitations of its length it cannot be broken into a smaller package so you have to be able to transport it and handle it and deal with it as is so for that reason this would be my second choice my first choice and the bow that I would prefer in a survival situation would be a modern takedown recurve bow this bow is very easy to shoot it’s the most powerful of the traditional bows and the takedown feature on this bow makes it very easy to pack and transport this bow consists of a handle or riser two limbs and they strain the weight of this bow is designed this bow can be put together and taken apart in the field without tools we simply loosen the limb bolt we grab the appropriate limb we put this limb in place insert the limb bolt through the limb tighten this down and tight and you can in just a few moments assemble your bow and have this bow ready to go is a functional weapon as you see is we’re sitting here talking this is just taking a few minutes can I now have this bow ready to string up and use take this bow apart very quickly all we have to do is loosen these limb bolts take the limbs off well I have this riser in my hand I’m going to point out to you the benefits of a recurve for accurate shooting but the handle on this riser is shaped to be gripped in a very consistent manner so it’ll give you consistency when you’re shooting the shelf on this bow is cut to Center because your arrow is traveling through the center of the bow instead of being cast off to the side which a lot of bows are it makes it very easily easy to shoot this boat accurately and it also makes a multitude of different shafts shoot well on the same bow so again my final answer on what is the proper bow for a survival or preparedness situation I’m going hands down with a takedown recurve bow now once we get past the point of deciding which bow we’re going to use the couple of questions that need answered our number one how long is this bow going to be and how powerful is this bow going to be as far as draw weight there are some very short bows on the market as short as 48 to 52 inches that are very appealing because of their compactness but from the standpoint of accurate shooting I would steer away from bows that are that short I would stick with a takedown recurve bow that is 58 to 62 inches long as far as the poundage of the bow goes the average adult male can handle shooting a 40 to 45 pound bow without too much difficulty even if he has not been shooting archery a long time a 40 to 45 pound recurve bow is powerful enough to do what we want to do and yet it is not so powerful as to be hard to shoot and there are reasons that you might not consider that make it advantageous to have a bow that’s not quite so powerful if you’re shooting say a 60 pound bow and you miss your mark and your arrow gets a hard object such as a tree or a rock you can just about guarantee that you’re going to end up with a damaged arrow that is no longer of any use if you stick with a bow around 40 45 pounds you can shoot that bow more accurately your arrows have less of a tendency to shoot through your targets if you miss your target and you get a hard object your arrows have a much better chance of surviving that blow in being able to be used on subsequent hunting adventures alright now that we have our bow of choice and we’re satisfied with our weapon there’s a few pieces of equipment that we need to protect ourselves so that we can shoot this weapon comfortably first and foremost as we pull this bow back to shoot it we want to protect our arm from being hit by the string so we’re gonna need an armed guard so I have a simple leather arm guard here ladies all the time put this on real quick so now we have protection from the bowstring hitting our arm now the hand that we shoot the bow with we need protection on our fingers so that our fingers are not burned by the string through repeated shooting we basically have a choice between a glove and a Tam the glove encompasses your entire fingers gives you a lot of protection from the string but the two things that I personally don’t like about a glove is first and foremost you lose the dexterity in your fingers to grip and do other things you kind of lose your fine motor skills while you’re wearing this glove the reason I prefer a tab and this is just a piece of leather then it’s cut to the right shape this goes on my ring finger then when I grab my bow and pull it back this goes on the string and protects my fingers from the string the other thing I like about a tab is but I’m not actually going to make a shot I can simply turn this tab around on my finger and I can use my hand and maintain my dexterity and fine motor skills now in a minute I’m going to get into the arrows and the different types of arrows and what type of arrow you might prefer to have in a survival situation but before I talk about arrows I want to talk about Quivers the first quiver that I want to discuss is a back quiver and this is the quiver that has all the nostalgia and romance attached to it but it is not necessarily the best quiver the benefit of this quiver is that it holds a very large amount of arrows this quiver goes across your shoulder so on your back it’s out of your way your hands are free pulls a lot of arrows but to get the arrows out have to reach back grab an arrow and pull it out also these arrows clatter make quite a bit of noise in this quiver and they’re sticking out above your head and they tend to get caught in the brush and rattle and bang around now as you’re stalking through the woods if you can swing this quiver around cradle it under your arm and kind of guide it through the brush and keep it quiet but again the benefits this quiver