Just roll this around with you while walking in the forest
Crossbows
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I've never used a bullwhip in HKD...Sounds fun. But my fighting style is really, really aggressive. I fight to protect the things I hold dear to me, I don't care about getting hurt. But yeah, I didn't mean to go off topic.
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Latvia, eh? How do you like it up there? Why is gun control so strict there?
Buffalo Roam
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About 6 seconds.
Walking around with a crossbow cock isn't a easy thing, it is more bulky that a rifle, even when it isn't at full cock it is a pain in the ass to carry.
It get caught on everything when you move through the woods.
Your talking about a thing that is 1 1/2 meters long and 1 meters wide, with catch corners where the string attaches to the Prod, that hang up on every branch unless you are very careful.
Fraggle Rocker
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If your problem is wild animals, you should just go with an organic solution. Get yourself an Anatolian Guardian dog. They weigh about 120 lbs (55 kg) and for thousands of years have been used to protect livestock from jackals, boars, wolves, hyenas, bears and now in the USA, cougars ("mountain lions"). In Wyoming a few years ago, a baby Anatolian fought a wild boar for an hour and killed it to protect his goats. Lately they've been breeding them somewhat larger (150 lbs) and sending them to Africa. Two of them will keep a whole herd of cattle safe from lions. Perfect solution, nobody kills the lions so the environmentalists are happy, and nobody kills the cows so the Africans are happy.
We had one for ten years to protect the small dogs we breed and we're the only people out where we live who never had a bear break into our house. The cougars gave her a wide berth. She even scanned the skies and ran off hawks that looked like they were coming after our parrots. Sweet as pie, unfailingly gentle with humans. Bred in a Muslim land (Anatolia is eastern Turkey), you can be sure these dogs would never even hurt a bandit. But people don't know that and they'll treat you with a lot of respect.
Get yourself an Anatolian and you won't ever have to worry about wild animals or wild people again, and you won't need a gun or a crossbow.
Geeze dude, if I were walking through the forest and came upon somebody carrying a crossbow, I'd think you were one of the bad guys!
We had one for ten years to protect the small dogs we breed and we're the only people out where we live who never had a bear break into our house. The cougars gave her a wide berth. She even scanned the skies and ran off hawks that looked like they were coming after our parrots. Sweet as pie, unfailingly gentle with humans. Bred in a Muslim land (Anatolia is eastern Turkey), you can be sure these dogs would never even hurt a bandit. But people don't know that and they'll treat you with a lot of respect.
Get yourself an Anatolian and you won't ever have to worry about wild animals or wild people again, and you won't need a gun or a crossbow.
Geeze dude, if I were walking through the forest and came upon somebody carrying a crossbow, I'd think you were one of the bad guys!
Avatar, how are the laws in Latvia on black powder firearms? Here in the US, one can order them through the mail and they require no registration or special license.
For protection against a wild boar, get the most powerful handgun you can get. I would consider nothing any smaller than a .44 magnum in cartridge revolvers, and a .45 calibre steel-framed black powder revolver. I specified steel-framed because a heavier load of powder can be used in them compared to brass-framed revolvers. Black powder revolvers are slow to load, but you will have several shots before reloading is necessary. Maybe the muzzle blast alone could scare off some predators, if necessary. A head shot at close range would probably be required for a quick kill on a charging boar, but at least you would have some protection if a tree isn't handy. Those types of revolvers would also work well for other types of 'predators', both animal and human.
Ruger makes one of the highest quality black powder revolvers that I am aware of. Something like a Smith & Wesson model 629 .44 magnum would be my choice for protection in the types of encounters you are concerned with, but it may be much less of a hassle for you to legally purchase and own a black powder weapon. And they are fun to practice with, but a pain to clean throughly. Stainless steel is, of course, less corrosive. Is Pyrodex or some other black power substitute available in your country? True black powder is hazardous and very expensive to ship. Most gun stores don't even carry true black powder for sale, but modern alternatives such as Pyrodex are readily available here in the states.
For protection against a wild boar, get the most powerful handgun you can get. I would consider nothing any smaller than a .44 magnum in cartridge revolvers, and a .45 calibre steel-framed black powder revolver. I specified steel-framed because a heavier load of powder can be used in them compared to brass-framed revolvers. Black powder revolvers are slow to load, but you will have several shots before reloading is necessary. Maybe the muzzle blast alone could scare off some predators, if necessary. A head shot at close range would probably be required for a quick kill on a charging boar, but at least you would have some protection if a tree isn't handy. Those types of revolvers would also work well for other types of 'predators', both animal and human.
