Yes, the compound bow or the crossbow are stealthy weapons with a nice effective range, and from a well-designed tree blind can be quite effective against a small band of marauders, provided you are able to keep your position hidden. Which becomes more difficult if the marauders have even a rudimentary understanding of geometry and physics — which in today’s America, I agree, is a vanishingly small skill set.
Still, even intuitively, a small band of marauders, seeing their first scout downed by a carbon-fiber arrow, might be able to figure out that the shaft of the arrow and the angle in which it embeds into the stricken scout effectively points to the bowman’s position — at which point it helps if the bowman has built amid the trees a series of bridges or rope escapes. While hoping he’s being attacked by a band of marauders not armed with shotguns, nightvision, or scoped rifles.
— All of which is a roundabout way of saying your crossbow or compound bow is effectively useless, except maybe for hunting, and even then, only provided you can find an area of wooded land not already over run with newly formed militia groups. Me, I’m just interested in it because I’m looking to build a banjo with the string.
So. The bow for a tray of hash brownies? Plus, I’ll even through in a cassette of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and a boombox outfitted with 8 barely used D batteries.
You know you want to. And you also know it’s the right thing to do.
You’ll want the bow for hunting, lest the report of a gunshot draw the wrong sort of attention.
A bow would also be pretty handy once you run out of bullets/gun powder.
Of course, so would a sharpened stick at that point.
shooting squirrels and rabbits in your suburban backyard might be good practice.
Especially if you have a nosy neighbor with a squirrel feeder in her backyard.
That one fella had only the one book to tote around with him, but then he wouldn’t trade the sumbitch for anything. It’s funny though since no one could read anyhow: so why would they want it? For asswipe? Hell, there’s asswipe aplenty where’er we look.
I been thinking a really good air rifle might be a nice thing to have.
OT, but: There will be blood.
Forward!
Rubber o-rings for one are a bitch to find ex post facto, so stock in a decent supply of replacement parts: either that or learn to make squirrel hair felt to spec. A little bear grease and you’re good to go.
Arrows only indicate the point of origin for that fraction of a second where the target remains upright and facing the same direction as it was when it was hit.
“. . . that will undo a hundred years of . . . blah blah blah… blood.”
Shit, allasudden tradition is important on a question only a hundred years in chain? ‘S’matter with a political tradition based on three and a half centuries of liberty teachings then? We should just ignore that? But pay attention to a measly hundred years? Fuck that noise.
Friend of mine used his crossbow to harvest geese on campus in the ’70’s.
Never knew what hit ’em.
Rough on the meat though.
I fail to see the need for labor unions in this day and age.
Other than as a source of power and leverage for the bosses, of course.
Is our children learning? Not from these morons, apparently.
The kids are the the most important thing to the teachers so the teachers naturally have to “call in sick” to protest their state’s decision NOT to force unionization. Genius!
By the by, it may be useful to look at “trade” and “tradition” and “traitorous” as to their origins in handing “off” or “down” or “over”. The handing with hands is possible as to physical things, like the goods exchanged in trade or the books containing the tradition or the maps detailing the coming disposition of forces.
Shhh. I know that and you know that, but the guy I’m trying to get the bow from doesn’t need to know that. He should be thinking only about brownies and Pink Oz.
Success in such encounters usually depends on a team, rather than an individual attacking alone. Generally though, I think most are going to run when confronted or seeing the leader go down. Not worried about firing the gun myself, it takes some training to run towards gunfire, and if those folks are my adversaries, I have to think they are probably going to win. Anyway, I’m not sure I would want to be up a tree to launch that shot. Makes your escape routes a little more difficult, kinda like Katniss in The Hunger Games, unless you’ve got a hornet’s nest up there with you.
Disregarding obviously carrying more clips, hypothetically speaking, of course, I’m liking the 22 round clip for the Glock 22. Fire off ten rounds for cover and yell, “I’m out!” Then when they come from behind cover calmly say, “Oops, I lied.”
[T]he guy I’m trying to get the bow from …. should be thinking only about brownies and Pink Oz.
Try throwing in a quick go at your woman?
Oh, and when do we get an application of Wickard regarding the Feds shutting down legalized marijuana?
blok kwote fayl ther
The proper tactic is to carefully choose your ambush site, including a good escape route, wait for them to pass by, and then take them out from last to first, Sgt. York style.