is you can hold a lot of arrows the disadvantage is this quiver are your areas we’re sticking up above your head you can caught the brush they rattle around they make noise and most importantly if you’re wearing a backpack the back quiver just doesn’t do well at the backpack so it holds a lot of arrows it’s a good place to store your arrows in camp but to actually carry out in the field hunting might be some limitations to the back quiver the next quiver so I’m going to discuss there just a side quiver I have just made this side to ever out of a wool blanket trimmed it with some leather this quiver just hangs on the belt and literally hangs at your side it holds a lot of arrows you can hold this quiver in your hand as you’re walking and kind of cradle the arrows and keep them from rattling around you can kind of steer the end of your arrows to the brushes you’re walking it’s not in the way of a backpack so there are a lot of advantages to a side quiver and I use one quite a bit the third type of quiver that I want to discuss and the one that I use the most often is a bow quiver that literally straps right to your bow this bow quiver is very light it’s very small it doesn’t take up much room the limitation is that it only holds four or five arrows so you can’t take a lot of arrows with you but the upside is they are ready at hand when you Needham they’re not in the way of anything else it’s a nice tight package with your bow and I just really prefer a bow quiver this is my actual hunting bow they like lump with all the time any of you that have watched my videos you’ve seen me using this bow to all successfully love deer and hauls this is the very quiver I just showed you on the bow and as you can see it makes a real streamline tight package on the bow very little weight it doesn’t affect the way I shoot at all and when I need an arrow the arrow is right here at hand and very accessible so again a back quiver you’ve been carrying a lot of arrows but you got to contend with them being on your back making some noise it kind of interferes with a backpack the side quiver can go right on your side you can keep a hold of your arrows you can maneuver them through brush you kind of keep them quiet it again holds a lot of arrows if you have the option of bringing gear with you such as in a preparedness situation I would highly recommend the bow quiver that’ll be your best bet for keeping your air I’m safe the sharp broad heads protected and have your arrows where you need them when you need them I am now going to start discussing arrows is there the most vital link in an archery system I’m going to discuss the different materials that arrows are made out of I’m going to discuss the knots the feathers the points is like get into the various types of small game and large game hunting points we’re going to segue into using archery for hunting and food procurement just to show you an example of the different arrows and the different materials that they are made out of we start with simply a sharp stick with a knock slot on one end and this end car to a point we progress from there to a primitive arrow that does have fletching tied on in a stone point that is haft it on the front end with pine pitch high glue and sinew from that point we progress to a wooden arrow that is made with modern tooling that is designed for arrow manufacture from this point we progress to the aluminum arrow which enables you to have different points that screw on to the end in the final progression from the aluminum arrow is the arrow that is most commonly available today and that is a carbon arrow that is made out of a hollow tube of carbon fibers I’m going to go ahead and get a close-up with these arrows and we’re going to start discussing the different components and the various options that are available to you in a survival for preparedness scenario when we start talking about shafting material of the three choices being wood aluminum or carbon wood is most definitely the oldest shaft material known to man the drawbacks of a wood shaft are they’re less durable they’re prone to warping breakage but they can definitely be used as a functional air shaft from a preparedness standpoint I think we’re dealing just about specifically with aluminum or carbon I am not necessarily recommending the new carbon arrows as a go-to arrow shaft material for a preparedness situation the reason is this to make and maintain a carbon arrow that requires some specialty tools and a little bit of training to deal with the components in the glues in the various aspects of making and maintaining a carbon arrow the aluminum arrow shafts are not as readily available but for the use that we’re discussing in this webinar I would think long and hard about using the old style aluminum arrow shafts that have a swedge knock taper on the end and I’ll tell you specifically why this is an advantage when we’re dealing with NOx in today’s industry with the carbon arrows we are dealing with what is called a pen knock these carbon shafts as with the aluminum or hollow and these NOx have a pen that is inserted into the hollow back end the carbon shaft that makes a very neat system you don’t need glue you can rotate the nock on the shaft to make to Lima adjustments with your shafting but the problem with this setup is if you are in a situation where you have limited resources no way to go to the sporting goods store to buy more and you have to maintain the six or ten or twelve arrow shafts that you have and use them over a long period of time if when practicing or any other shooting you shoot one arrow and then when you shoot your second arrow you put the point of the arrow into the nock and break it or