Throwing a knife for survival reasons?

Do a search, their are several articles recently about people that saved themselves from bear & couger attacks, because they held onto their knife & fought off the attack. if you throw away your knife, you have nothing to fight with! you could still lose, but at least you have a chance!
 
Midnight Scout said:
What counts as "extremely close range"? What kind of varmints were they (how big were they)? Was the knife a dedicated "throwing knife" or a field knife? Did the knife point or blade get the animal or was the sheer weight and size of the knife sufficient to stun/kill it?
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Close enough that you can throw it from the handle straight into the target with basically no rotation- so a couple feet usually. Varmints were mostly coon & possum, with the occasional other critter as well. Have also used it to finish off game animals & coyotes that were first brought down with a gun. Always point first. A swung ballbat will hardly even slow a raccoon down, so I wouldn't count on a normal sized knife to do any good unless the point strikes true. I don't own or carry a dedicated "throwing knife", so this was all with a gamut of tools. Slipjoints, locking folders, smaller fixed blades, medium fixed blades, and huge fixed blades. As Don mentioned, it has always seemed to me that the thrown knife penetrated much more deeply than what I thought I could have done with a thrust in the same situation.

I am not in any way recommending this as a primary method for getting meat in the woods or anything. I only use it in very specific circumstances, but am just sharing that I've found it a useful trick to keep in the bag.
 
longbow50 said:
There is no reason why you would throw away a perfectly good knife. If you need a weapon to throw, use that knife to make a spear or any one of several, sharp ended tools.
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Perfectly stated Longbow. Throwing your knife is akin using your pistol for a hammer, sure you can do it but why?
 
Throw your wife. Keep your knife.
 
If you're just making a wild swing anywhere you can connect, then no, that first swing does not guarantee much. Maybe it'll stun the coon; maybe it won't. The third or 4th swing will do the job, provided you actually get the chance to make them. I'll caveat this by saying it's been a long time since I've actually done that though, and even then it wasn't very much. The initial results sucked so bad we found more effective methods as soon as possible.
 
the possum said:
If you're just making a wild swing anywhere you can connect, then no, that first swing does not guarantee much. Maybe it'll stun the coon; maybe it won't. The third or 4th swing will do the job, provided you actually get the chance to make them. I'll caveat this by saying it's been a long time since I've actually done that though, and even then it wasn't very much. The initial results sucked so bad we found more effective methods as soon as possible.
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I hate to poop on your theory but I have killed an 85lb dog with one swing of a bat, finished off a truck hit hog outside of Hollister, CA and stopped plenty of barroom shenanigans as well...hell it was norm to slaughter steer with a hammer for the first 2/3rds of last century. Its a cold day in hell when I can't put away an overgrown rat with a Louisville Slugger.
 
Theory or not, a good stout cudgel will dispatch small to medium size animals much quicker and better than a knife, thrown or otherwise.

Millions of trapped coons went to the garbage dump in the sky due to one well placed blow, don't put holes in the fur either. Chris
 
My first inclination may be to disagree and back up my opinion with details, but it ain't worth it. Hell, the last thread that went into this BS, the poster got the Humane Society after him or somethin. So, whatever. You guys are right. My official stance is that I've never killed a coon or any other critter with anything but the most humane and socially accepted methods. Anything else I said in my previous posts are nothing more than the lies and posturing of an internet windbag.

Later.
 
I can't think of any reason that throwing your knife would save your life.

But the fact remains that many knives which are billed as survival knives are really fun to throw. I'm not talking little bushcraft blades, but brutish slab scaled knives with thick blade stock.

I have several throwing knives, but my favorite knife to throw is my A1. If I were in a situation where I was depending on it in the wilderness, I don't think I'd throw it for fun or to solve any problems. Well, fun is important to survival too, so who knows?
 
Maybe I would throw some old knife or hatchet if I was bored waiting for a rescue plane, but why risk it?
I will throw the name cold steel bushman out there again though, I doubt you would ever break it. Make a spear out of it and skewer charging beasts all day long.
 
I occasionally throw a hatchet or khukri for fun in the back yard (well, someone else's back yard these days since I don't have one at the apartment I'm in now) but I wouldn't do so in the woods. It wouldn't matter if I was just out bumming around or if it was a real survival situation.
 
Liam Ryan said:
Maybe I would throw some old knife or hatchet if I was bored waiting for a rescue plane, but why risk it?
I will throw the name cold steel bushman out there again though, I doubt you would ever break it. Make a spear out of it and skewer charging beasts all day long.
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I actually managed to break one. I had attached it to a piece of broom handle and trying it out against a rotten stump. I accidentally hit a solid tree trunk instead of the rotten stump and the blade snapped right off where it joins the handle. It was completely my own fault, and I still say the Bushman is a great knife for the price, just be careful what you throw at if you use it as a spear head.
 
when I first got my bushman, I threw it as a spear at solid trees a couple of times and it didn't break. I batoned a good deal with it too, it hasn't broke. It usually goes in my hiking bag incase I need a bigger knife to do stuff that a folder won't handle.
 
btuner said:
But what if something like a bear is charging you and you don't have time to make a spear? I sure as hell would chuck a knife at him hoping to thwart him, instead of holding on to it and waiting till he gets close enough to use it on him(which would probably be my last time ever using any knife lol)
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Just my opinion, but it depends on the kind of bear and why it is attacking. A black bear, for the most part, can and should be fought off. It will proceed to eat you if you are dead.
A brown bear, should be killed as it approaches (they are very fast), or repelled by pepper spray, but if it can't be killed or repelled, roll up into a protective position and play dead. It is trying to kill you because it perceives you as a threat to its young and/or you are competition for local food sources, and unless it attacked because it was starving (unlikely, but easy to tell), it won't eat you after you are dead. People who fight back against browns by hitting, knifing, etc. usually end up much worse off than the ones who act dead. But, by all means, kill a charging bear, or repell with pepper spray, regardless of type. Be prepared to do this effectively (at least .44).
Just my opinion.
Simply put; regardless of bear type, if you are prepared to kill or repell do so as it charges. If unprepared to kill or repell, if it is a black, fight back with everything you've got, blacks are usually small enough and intimidated enough that you can win, and if you don't you are food; but if it is a brown, play dead, unless it looks starved, as unless starved, it is only trying to kill you (the threat). Make it think it has before it actually does.
:jerkit:
I don't mean to sound redundant or off-topic, but I'm getting kinda tired of people thinking that brown bears are wimpy things that can be successfully fought with fists or even a knife. LOL.
 
throw a rock,or stick but I would never throw my knife, does not matter to me if I have 1 or 3 blade on me,I would never throw one...
 
Scottman said:
when I first got my bushman, I threw it as a spear at solid trees a couple of times and it didn't break. I batoned a good deal with it too, it hasn't broke. It usually goes in my hiking bag incase I need a bigger knife to do stuff that a folder won't handle.
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Huh, maybe mine got a bad heat treat or something. You'd think I would have picked up another one by now wit as cheap as they are, but somehow I've never gotten around to it. One of these days I'll get a new one to play with and see what happens.
 
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