Carrying a spear for outdoor hikes/camping?

A couple times I've organized backpacking trips or hikes in lion/bear country. Most of the guys just carry a compact handgun. One guy preferred to borrow a long-shaft CS Assegai I have. Even when hiking solo, he said he felt great confidence with it.

DancesWithKnives
 
This topic brings back some fond memories of my childhood, my dad always outfitted me and my siblings with spears on hikes, as his father did for him and his siblings.
 
Mani (sp) on the show dangerous wild? Carries one in the swamps and uses it on a pig in one episode.

And, personally I would want a sheath if I was walking around in the woods witha spear.
 
I only do it every once in a while, but I do have the boar spear, the assagai, and the javelin (discontinued) from Cold Steel. I love me some spearing!

But on a sad note, has anyone else speared an animal with something that big? Its an interesting and hard to shake sight.
 
Erlkonig said:
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Matagi (mountain man) knife for bear hunting

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Matagi people -speciality in bear hunting (Japan)

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The knife maker - do not know his name

Carrying socket handle knife like above or CS bushman, you can have both

spear and knife. Spear- weapon, knife- tool, pole- wooden stick mostly legal in the whole world.
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by the way, I didn't know about this, thanks!!!
 
I remember reading about a dude called Sasha Semiel. I am not sure of the correct spelling of his name. Anyway he hunted "tigres" in Brazil (I think) using a spear. It seems his technique was to get below a treed cat, and then get it to attack him. Before the cat connected with him, he would get his spear in position and the tigre would impale itself.

A long spear would be good for reaching treed animals. A short, stout spear would be much easier/quicker to wield in a defence situation. My spear shaft reaches my armpit from the ground. It is short enough to pass as a hiking staff. When I need a spear, it doesn't take long to pull my CS Bushman from the sheath and jam it onto the tapered end of the walking stick.

Instead of using a nail or screw to hold the blade in place, I've drilled another hole through the knife and use a bit of cord to retain the blade. I have a bit of cord, always in place, attached near the end of my walking stick.

I've posted this picture before, but you can see how I tie my (now modified) Bushman to the walking stick:

UsefulBlades-1.jpg


With the tapered handle, it is not absolutely necessary to drill the extra hole as I have done. A tight binding knot can be made around the neck of the handle which should hold well enough. It was very difficult to make a hole through the Bushman handle using a conventional hss twist drill as the steel was hard.
 
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I like that set up coot. My fear was having the end of the spear break off and loosing the head in deep water or some other place I couldn't easily retrieve it. I have the smaller Bushman that I'm going to rig for my primary hiking stick...something you can take on/off pretty easily. I'm still thinking a bolt, but I may relook that now. Thanks,

ROCK6
 
I've always thought this Brazo's Spike Tip for hiking staffs, while not a proper spear, would nonetheless make decent improvised spear. I know it's not a blade or very long pikish tip, but it still looks pretty sharp. I'm sure it would do fine if one put enough force or momentum behind it. The Lee Valley one looks good too and has the added benefit of being removable for a blunt rubber tip.

I have the combination blunt metal tip w/ removable rubber cane tip cap shown on that site (more versatile I think, and leaves less holes), but I wouldn't mind trying out that pointy tip one of these days.
 
coote said:
I remember reading about a dude called Sasha Semiel. I am not sure of the correct spelling of his name. Anyway he hunted "tigres" in Brazil (I think) using a spear. It seems his technique was to get below a treed cat, and then get it to attack him. Before the cat connected with him, he would get his spear in position and the tigre would impale itself.
Click to expand...

Sasha Siemel aka El Tigrero.
 
ROCK6 said:
I like that set up coot. My fear was having the end of the spear break off and loosing the head in deep water or some other place I couldn't easily retrieve it. I have the smaller Bushman that I'm going to rig for my primary hiking stick...something you can take on/off pretty easily. I'm still thinking a bolt, but I may relook that now. Thanks,

ROCK6
Click to expand...

Hey rock,

Something that I used to do with the bushman is use a screw with an eye. Usable with just your hand and I used to also make a fishing pole with them also.
 
I've toyed with the idea of carrying a spear for bear protection, thinking that it might be considered more "fair" than a firearm among the hippie crowd, and also less likely to be viewed askance in the event of any post-defensive investigation.

Something along the size of the CS boar spear is actually traditionally used by Lapps, Siberian and Koyukon Dena'ina/Athabascan natives in Alaska.

Mags, that's just about the coolest rendition of something in my desired size range that I've seen! Where can I get one?
 
Thanks for posting the link to the walking stick site. I was looking at one site the other day, some of you might remember, and the UPS Ground Shipping was $20.00.

I knew that was bullshit! It's less than $10.00 going to the same zip code!
 
Welcome Don :thumbup: $20 for ground does sound pretty ridiculous. The Brazo's sticks are great, love my hickory staff :thumbup:.
 
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