else you shoot two arrows that slap together and break one of these knocks off flush with the carbon shaft with the pen still embedded in the carbon shaft you have just about rendered that arrow useless is very difficult without the proper tools to remove that pin without damaging the shaft and then replacing that knock did I draw back two carbon arrows if you’re with limited tools and resources is that to cut this carbon shaft to length requires a high-speed saw blade so at the end doesn’t tear and fray and splinter the reasons I’m suggesting possibly it is worth getting some of the old-style aluminum shafts is because with this old style aluminum shaft with the swedge not taper you have glue on knocks that fit this taper and if you break or destroy or damage this nock you can scrape and clean off this tapered aluminum cone and replace it with a new knock this is going to be the one component of your arrows that are going to be the most likely to receive damage and need replacing to maintain your arrows integrity as a useful shaft also these knocks are very inexpensive you can get a hundred of these for just about ten dollars and that will get you a lot of shooting in the other benefit to this aluminum shaft if you need to cut this shaft to length maybe you’ve damaged the end of it and you want to cut it back and make a shorter shaft for a woman or a child to shoot you can cut this shaft with a hacksaw if you have to and clean up the edges or the most effective way to do it with the tool that you have at the house is just to simply using a tubing cutter for the tubing cutter you can make precise cuts on these aluminum shafts and leave the end of them nice and clean so that you can put the proper components in place and everything will fit nice true and snug I’m now going to go ahead and start showing you all the components to put the air together from the nock moving forward to the point I want to start our discussion about feathers by talking about the different materials that feathers are made out of most of the feathers on today’s arrows that are purchased at the store to be shot out of compound bows are fleshed with a plastic fletching that is normally fairly small and I don’t recommend this for shooting out of a recurve for traditional bow for several reasons your traditional bow is going to be shot off of this shelf right here and you have a rug rest any side plate this is beneficial because there are no moving parts nothing to break this can be maintained and these pieces can be replaced with household items but to shoot an arrow with plastic vanes on it what this plastic vane is going to have a tendency to do is skip up off that rest as it goes past and it causes erratic arrow flight and it’s difficult to tune the bow and to shoot that bow accurately when we’re dealing with feathers these feathers do what they were designed to do as they pass over this shelf they’re going to collapse and give you a much smoother arrow flight and launch off of the shelf of this bow now as far as the feathers go there are different shapes this shaped feather right here is called a parabolic shape the parabolic shape is very quiet is probably the most popular shape used the other shape we have here is more traditional this is called a shield cut feather in the shield cut feather sometimes there’s a little bit noisier in flight another variation the fletching that we have is called a flu flu the flu flu arrow is designed for being shot into the air it’s for aerial shooting and it uses four to six full height uncut feathers to create enough wind drag that the arrow will not go too far when it’s shot up in the air another variation of the flu flu arrow right here this is one continuous long feather that is prepped spirally around the shaft and this gives you a good example of the various types of feather fletchling but for the most part we’re going to deal with using three parabolic or shield cut feathers on our arrow shafts I now want to talk about the front end of the arrow and discuss the various methods of attaching points based on what shafting material we’re dealing with I have several components laying here on the table that I want to discuss we have right here an insert that gets glued into the end of aluminum or carbon arrows to receive screw on points we have adaptors here both metal and aluminum that the glue on points can be glued to to be screwed into this insert we also have right here examples of some screw on practice points and hunting heads and this right here is some glue on practice points and hunting heads if we start with a wooden arrow shaft we have to put a taper on the end of this shaft that will receive these blue LAN points we have a taper tool that is very similar to a pencil sharpener the end of this wooden shaft goes into the taper tool the shaft is rotated and it cuts the perfect taper on the end of this shaft which by the way is a 5 degree taper that is the industry standard which will accept any glue on point that is purchased commercially and these points will go right off the end of that taper and you have a nice point connection there to put these on permanently you simply use a hot melt glue and a heat source you melt this glue we would put it on the taper and when you put your filled point or hunting point on give it a little spin make sure it’s on there true and you have a good connection of your point onto a wooden shaft now when we are dealing with aluminum and carbon shafts we are dealing with a shafting material that is a hollow tube so we have here in insert that glues into the front end of the air shaft and then gives you a point of connection so that you can take a screw on practice point or