Going boar hunting, making my own spear out of my Shanghai Shadow. Haft tips?

J

John79

Joined
Feb 24, 2007
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225
As the title says, I'm looking to turn my SS into a spearhead for an upcoming boar hunt with friends. The knife is the newer model with the new guard design, which in my opinion, would make for a more than suitable boar spear head. I don't want to make it sloppy or just bind it to the side of the shaft or anything like that, so here's what I was thinking. After acquiring a straight, good, Hickory haft, I would use a saw slightly thinner than the handle of the SS with no scales, and cut down the haft, perpendicularly till I could snugly push the knife into it right up to the guard. Perhaps round out the back of the cut to accommodate the curve of the ring. Tap small started holes where the screws that hold the scales on are, and put some high strength nuts, bolts, whatever, through the haft at these points. Basically what I'm ending up with is a similar concept to how the Trench Hawk goes together. My questions....... Can anyone see a way of improvement on any of these concepts? I'm worried about the lateral stress on the points of connection, and fear the haft would split easily. Perhaps a hard epoxy on either side of the handle and a tight 550 cord wrap, but this would make it difficult to quickly remove the blade to convert it back to a knife. Ideas? Thanks all!
 
You can look at replacement lawn tool handles at a hardware store. They are usually hickory or ash. If you are going to cut a curf in the wood like that, you are going to weaken it a lot. You will need a metal colar around it to help keep it together. Maybe put two whole in the guard to ad more rivets and use a wider dia. shaft. Hawks and similar tools are not seeing the massive increase in force like a spear will with a handle that is 5 -6 times longer.
 
John,

Have you ever done this before (hunted a boar with a spear)?
If you are serious, you are talking about risking your life man..hogs are mean.
If I had to do it though, and I mean had to freaking do it in a live or die situation, I'd use the pommel hole and the guard as lashing points with wet paracord that I let dry to sinch tight, and I would first cut a groove at the pommel end and at the guard end around the diameter of the shaft to prevent slippage.

Hope you have vast experience with spear chucking under stress, have a tree stand, and most importantly a will made out for those that love you.
Please consider that if you were lucky enough to land a throw, you have a high likelihood of wounding an animal that will suffer greatly before it dies, and unless you are in a survival situation with no other alternatives, why would you want to take the chance of wounding an animal that will most likely run away and suffer terribly????..+ you will most likely lose your knife...have you considered all the potential ramifications?

Not being a jerk, I promise, just want you to make sure you are thinking this through to the worst case scenarios if you go through with this. I just don't want you to die, be hurt, or the animal to suffer if you make a bad hit.
It's hard enough to get a good shot with a gun or bow on moving prey, (with the ability to reload), and any hunter that cares, knows the horrible feeling, or concern of having a bad shot on something...I really hope you are trolling or kidding...peace..
 
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If your "friends" came up with this idea, they are not your friends. If they are going with you while you try this, they are not your friends. You're not talking about pokin' Petunia Pig with a fork, here, son. Wild pigs hereabouts are a mix of feral hogs and imported Russian boars. They get size from their domestic ancestors and, from their Russian forefathers, the temperament of Satan. Hog hunting in the South generally is accomplished from a secure blind with a high-powered rifle or, for the more adventurous, with short-barreled slug guns, .44 mag. sidearms for emergency situations and a pack of carefully bred pit bulls. This is not a pursuit for the faint-of-heart. Local hunting stories are rife with tales of disemboweled dogs, detached calf muscles (on hunters) and young fools like me discovering that flying up a tree like a spider monkey ain't that hard when you're properly inspired. I'm old and slow, now. I don't hog hunt anymore. Lastly, have you actually thrown a spear at ANYTHING and evaluated its penetration? If you can repeatedly demonstrate accuracy at even 35 feet, muster enough force to penetrate even a few inches of hide and muscle, consider this: you seeing a wild hog at 35 feet means, 9 times out of 10, he's headed your way. You are the target, not the hog. Right in the middle of one of the biggest adrenaline dumps of your life, the hog is going to give you a rock-hard head and two bony shoulders to chunk your hobby at.
But, you never know. Maybe the hogs are different where you hunt...
 
Don't sweat it. The worst is you get bite and sliced up a little. They really are not that bad. Wear a heavy long sleeve shirt and sack up. We worked these little guys from the trap to the trailer this week. You would be surprised how high they can jump. The large one, about 50 lbs hit the top of the cattle trailer when we loaded him up and he realized there was no beer in the can.



Sold them for bacon
 
John79 - you really need to make sure you know what you're getting into.

I had a friend in elementary school (in North Carolina) who had an uncle who went to Georgia each year, and hunted wild boar with a re-worked bayonet. He had hunted like this for twenty-thirty years. His uncle was missing two fingers from one incident, and had been knocked down by a boar in another; he managed to almost get on his feet before the boar charged into him, and he got a tusk rammed into his leg. It (thankfully!) didn't hit his artery, and the only thing he could do was lock an arm around the boar's neck, and stab it "backwards" - he couldn't reach the neck, so he just repeatedly stabbed it through the ribs. After about two dozen stabs, the boar was weakened enough for the dogs to drag it off of him and finish it off. None of his friends could shoot it because they might hit him; the tusk embedded in his leg wouldn't allow him push the boar away from him.

Later, while they were cleaning the carcass, they saw the damage my friend's uncle had done with the continuous stabbing - punctured both lungs, stabbed the heart, hit several organs, tore up the intestines - and the boar had still fought hard enough for another minute or two to nearly kill one of their dogs.

If you do go on the hunt, best of luck to you, and be careful. You're a braver man than I.

~Chris
 
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