If it’s the zombie apocalypse, point your pistol at him and take his silly bow. Trade it for his life.
Or we could try the cooperating for mutual advantage approach: He has a bow, you have a big ass rifle. He hunts, you provide overwatch, you both eat.
Promise him he gets to keep the next woman who comes along.
What is an ass rifle?
Belay that…I don’t want to know.
Insty points to Herschel Smith raising concerns on BATFE ruling on ammunition.
So, we have BATF going after armor piercing and the EPA going after lead bullets.
But we don’t have to worry about gun control. Nope, nothing to see here, just trying to make sure we’re not allowing the sale of something potentially dangerous to would be tyrants.
Great, surplus M855 is about to become (even) more expensive.
Chili-fueled, one suspects, Slart.
A shotgun? One of those you crack open in the middle?
Double barrel?
Er, over/under?
ROFL
Forwarding this piece to that idiot on “The Walking Dead” …
Blunderbuss!
I have a dog and three cats, and my mother-in-law will be bringing eight more cats.
Surely one or two of them can be trained to bring home what they catch.
And if the cats don’t bring something home, you can stew them.
3 cats plus 8 cats equals a cat-astrophe in the offing.
I hope you have a barn for them all to live in or your home will become a giant litter box.
The missus and MIL will be cat-erwauling about the carpets.
And that’s why I like guns. And knives. They just sit quietly where ever I put them, and don’t poop.
My guns and knives also don’t do stupid shit that make me laugh on a regular basis, though. My cats never cease to entertain.
It’s why I have dogs. They like the yard and are first responders if bad guys try to sneak up on the house.
3 dogs and a cat at our house. (okay, the avatar probably gave things away) Anyway, for the most part, our dogs step lightly around the cat.
Also, I think our cat used to bait other cats into chasing her into our yard. Our dogs definitely know the difference between our cat and other cats, much to the dismay of any that were stupid enough to chase our cat. Funny thing, I’ve not seen any other cats in our back yard for a while now.
Take flanking shots. Peripheral vision is good at detecting motion, but lousy at depth perception. You’ll get two or three off before they can even begin to scan the field depth in your direction
Modern crossbows seem to serve almost no purpose but the old timey ones were EXTREMELY lethal at close-ish ranges, easy to use, and they ignored armor (not so much shields).
heh
I think there’s a really bad joke to be made about that SPG video, but I don’t dare. You gotta know that one of these times it’s going to fall out of the sling or hit the tang or something.
For once the chanting prayers make damn good sense though charles.
That is some real ACME /Wile E. Coyote scheme shit right there.
As a bow hunter, I’d take a bow team against a gun team any day of the week. Depending on equipment, distance and skill, a bow team’s second volley would be on the way before the first hit and indicated to the gun team they were in for a bad day…
Some classmates back in Jr. High rigged a similar device with a couple bicycle inner tubes and a tree launching M80s (waterproof fuse) into the Ohio River. At barges.
I am told it was a blast up right up until the Coast Guard showed up.
This is the best story about dogs and cats EVAR, via a Rachel Lucas commenter.
Teaser phrase: “It took 37 stitches…”
Sounds like a project for these guys to take on.
That cat respects a man who knows how to use a lethal weapon effectively.
It was already done a couple hundred years ago.
Ever hear of anyone going to the casino at the European reservation?
link
Only an idiot bow hunter would stand up in the clear to take on a gun hunter one on one
Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean you disregard cover, concealment and ambush either.
Adobe Walls too, Lee. Nonetheless, I suspect the archers of either the Black Prince or Henry V could hold a position against the advance of any corp of musket/riflemen prior to the adoption of breechloading rifles. After that I think it’s iffy until the introduction of the Maxim gun.
Think 26 of them could hold off 1000 riflemen?
OK, I’ll shut up. You all can go against my gun with your bow. Of course. I want you to believe it.
No, but I like the odds of Jackson’s American bowmen against the British at Chalmette Plantation. say.
That’s a dog fight. First one with position wins.
Just for kicks, you should read Arther Ferrill’s contention that Alexander the Great’s Macedonians would have driven Wellington from the field at Waterloo.
Hell, I even found a link!
Unfortunately for the bow dudes, the rifle has a much more significant range (expanding position), sustained rate of fire (I can carry hundreds of rounds), and damage done (an arrow in the arm won’t affect shooting like a bullet would affect pulling a bow).