hunting head and this will simply screw on to the end of this shaft and you now have your point attached and this gives you the option with one single arrow to put a practice point on a practice and then later put a hunting point on to go into the field and try to collect some gain and that leads me to a discussion of the various types of points and what they’re used for and this will also lead into a discussion about hunting and food procurement and I think I’m going to go ahead and just start by showing you the multitude of different choices for small game heads moving all this out of the way the purpose of a small game point is to fold a small game point is generally designed first and foremost to kill a small game animal by basically blunt-force trauma it is also some of them are designed so that if a shot is missed or if the arrow passes through the game animal that the arrow is hard to lose in the grass and is easy to relocate so that it can be used again and there are various small game points on the market some of these old some of these new and all let’s discuss them one by one this is a standard small game point that has been used for many years there’s just a blunt it has a flat surface that is designed to impart a shocking blow when a small game animal struck something that can be made at home in your shop kind of do the same thing this is nothing more than a screw on field point then I have put a small washer behind so when this point is screwed into the arrow you still have a sharp point but you also have a flat striking surface created by this washer which imparts a lot of shock to kill the animal and it also helps prevent the arrow shaft from passing completely through the animal right here is an example of a commercial rendering for the same concept this is a piece of punched out steel that actually has some fins that does some cutting and tissue damage to help and anchor in your game it again goes right on behind the field point screwed onto your arrow and readily adapts your practice point into a small game head we also have a rubber block that just slips over top of an airshaft or any point you have on it these are called bunny Busters and they do a reasonably good job of harvesting rabbits and they do a very good job of cushioning the impact if your arrow hits a stump or a rock and it helps preserve your arrow from being broken this is a very specialized head it’s called a wiki judo point in this head has spring wire arms on it that are spring-loaded so that when this hits in tall grass or brushed or anywhere else it tends to stand the arrow up that prevents the arrow from slithering under grass and leaves and debris makes the arrow very hard to lose and this is an extremely effective small game point time-tested been around for years and years and years I personally use these for 20 years and I like them very much now as far as broadheads go for hunting larger game first of all we can just pretty much divide broadheads into several categories the modern broad head is typically used by a compound bow hunter today is a replaceable blade broad head this is a broad head where the components come apart and the blades can be replaced as they are used or damaged these heads are basically not intended to be resharpened these heads are intended to be used to shoot a large game animal and from that point forward that head normally needs the blades replaced to continue using I don’t want to say anything disparaging about these modern broad heads but for our intended purpose getting ready for a survival or a preparedness scenario where we want our gear to last long term with minimal need to purchase more parts I’m going to rule out these modern replacement blade broadheads I would highly recommend that we go with broad heads that are solid one-piece they’re typically referred to as glue on broad heads and there’s basically two kinds we have here a two blade broad head was just like a knife blade or a spear point if you will then we have a three-blade broadhead which has multiple blades to use these broad heads on an aluminum or a carbon arrow we will need to get an adapter and these heads will have to be glued to the adapter so that the adapter can then be screwed on to an aluminum or a carbon arrow but this is not an all drawback this system is not hard to put together and it’s a very sturdy system that will withstand repeated use with a limited number of broad heads these broad heads you can sharpen them yourselves and as you use them and render them dull and the need of further sharpening it’s very easy to resharpen them these two blade broad heads right here it’s very easy to take a small mil file and using this file go ahead and sharpen these broad heads and maintain a sharp edge and take care of any damage that the head might have occurred shooting game with the three-blade broadhead so I’ll pull one out here I have mounted on a wooden arrow these three blank broad heads I realize the color and this will not be kind of hard to see very easy to sharpen these three blade broadheads I simply take a honing stone and I’ll lay this head flat on the stone and sharpening two blades simultaneously make passes on this honing stone while rotating the head and it is again very easy for someone on their own in camp to maintain these heads keep them sharp and be able to use them for repeated trips to the field to successfully harvest the game animal now as far as archery as a means of hunting and food procurement there are many advantages to archery that might not be considered all the time first and foremost a bow is generally a silent weapon so you can collect game without alerting other game or any people to your presence you