Spears Revisited

pict

pict

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Jan 7, 2003
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I just got back from a three night backpacking trip with my 11 year old daughter. We camped on the side of a mountain in scrub forest. Above us was a dry, desert-like ridgeline, below was a single canopy jungle. It was a cool place to camp.

Anyway, Pictlet, was off a short distance sleeping in her own hammock letting her mind dwell on mountian lions instead of sleeping. The next day we hiked down to the lower forest and cut a nice sapling to make a pair of fire hardened spears. Not that we were actually in danger of meeting a cougar or wolf, though both are possible here. We hade a pair of spears while our lunch was boiling. (Blade used: Pictlet's Glock Knife)

Later that night she had gone to bed and I was sitting up waiting for the moon to come up. A loud crashing started up in the brush headed towards us. Several somethings, very large, off a little way in the dark. Let me tell you, having that seven foot long spear felt real good! It was just a herd of semi-wild ponies, no danger.

If nothing else a decent spaaer can make you feel better about your situation. Mac
 
I was backpacking in the Domelands Wilderness on the South Fork of the Kern River a few years ago (a few hours North of Los Angeles). I wasn't very worried about the bears and mountain lions in the area, but figured that a lightweight, compact Glock 40 wouldn't be a bad thing to have for a variety of reasons. For whatever reason, my backpacking partner didn't want to bring his Beretta. I had a Cold Steel Assegai (long shaft model) in the back of the truck. He took it instead of his own walking stick. One day he went off fishing on his own and he said he felt very good to have the spear when he came across fresh sign of both bear and mountain lion.

I'm not sure how much good the spear would do against a stealthy lion attack from behind, but the odds of that are incredibly small anyway. My friend figured that he was planning to carry a walking stick, so it wasn't that much extra trouble to have a metal tip on it. I think of it as a bit like the "morale metal" panels they used to put on each side of antiaircraft guns. They would stop only the very lightest stuff, but they made the gunners FEEL a lot better. And that's worth something!
 
Back around the turn of the century there was a German guy down here that hunted jaguars for a living. Most fo the time he used a .44-40 rifle when hunting them in tall grass he used a spear. His weapon had a wide, double edged sword shaped blade with a guard that would keep the animal from sliding down the shaft. His tactic was to corner the aniumal and get it to charge. He kept the point low until the running animal was right in front of him then he brought it up to impale the cat. He then had to hold it pinned or get shredded! He killed about 30 this way.

His name is slipping me but the book is called "Tigreiro".

I would also prefer a GFlock .40 or my plain-jane parkerized 1911 A1. We also have wolves here (Lobo Guará). Mac
 
That technique is supposedly also what the Inuit used when spearing polar bears. The difference was that because of the bear's higher weight and more massive structure, they would try to use or create a natural feature to support the back end of the spear.

Either way, you'd have to be packing a pair the size of cantaloupes to try it!
 
Originally posted by pict
...Back around the turn of the century there was a German guy down here that hunted jaguars for a living...His name is slipping me but the book is called "Tigreiro"...
Click to expand...

I read an article about that guy a few years ago, does Sasha Seimel sound right?
 
Glockdoc,

Yes, his name was Sasha Seimel. That's the guy. I had read an article about him in Traditional Bowhunter. A week later I was sitting in a furniture store and they had a bookcase filled with old books on display. His book was on the shelf! I asked the manager on duty if I could buy it, as the book was out of print. They had to appeal to the OWNER of the store to sell it to me! I picked it up for $3. Let me tell you it is a really good read.

Danceswithknives,

As for documented wolf attacks, it depends on what you regard as an attack. The Lobo Guará resembles a red fox on steroids. In some of the national parks they are protected and quite used to human contact and do get agressive with food left out. They have been known to nip people. I don't know of any fatalities.

The area where I camp with my daughter has seen cattle and sheep killed by both mountain lions and wolves within the last ten years. It is rare now but still possible to run into them. Persoanlly I would love to encounter either of them in the wild. Mac
 
Peter Hathaway Capstick, the famous hunting author, wrote quite a bit about Sasha. Coincidentally his profesional hunting career also began in South America with jaguars.
 
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