[wll]

There are many tools that can be used if need be in a crisis situation, but when will they be called upon ? next week, next year or 15 years from now.

Ya, I can store ammo, but that eventually runs out and if you don't have spare parts your firearm your up a creek without a paddle. Sling shots are fantastic, but if the rubber rots you have nothing. Archery is also a very good option, except it takes a bit of skill to keep the bow in shape and make a good supply of arrows in a day after type scenario .... that may be tough to do.

The Blowgun comes to my thoughts as one of the finest tools for food and ? to have on hand. The tube is easy to make out of just about anything and darts can be made from skewers to slivers of wood to the wire found in small boundary flags. Once you make your cones and they are flying true and you made a stash of them ... that's it.

In general the tube can be stored for years as there is nothing to go wrong, the darts if kept dry will last for many, many years without trouble .... try that with a slingshot ! (I had blowguns that were close to 45 years old and as good as the day I made them, along with the bamboo and cork coned darts).

As for what game can be taken ? .... well that all depends on the dart. Most darts can take small game if given head shots, most 50 cal and above can take larger stuff without the use of poison. Poison, which is of course against the law in the USA, turns this into a game getter of just about any size animal.

Another huge advantage is the blowgun is it is silent ...... no bang, no twang from a bow, no huge crashing and thump if you miss, it is darn stealth. You can lie in wait with very little body movement once you are in line with your target.

As far as range is concerned, most of my hunting was done in the 8-15+ yard range, with a few in the 20+ ranges. 25-30 yards/mtrs is a long shot on flat ground, so I did that very, very rarely !

Just a few of my thoughts .. How say you ?

 

[wll]

An addendum to my first post !

How many of you have a "Stash" of darts and dart parts ?

Do many of you just buy a bunch of darts at once and say to yourself ... "I'm Good" ?

Do any of you have, lets say 100+ finished darts put away along with your BG in case if you needed to use it ?

Do any of you have supplies just for making BG darts, special cone material, bamboo skewers, wire, glue, tape, etc, etc. ?

Do you have any special tools ..... files, pliers, wire cutters, scissors, a grinder, drills (I sharpened my wire darts using a drill and a sharpening stone back in the day, did not have access to a grinder ---- on second thought I may have used my porch step instead of a stone) ?

When I hunted, I had a quiver of bamboo darts that I used a lot, my old .40 cal used thin wire and a plastic bead that was quite effective. I had a string of beads and some cut up and per-sharpened wire in a cigar box as I remember. Post-It notes were not invented yet I think so I made cones out of typing paper (yes, typing paper) or cork (cork was expensive so those darts were saved for special occasions)

Anyway, just my thoughts before I off ;- )

wll

 

[headhunter]

I love this post, it's great food for thought! My take on it is that yes, it is a good long term crisis tool. And here's my reasoning.
Darts can be made from such a wide variety of materials that you can almost always find something to make one from. You can have a hundred pieces of wire in your back pocket and nobody would know, seriously, it takes almost no room at all.
You can store pre cut and sharpened pieces of wire, banboo skewers, xacto blades etc. in the tube itself, and you can make a much smaller survival cache than for a firearm. I do have a small pack of unopened wire darts with my blowgun, but I want more.
My take on poison is that if you could actually obtain curare it would be good to store for a SHTF scenario. The reason for this is that if a time comes that you need to use it the rule of law has collapsed anyway, and it can make a thin dart incredibly lethal, easier and cheaper to store than a bunch of broadheads.

 

[neondog]

I have over 100 stun darts for my Cold Steel Pro still in the packaging but if my house fell into a shell crater, I am resourceful enough that I keep a four foot stainless tube in the trunk of my car. Thinking about painting it ugly so a common thief would just push it aside. Nice thing about close range (birds and rodents) hunting is you dont really even need a good cone. Tie a feather to the end of your shaft and use a sabot of any natural material to propell it.
The majority of winners on Alone ate whole animals at each sitting, only a couple had steaks.

 

[headhunter]

I am resourceful enough that I keep a four foot stainless tube in the trunk of my car. Thinking about painting it ugly so a common thief would just push it aside.

Same here, I thought about painting one of mine to look like a rusty old piece of pipe so no one in their right mind would want to touch it for fear of tetanus

 

[Rusty]

If you want to expand your thoughts on what might be useful there are a number of books out there that explain a SHTF situation. Try reading " ONE SECOND AFTER", "ALAS BABALYON", or "THE WORLD ENDS AT HICKORY HOLLOW" and see if those books don't give you a different point of view.