might be in a situation where you want to hunt game within a open or rural area where a firearm might be dangerous because of the distance that a bullet can travel ricochet things of this nature using archery equipment enables you to hunt in and around buildings vehicles a populated area and be relatively safe and secure the knowledge that your arrows nothing to get that far away from you or cause any harm or damage also when collecting small game animals or large game animals an arrow does minimal damage to the meat in comparison to a lot of firearms so this also is of great benefit as far as the specific type of broadheads to be used for game animals I noted earlier that for the average adult male that maybe doesn’t pursue archery as a longtime field of endeavor you need to stick with a bow that is around forty to forty-five pounds draw weight this is going to enable you to shoot accurately practice without fatigue it’s going to suit you better a lot of times we have the mindset that’s something that is more powerful is better but in the case of a recurve bow or a longbow a lot of times that power it hurts accuracy but there are certain broad heads that I’m going to recommend using based on the fact that we are not going to be shooting a lot of poundage to shoot a broad head such as this which is a three-blade broadhead the broad head itself has more surface area and might possibly take a little bit more power to penetrate if it strikes bone thick high things of this nature if you’re using a bow in the 40 45 pound range you absolutely have enough power to take down a deer a small boar but you’re going to be better off if you stick with a broad head such as I’m go ahead and put this on the end of an arrow you’re gonna be better off if you stick with a broad head that has two blades this broad head does not require near as much foot-pounds of energy to penetrate because of the sleek profile of the head and while I’m on the subject of penetration I’m going to add very quickly that there are several factors that determine how an arrow penetrates in a hunting situation you have the speed that the arrow was traveling the physical weight of the arrow and the configuration of the head on the end of the arrow and the fourth component that is the most important is how true the area was flying if your bow is well tuned and your arrow it is flying laser straight there a bit of force behind that arrow is being directed to the very point where the arrow is making impact and all that energy is being used to you penetrate the arrow through the game animal if your bow is poorly tuned if your equipment is mismatched and your arrow is flying erratically if your arrow strikes that animal at an angle and this is going to be kind of slapping into the animal and then force to straighten out while penetrating it is going to greatly impede penetration I will tell you from personal experience that a well-tuned bow that is shooting an arrow with excellent straight arrow flight that is 40 45 pounds is going to penetrate better than a 70 pound bow if the arrow is flying erratically and striking the game animal at an angle so my recommendation is to stick with these two blank broad heads that you can sharpen yourself and use a palliative bow that’s light enough that you can very accurately make your shot and keep everything well in hand I’d like to take just a few minutes right now and discuss why I feel that there are times when the archery equipment can be better than firearms as a weapon archery equipment is silent it’s portable lightweight and compared to firearms very affordable we might find a time in this country when firearms are prohibited or outlawed and archery equipment might very well be legal to own as of right now there is no paperwork to buy archery equipment there is no registration there is no background check you can reuse your ammo provided that you can find and retrieve your arrows if the skill level is there you can make archery equipment on site from natural materials which is something that would be very difficult to do with a firearm so for these reasons I feel that there are times when archery equipment can be better than firearms as far as using archery equipment from a tactical perspective goes archery equipment can be used as more than a weapon archer equipment can be used as a signal device as a message delivery system as a tactical distraction as a retrieval device and as a sending device as a signal device it could be as simple as shooting an arrow into your neighbor’s yard and based on previous communication a red arrow means one thing in a yellow arrow means another just to get someone’s attention hurt a lot of know someone’s coming you can shoot an arrow into close proximity of their position as a message delivery system you can take that one step further and literally put a note on a piece of paper we wrap it around the shaft of the arrow and literally shoot it over to where someone in another position can retrieve it and read the note as a tactical distraction think of what it would mean if you could have something like an m-80 very small display of device that you could shoot a hundred yards away and have go off maybe behind the enemy’s position over to a side to distract them it could simulate gunfire to the point where someone might think that you were going on the defense and trying to flank them your imagination is the only limitation – what you could do with that type of scenario as far as using archery gear from a tactical perspective as a retrieval device or sending the Vice I’m going to discuss that in further detail here in just a minute I’m gonna start showing you some archery gear that can be made out of