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I recently picked up a new hobby. Throwing things.
Axes, knives, shovels, atlatl, spears, tent spikes, . . . anything and anything that will stick into an old stump or a bale of hay. We have a throwing range set up in the back yard and an atlatl range in the front yard.
Everyone seems to like to learn throwing, but I rarely encounter anyone who actually does it as a hobby. I am curious whether this is an unusual hobby or relatively common.
Hurts my shoulder and elbow enough that there is no point. I would get no range and need to deal with the insult to the joints. The only throwing activity that ever caught my fancy was skipping stones on a lake. There is something satisfying watch a stone go fast and try to float.
Throwing things wasn't a hobby with me, it was a compulsion. I was told I would throw things out of my crib at people that walked by. When I was a kid I couldn't walk down the street without picking something up and throwing it. I made money off kids in school that bet me I couldn't throw my pencil point-first into the pencil sharpener from 5 feet away. I once threw my house key into the lock in the door from the same distance, it took a number of attempts but I wouldn't quit until I did it. I have boxes of ribbons and trophies that I won in dart tournaments and other contests in my basement. The bad thing was everyone knew I was a thrower so whenever there was a broken window in the neighborhood, I got blamed. I got banned from a carnival because I kept winning and they ended up hiring me to show people the contests were not impossible to win. One of the hardest shots I ever made was flipping a quarter into the coin slot of a soda machine from a few feet away. That was hard for me because it really wasn't throwing. We used to throw hatchets,knives and even axes into tree stumps, those all involved revolutions and after a while you pretty much knew how many it takes to stick them. We had a bunch of those 4-way lug wrenches we got from the junk yard and would cut the sockets off each end and sharpen the remaining ends on a grinder until they were razor sharp. Those were guaranteed to stick in a tree stump every throw.
I recently picked up a new hobby. Throwing things.
Axes, knives, shovels, atlatl, spears, tent spikes, . . . anything and anything that will stick into an old stump or a bale of hay. We have a throwing range set up in the back yard and an atlatl range in the front yard.
Everyone seems to like to learn throwing, but I rarely encounter anyone who actually does it as a hobby. I am curious whether this is an unusual hobby or relatively common.
I don't know as I'd call it a hobby in and of itself but it's a part of one of my hobbies. I make tomahawks, knives and atlatl sets, and hand spears as well. So I always test them and like to play with them as you describe. Hitting a target with any certain thrown or launched missile is fun. And also fun to devise games for.
I don't know as I'd call it a hobby in and of itself but it's a part of one of my hobbies. I make tomahawks, knives and atlatl sets, and hand spears as well. So I always test them and like to play with them as you describe. Hitting a target with any certain thrown or launched missile is fun. And also fun to devise games for.
Throwing things wasn't a hobby with me, it was a compulsion. I was told I would throw things out of my crib at people that walked by. When I was a kid I couldn't walk down the street without picking something up and throwing it. I made money off kids in school that bet me I couldn't throw my pencil point-first into the pencil sharpener from 5 feet away. I once threw my house key into the lock in the door from the same distance, it took a number of attempts but I wouldn't quit until I did it. I have boxes of ribbons and trophies that I won in dart tournaments and other contests in my basement. The bad thing was everyone knew I was a thrower so whenever there was a broken window in the neighborhood, I got blamed. I got banned from a carnival because I kept winning and they ended up hiring me to show people the contests were not impossible to win. One of the hardest shots I ever made was flipping a quarter into the coin slot of a soda machine from a few feet away. That was hard for me because it really wasn't throwing. We used to throw hatchets,knives and even axes into tree stumps, those all involved revolutions and after a while you pretty much knew how many it takes to stick them. We had a bunch of those 4-way lug wrenches we got from the junk yard and would cut the sockets off each end and sharpen the remaining ends on a grinder until they were razor sharp. Those were guaranteed to stick in a tree stump every throw.
He's very knowledgeable when it comes to primitive technologies.
It appears they have nice looking stuff, but expensive. I would never actually throw a dart with an obsidian tip though. I do not buy expensive darts often. They break with some frequency (especially if you hit a tree or a rock by accident). Atlatl is like baseball. Even the people who are really good are doing extremely well if they hit more than 1/3 of the time (at 40 yards).
I met a guy who hunts with Atlatl. He said when you hit a deer, the dart goes through them and pins them to the ground. I think it woudl be pretty hard to hunt with atlatl. It is pretty hard to throw without being noticed.
We have a fun game we play with hay bales and a lot of throwers. (Atlatl Cattle battle). It is complicated and involves some strategy. Problem is you need at least 14 players and a football field or larger area with no people walking through it ever.
Atlatl in particular is addictive. I go out to throw "a few" and end up throwing until my arm is too sore to keep going (which does not take all that long). I never understood the appeal of golf until I got addicted to atlatl. I think it woudl be fun to play atlatl golf. Put a hay bale on each green. The distances are about the same I think. You could even have a caddy. They will give you a 4.5' bamboo dart for the initial drive, a 7' dart to hit the green. Putting would be kind of lame though. If you miss from the green or near it, you are doing pretty bad.
...Atlatl in particular is addictive. I go out to throw "a few" and end up throwing until my arm is too sore to keep going (which does not take all that long). I never understood the appeal of golf until I got addicted to atlatl. I think it woudl be fun to play atlatl golf. Put a hay bale on each green. The distances are about the same I think. You could even have a caddy. They will give you a 4.5' bamboo dart for the initial drive, a 7' dart to hit the green. Putting would be kind of lame though. If you miss from the green or near it, you are doing pretty bad.
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