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Hand thrown spear better than the Atlatl?

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John32r:
Can anybody else here throw a heavy spear by hand more accurately than with an atlatl?

I was watching these videos of people throwing atlatls at world champs and other competitions, and such... Seemed really inaccurate. They could barely hit with consistency targets that they could never sneak up on if they were wild animals. Then I remembered this quote about Australian indigenous hunters and their woomeras:



 "skill varies, but “takes an exceptionally good man to kill or disable at more than 20 yards.”

Source:


http://web.grinnell.edu/anthropology/Atlatl%20Stuff%20for%20John/atlatlbibliography.htm

Yeah. I think I can throw a spear 20 yards easier than I can with the atlatl. The atlatl dars just have a mind of their own. They look like fricken swodfish due to the flexibility when you look at the darts on high speed camera footage.


Something to remember is that in North America among the Indians the atlal was largely abandoned while hand thrown and trusted spears stuck around up to the late 1800s. And how about those Inuit and their "throwing sticks"? I've seen more videos of spears being thrown without them than with them!

bubby:
Well think what you want but a spear if you can throw it twenty yds isn't going to have the energy of the atlatl dart, even at ten yds, since they have been made legal to hunt with in some states kills have been made with atlatl

Buffalogobbler:
With practice comes proficiency,
I've seen a you tube video of a deer being killed in PA with an atlatl.
Most spears were made for thrusting and not throwing, when throwing the atlatl gives more power and longer range but the thrower has to practice to be accurate, I've seen people hit a mammoth target in the kill zone at 35 yards.
All of that flexing in the shaft that you see is the same thing that archers deal with, archers paradox, it's just magnified because the atlatl dart is so long.

Kevin

JoJoDapyro:
It also comes down to how you hunt. If you are a spot and stalk guy, you don't have much chance, if you are like me, and find a well used path and wait, you have a much better chance at getting an animal within 20 yards.

Onebowonder:
Think about driving a car.  You likely do it EVERYDAY.  The whole process has become well practiced and automatic to you because your mind and body have learned, both consciously and subconsciously, to do the small details of doing it correctly each and every time.  You maintain the center of your lane, parallel park, drive in reverse between obstacles, and adjust your speed to road conditions without much effort or even thought really.

Ancient atlatl hunters had a similar relationship with the tools they used every single day.  It was just something they knew well and did almost automatically.

If we were able to offer one of these intrepid ancient hunters an F-150 4X4 and tell them to go from Cahokia to Tenochtitlan, they would likely have difficulties similar to the one's you and I would face with trying to use an atlatl effectively.  ;)


OneBow

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