what you have literally in your kitchen in your shop in your toolbox and at that time I’m gonna just show you a little bit more about how you can use a bow and arrow for a retrieval device or a sending device to start my discussion about making archery tackle out of everyday items I want to start with what I feel would be absolutely the most useful item you could have in a survival situation and that is a way to shoot an arrow that has a string attached to it so that you can shoot fish or anything in the water and from a tactical perspective use that same arrow to retrieve things without exposing yourself getting out of a cover position or to send a line over a lamb or a cross they ravine to maybe start the process of starting a suspension bridge or getting something lifted up in the air what I have here is very simply a one-pound coffee can and I have taken and made a little handle out of camouflage duct tape so that I can hold this with my bow hand when I’m shooting my bow I have some line wrapped around the can and I have a bobby pin taped to the edge so that when I why my string up I can catch it under the bobby pin to hold it in position I have the string tied to an arrow this particular arrow is a cane arrow that I made under a primitive situation and the way to use this is to take and hold this can in your bow hand hold your bow in a shooting position when you load this arrow on your string you have a situation where you can shoot your bow the drag of the string on your arrow does not affect the arrow fly at all and it allows you to shoot fish you have a bar point I’ll show you that closer in just a minute and you can pull your fish in more importantly as in as I mentioned from a tactical perspective if you need to retrieve something that’s out where you do not want to go you can take and you can shoot this arrow and do one of two things you can shoot this arrow beyond the item and with the string pull the arrow over the item and hook it and bring it to you or depending on the material and what you’re trying to get a hold of you can literally just shoot it in puncture it with the arrow and pull it into you so my first thought I wanted to show you anybody can do this we have basically a bow fishing reel made out of a coffee can cost next to nothing very effective works great and you can also use it to start the process of getting a heavy cable a heavy rope or even a chain over a limb a beam a girder or a cross a ravine or maybe a stream and of course it would be a process of shooting this thinner line across then tying some heavier rope to this and pull it across or over and then ultimately tie your chain or your cable to the heavier rope and pull it across or over I’m going to sit down now and just take a closer look at the points that would be on the end of these arrows to do this retrieving type of situation and just start showing you some ways to make some arrows as far as some knocks some fletching and some points that you can make with just what you have around your home or in your shop all right I’d like to start my discussion about making archery equipment out of everyday household items by discussing the points we were just talking about from a tactical perspective using your bow and arrow – maybe retrieve something I have right here an example of an airshaft which is nothing more than some two odd hugs lashed to the end of the shaft to make what amounts to a large treble hook if you have the string and the reel tied to the shaft I just showed you with the coffee can you can shoot this be on an item drag it over the item catch it on one of these hooks and bring it back to you this here is nothing more than an arrow shaft that has been sharpened to a point and hardened by firing it this has been charred in the fire to make the wood hard and this is nothing more than two finished nails that have been driven into the shaft at an angle to create tube arms in a fishing situation you can shoot a fish with this the barbs will hold the arrow from pulling out of the fish and you can retrieve it by the string or to retrieve an item you have out in an area that you do not want to expose yourself to you have the chance to lob this arrow over the item pull it across the item and again try to catch these barbs on the item and pull it to you or else literally shoot the item and these barbs will catch and not pull free so that you can pull it to you this right here is using your imagination in the kitchen I have an arrow point here that is made out of a fork and this fork is bent in the end of the arrow shaft has been whittled with a pocket knife and this is just a strong piece of carpet and button thread to lash it on there nice and straight and that gives you a point that could be used for shooting frogs fish or whatever the other end of the handle on this same Fork I lashed it to the end of the shaft the same way I have a nice tapered transition right here no humps or bumps to catch and impede penetration I have the edges no this fork handle sharpened with a file to an extremely sharp edge and this makes a very effective hunting head this here is a small game point a bludgeon point if you will and this is nothing more than a piece of wire that is wrapped around the end of a narrow shaft and is wrapped tight enough to kind of take a bite into the wood and to lightly tap on that with a small hammer it is meshed down to where you cannot pull this off the shaft it makes a very sturdy very heavy small game point this right here is a small game point that has been made by taking a shell casing and putting it over top of a narrow shaft this is a time-honored way of making a blunt I have kicked it up a notch by taking a roofing nail