Hide the women and children, because the Undisputed King of Archery has raised the bar and mastered the Atlatl. Well... Not really. Actually, last week, I went on a historic tour that had a pretty interesting indian survival segment. If you were hick enough to cowboy up and put your ego at risk of severe bruising, they would let you try your hand at a couple interesting events. I saw the atlatl range, and I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Out of 4 tries, I missed the elk 1x, bounced one off of his antlers, grazed his throat once, and stuck him in the leg. The tour guide took it off of me after 4 shots, because she was worried that Pennsylvania's deer herd might be in jeopardy if I kept improving. She knew I had talent. Perfect shot. In addition to my mastery of the ancient art of atlatlry, I also learned some new and alternative uses for my old deer sheds. Behold, the shed rake. Then, I learned how to make a wigwam out of cattails and build a palisade fence out of sticks and logs. The wigwam was nice. Sleeps about 20. No A/C, but if you'd throw in a couple hot native girls, I could see myself in it. The tour guides left me unsupervised for a few minutes, and I decided to go on a short hunting trip. I harvested all of these animals with the Atlatl in about 15 minutes of spot and stalk hunting.
And caped them all out too, that's talent right there buddy. Nice pics, id like to give the atlatl a try someday. Looks like fun.
They aren't selling many bows, so I think they've shifted their focus to atlatls. Rory - I've read that the atlatl can hurl the spear at well over 100 mph (I think that works out to around 140 fps). This particular atlatl had a stubbier handle than others I've seen online and such, so that made it a little less powerful because the mechanical advantage just wasn't as big as it could've been. If I were a betting guy, I'd bet this one was going in the 60-70 mph range, if you threw it reasonably hard. A couple women tried it, and they could barely get the arrow to the target, 20 yds away. Timmy / Danno / Ryan - You boys would've loved this thing. It was really a lot of fun. It was easily the most fun I've had on an archery range in years. If you were actually using it in a hunting scenario, the act of throwing the spear is such a large motion that you could never do it undetected. You'd have to anticipate that the animal would see the throwing motion, and aim the projectile at where you thought the animal would be running, not where it was at before the throw. Here is an artist's rendering of me, using my atlatl while sporting my best loincloth. Please feel free to note my perfect form. Just in case any of you schmucks wanna unleash your inner beast and try your hand at the Atlatl, this guy made a youtube video on how you can make a basic atlatl and dart in probably less than an hour, for under $20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYas53pGGKg Pretty awesome. It's worth the effort, just for something to tinker around with. If any of you can successfully construct an atlatl and make a kill with it (complete with photographic evidence), the King will send you a free autographed picture of himself, which will be sure to make you the envy of all your bowhunting buddies.