Ruger makes one of the highest quality black powder revolvers that I am aware of. Something like a Smith & Wesson model 629 .44 magnum would be my choice for protection in the types of encounters you are concerned with, but it may be much less of a hassle for you to legally purchase and own a black powder weapon. And they are fun to practice with, but a pain to clean throughly. Stainless steel is, of course, less corrosive. Is Pyrodex or some other black power substitute available in your country? True black powder is hazardous and very expensive to ship. Most gun stores don't even carry true black powder for sale, but modern alternatives such as Pyrodex are readily available here in the states.
Okay, that's a very good point and this could seriously bother me. I like to do sort of survival running through the woods.
Good advice, but I live in the city these days, and go outside of it whenever I can. I wouldn't want to restrict an Anatolian to an apartment when I'm at work or at uni.
If it can shoot, you need a license. Even if it's a 17th century family rifle.
I like it quite much![a-5];1715977 said:
It's a tradition imposed by conquerors since the middle ages. The latest tightening goes from the USSR days. Since in the beginning of 90s there was lots of gun crime, the laws are generally unchanged, even a bit better, because now you don't need a license for a gas pistol.
A short throwing spear (or two) and - this is the key - an atlatl to get some drive to it. No less convenient than a short sword on your belt, accurate to fifty yards easy, and hard hitting.
A grad student in anthropology (not a profession known for athleticism) down in Arizona put a few weekends in practicing, and drove a stone point spear through a one inch of oak board at a hundred meters. The old Reds killed bison with them, hunting on foot in a landscape of wolves and bears and no trees.
They kill boar, and you don't need to be studly: http://www.flight-toys.com/atlatl/atlatl_hunt.html The one pictured is I think long range - yours would be shorter, more convenient.
Plus you might like the sophistication of them, from a martial arts point of view - they're complex, rather than complicated.
A grad student in anthropology (not a profession known for athleticism) down in Arizona put a few weekends in practicing, and drove a stone point spear through a one inch of oak board at a hundred meters. The old Reds killed bison with them, hunting on foot in a landscape of wolves and bears and no trees.
They kill boar, and you don't need to be studly: http://www.flight-toys.com/atlatl/atlatl_hunt.html The one pictured is I think long range - yours would be shorter, more convenient.
Plus you might like the sophistication of them, from a martial arts point of view - they're complex, rather than complicated.
This is that solution;
http://www.thompsonoutdoors.com/-p-151.html
Cold Steel Bushman knife. Hollow handle, and you could modify the end of your staff to fit it perfectly. A few neodymium magnets sunk and epoxied along the staff would hold it pretty well.
Oh, and have you considered a pneumatic speargun, instead of a crossbow?
Tell me this: are you just looking for something to plug orcs and goblins with, or are we talking ogres and up?
What an odd place Latvia must be.
Just roll this around with you while walking in the forest
Don't be silly! He'd need a hill or something to use it properly.
This qualifies as the most insane thread of the day, as far as I can tell.
Good day.
I'd like to be prepared for an odd giant or a werewolf.
Remote gypsy tabors, oil smugglers, narcotic labs and crazy farmers are rare, but more frequent.
Wild dogs are frequent and wild boars are all around, but rarely come into view.
Rabid dogs and foxes are scary.
Wolves are a problem during winter, but I don't hike often then.
No. hmmm....
I'm still thinking about two light throwing spears by the backpack. They sound optimal. Portable, fast to apply, ranged. The range and power is smaller, but will do for a dog or a enemy human.
What about protection? I reccomend breathable covert body armour.
Then you definitely want to go with crossbow bolts that hae impact-detonated sticks of dynamite attached.
Avatar, you'll never find one weapons system to cover that full range of mythical and unlikely threats. A giant you could deal with using an RPG or some other portable rocket launcher, sure, but it's going to be useless against a werewolf unless you pack it with silver fragmentation particles. That might be your best bet on those two fronts, besides covering more mundate, everyday threats like packs of wolves howling for your blood as they chase your sled (although I understand from Peter and the Wolf that you should just keep shooting the lead wolf) or drug-manufacturing gypsies throwing rabid foxes. An RPG beats a rabid fox every time.
Now that might seem to cover all your angles, but - let's be frank - being that it's Latvia you probably encounter your fair bit of vampires and ghouls also, right? Right. So you're probably going to want something incendiary to throw at them besides a frivolous lawsuit - which, incidentally, would actually be fairly effective against corporate CEOs and other lawyers, so you may want to pack a pen and an attractive law student with you.
But what I'm thinking is an incendiary round for your anti-giant rocket launcher, or maybe something with holy water in a canister. I've no idea if they actually make those, but it is the 21st century after all and military technology is making leaps and bounds in a number of areas.
Regrettably, serious inquiry is apparently not.
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