Spear hunting

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Kevan Taylor-Perry

Joined
Sep 3, 2000
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Seriously... I'm looking to do this thing. Not with an atlatl; a spear. Any experienced spear hunters out there that I can pick the brains of?

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Kevan "Raven" Taylor-Perry
 
What do you want to hunt? Deer? small game? frogs? fish? Thrusting spear or throwing spear? Different spears for different animals, and different stalking techniques for them.

~Brian.
 
Big game. With a thrusting spear. But I would also like to hear about throwing spears also. In this region, we'd be talking about mule deer and javelina.

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Kevan "Raven" Taylor-Perry
 
About the only animal I would expect to stalk with a thrusting spear is a fish. Generally it takes a pack of dogs and a horse to run down game like deer and pigs.

I would look for a light throwing speer.
 
There is so much to this besides the spear itself, but I won't get into stalking and tracking, etc., cleaning, butchering here.

Easiest, you can use a fire-hardened carved wood tip from a hardwood tree, but make it with a flatter, longer point profile that goes down to a sharp tip for better penetration (start the bevel about two feet up from the point. Of course, a stone, bone, antler, or metal tip is preferable for penetration, but may not be available.

Your initial thrust has to be decisive and deep (behind the shoulder towards the heart can work, and try to have the flatter sides of the spear tip parallel to the ribs so it slides between them if your aim is off). A thrust into the neck right at the bottom of throat just above the chest is good (soft tissue) but it's extremely hard to get close to a deer from the front without spooking it first and having it run (unless your stalking and ambush skills are really good), and it may run right into or over you when you come at it, or even after you thrust. Into the jugular works very well, but is very difficult to do accurately. If you're really good, you could try a barbed spear, tied at the back end (notch the spear and know your knots!) to a deadfall tree or large stone with 15-30 feet of 550 paracord (double-twined for added strength), to keep the animal from running too far, however, be aware that a large, thrashing panicked deer will probably generate a lot more than 550 lbs of pressure on the line and may break that line. Having it drag a deadfall or big stone certainly slows it down and exhausts it, but the spear can pop out.

Make your thrusting spear at LEAST 6 feet long to keep you out of reach of the animal's legs, and antlers if it's a male (if its late fall to winter, the antlers will probaly have shed by then). Make sure you can get out of it's way immediately: if you don't get a good hit, the deer will try to escape and may run you over because you are blocking the best escape route. That's risk of serious injury or death. Even if you do get a good thrust, expect the spear to stay stuck in the animal (especially if it has a small lug and the lug goes in, too), and expect the animal to thrash WILDLY and dangerously, so let go and back away (behind a tree if possible). The stuck spear itself will fling all over like another limb and may hit you hard, or come flying loose and whack you, or break and whack you with a sharp broken end. The animal may go down right away if you are very lucky or extremely skilled, but this is not likely. It'll run whether or not your spear is in it. Now you have to be able to track it. Likely it'll be bleeding and make it easier to do this, plus it'll probably take the path of least resistance through the brush to put as much distance from you as possible. The stuck spear will keep banging against things as it runs, and likely cause a greater wound channel which will make it bleed faster.

When we were doing this in upstate NY, a friend of mine had a deer run with his spear still in it, and the deer got caught up in thick bushes a few feet away. We stayed back until it exhausted itself, then I took my spear (I had a Cold Steel Bushman on the end) and thrust into its eye through the brain to put it out of its misery. By the way, when checking an animal up close to see if it's dead, tap its eye with your spear tip, and be ready to thrust if it moves.

Long story short, it's risky to hunt this way, and in a survival situation, I'd look for safer ways to acquire a large game animal -- deadfall/spike traps, bow and arrow or atlatl. Traps take the least energy in a survival situation, but if it's a snare that just holds it, you have to kill it. Ron Hood thrust a spear up a deer's butt when he snared one and said that worked.

Try to get experience like I did -- with someone who is very experienced and can teach you first hand. Even having been taught, I don't know if I'd have the skill to do it on my own yet without lots more practice. The whole thing is long and exhausting before you make the kill. It is an amazing experience, though.

Hope this helped a little.

Best,

Brian.
 
Brian: Thank you very much! I appreciate it very much. I have a Cold Steel boar spear (as much as I said I'd never buy from CS, I find myself in possession of the spear.)

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Kevan "Raven" Taylor-Perry
 
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