and from the inside putting that through the primer hole so this gives you a point that to take a small game animal a lot of times a blunt that gets a glancing blow and he rabbit or a squirrel just doesn’t quite do the job but having this nail that will penetrate the hide it allows the point to get a better bite on that animal and deliver a blow that is sufficient to subdue that animal the last point that I want to show you is absolutely my favorite really in the primitive archery this is a point that’s been used by Eskimos and different Native American tribes for thousands of years this is nothing more than a wooden air shaft at the point has been sharpened and fire hardened and we have four sticks lashed on in a crosshatch type of configuration and this allows you to turn a near-miss into a solid hit on a bird and allows you to subdue that bird and bring it the hand to be utilized as a food source I’m not going to turn these Shabs around and we’re going to take a look at the nock end and discuss some ways of creating a knock and some fletching on these shafts I want to discuss with you for just a minute the the nock end of the arrow which if we’re making arrows under primitive conditions a survival scenario with objects at hand one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is how to get a real nice nock on the end of your arrow shaft to accept your bowstring what we’re used to seeing here is a notch cut in the back of the shaft this can be achieved with a small rat tail file a nail file a knife a sharp rock a hacksaw blade if you have the tool you can create this knock slot if you have nothing to work with except maybe a pocketknife or even a situation where you’re grinding this wood on a stone this is a of creating enough that we might not be as used to seeing I have taken the back end of my air shaft and I have created two flats and then I’ve taken two pieces of stick and flattened them and lashed them to the back of the air shaft to create a knock slot this is very effective if you for example are using a piece of paracord for a bowstring that paracord is pretty large and diameter compared to a bowstring also if you’re making a bow string out of cordage made from natural fiber that string is going to be pretty thick to withstand the stress of being used for a bowstring so if you have limited tools or you’re using a larger diameter material for your bowstring this technique of lashing two sticks or pieces of bone on either side of the back of your shaft to create a knock is very effective so just keep this in mind for future use all right as far as fletching goes you can get away with shooting an arrow with no fletching the heavier the point is the less flexing you need but obviously some type of fletching to create some resistance at the back end of the shaft is going to keep the shaft flying straight it’s going to stabilize the shaft and make for a more accurate shooting situation there’s a multitude of different ways of making fletching on a primitive arrow in the field I’m going to show you the two that’s the most effective and requires the least amount of materials and tools feathers obviously make a great fletching but we do not have to be master Aerosmith’s to use feathers to Fletch an arrow these are just two small bird feathers there has been absolutely nothing done to them other than they have been lashed alongside the shaft the only thing you have to watch this is this transition right here he’s been nice and smooth so that when that is shot across your hand it doesn’t catch and pull and drag and cut the tops of your knuckles and your fingers but just laying two feathers alongside the shaft and latching them down is very effective you’ll see on youtube videos and various books a lot of times people recommend using duct tape or tape yes and no that will create a decent Flesch but it’s very hard to shoot that across your hand or off the shelf of your bow without a jump and a bumping and kind of hurts accuracy the other option here that I like really well this is nothing more than a these are strips torn off of a handkerchief and I’ve got two little bundles of strips of handkerchief lashed to the back of this arrow this creates a very effective fletching it’s real easy on your hands it’s got a lot of give to it when you shoot it and it creates a very effective fletching so these are just two examples of ways that I would recommend fletching an arrow in the field with a limited amount of time resources and materials I hope you have enjoyed tonight’s segment of the SOS summer survival webinar series where we have discussed does archery have a place in a survival or preparedness situation my name is Scott Moore from whack outdoors it has been an honor and a privilege to share this information with you tonight

FAQ

Are bows good for survival?

The classic bow and arrow is a decent alternative if you can’t or don’t want to rely on a firearm for personal defense or hunting. Learn more about the SAS tactical survival bow based on our research and interviews with bow survival experts. Added another longbow option, the Black Hunter Takedown Longbow.

Is a bow good for SHTF?

However, for SHTF use, the two main options are Asian-style compounds and horsebows. Horsebows are easier to maintain, even easier than a longbow because limbs nowadays are often made from fiberglass and all you need to maintain is string.

What is the best budget survival bow?

Specter II Takedown Compact Survival Bow and Arrow

– It costs less than $100 and is definitely one of the cheapest survival bows you can get your hands on. It comes in four different weights: 25, 35, 45 and 55 lbs.

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