-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
distance questions
- Thread starter Terry B.
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2013
- Messages
- 6,174
Don't know much about "competition" records, but the longest recorded combat knife kill was by George "Skeeter" Vaughan, a Cherokee (Cherokee name "Gray Otter") from Tennessee.
He took out a German bunker sentry with a modified bayonet at night. He got as close as he could without being spotted - the intervening area had been cleared of brush and was covered with snow - and, as he later put it, with a lot of luck, hit the sentry in the neck, killing him instantly. Any attempt to get closer would have been spotted, allowing a warning to be passed to the bunkers.
The throw was measured the next day as being from 87 feet. The silent removal of the sentry allowed his unit to quickly roll up a line of machine gun and artillery bunkers, saving countless lives during the next day's assault.
So for me, any other "record" is fluff.
He took out a German bunker sentry with a modified bayonet at night. He got as close as he could without being spotted - the intervening area had been cleared of brush and was covered with snow - and, as he later put it, with a lot of luck, hit the sentry in the neck, killing him instantly. Any attempt to get closer would have been spotted, allowing a warning to be passed to the bunkers.
The throw was measured the next day as being from 87 feet. The silent removal of the sentry allowed his unit to quickly roll up a line of machine gun and artillery bunkers, saving countless lives during the next day's assault.
So for me, any other "record" is fluff.
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2007
- Messages
- 1,380
It's a tough question, mainly because we have no way of filtering out lucky shots when comparing one to the other. The IKTHOF looks for one stick out of three:
Long Distance Knife http://ikthof.com/n/media/2015_IKTHOF_UNITED_STATES_NATIONAL.pdf
Throwers will qualify from beyond the 5 meter or 16 ft. 5 inch line. One stick out of three knives is required
to continue. All throwers will have numbers. The lowest qualifying number will throw first and will throw
three knives at the target from beyond the highest distance of the longest qualifying throw. One knife of
the three is all that is required to set a new distance. The next qualifier will throw beyond that distance until
a winner is determined.
Look here http://www.ikthof.com/IKTHOF-World-Champions.html, you'll see some of the records using this rule. I see Joe Darrah with 52 feet.
The number of people who can throw no-spin from beyond 40 feet is very small. Houzan Suzuki and Ryan Moomaw can consistently throw spikes from 70 feet and 50 feet, respectively. There are perhaps a half-dozen people who can no-spin throw knives from 40 feet or more, but the max no-spin distance on a knife is about 45 feet.
Long Distance Knife http://ikthof.com/n/media/2015_IKTHOF_UNITED_STATES_NATIONAL.pdf
Throwers will qualify from beyond the 5 meter or 16 ft. 5 inch line. One stick out of three knives is required
to continue. All throwers will have numbers. The lowest qualifying number will throw first and will throw
three knives at the target from beyond the highest distance of the longest qualifying throw. One knife of
the three is all that is required to set a new distance. The next qualifier will throw beyond that distance until
a winner is determined.
Look here http://www.ikthof.com/IKTHOF-World-Champions.html, you'll see some of the records using this rule. I see Joe Darrah with 52 feet.
The number of people who can throw no-spin from beyond 40 feet is very small. Houzan Suzuki and Ryan Moomaw can consistently throw spikes from 70 feet and 50 feet, respectively. There are perhaps a half-dozen people who can no-spin throw knives from 40 feet or more, but the max no-spin distance on a knife is about 45 feet.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2013
- Messages
- 281
With no-spin, I think the knife has a lot to do with it as well. Most of the really long throws I see done seem to be with a knife that the thrower has either had specially made or has picked out of many and uses specially for long throws. I have some (a lot) that throw great at 15' but the flight starts to deteriorate at 20' or so and at 30' they are rolling left or right and may strike on their sides. I have others that fly very straight at 30' and it is only my failure if they don't hit their marks. I don't throw much beyond 30-35' but I suspect those that do use well balanced knives. I have found almost nothing that won't stick at 15'. I can see why spikes would be very good for this long range throwing since there is nothing that wind resistance or gravity could act on to foul up the arc. I question whether or not this same problem would exist with a spinning knife. ????