Hawaiian Sling

[crashdive123]

I was at one of my customers today. They had some bamboo that was overgrown and leaning on part of the building, with ants crawling up the bamboo, and onto the building. I Cut back some of the bamboo, and not wanting to leave an unsightly mess on their property I took it with me. Thought I’d make a couple of field expedient Hawaiian Slings using only what I would normally have with me while out in the woods.

The tools and materials 1st sling:
Fixed blade knife
Surgical tubing
550 paracord

2nd sling add:
Fishing line
3 nails
Tape (not necessary, but makes assembly easier

These took about 10 minutes each to make (minus fire hardening). Bamboo is very easy to work with. These are meant for fishing, but could be used for small game as well. The “spear” is about 7 feet long. With the use of the surgical tubing you can deliver the business end of the sling to your target very quickly and with quite a bit of force.

[crashdive123]

The next set of pics is the propulsion end.

[crashdive123]

A few more showing how the tubing works. I stretched it about four feet. Then just relax your grip a little and the spear is on it's way to the target. Nice that bamboo is real smooth.

Hmmm. won't let me add any more pics????

[Runs With Beer]

Neat idea, Ive never seen one of those. Is it for spear fishing?

[crashdive123]

That would be my intended use for it.

[crashdive123]

I guess I’ve reached the limit of attachments I can add – I’ll try this way. These two pics show the propulsion end of the spear.

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The next pics show the tip using nails.

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[Rick]

Sweet! Nice job.

(Neighbor comes walking over. "Uh, Crash. Did you intend to embed that thing in my air conditioner?")

[snakeman]

Thats cool. How far does it shoot, or do you hold it all the way through?

[BraggSurvivor]

Good job Crash. When are you going to try it out in the real?

[crashdive123]

You just relax your grip to shoot it, but it doesn't leave your hand. That's the reason for the long shaft. The ones I made today are about 7 ft long. That's pretty much the size of the ones I've purchased over the years. I've used most of mine for fishing while scuba diving - it'd be a bear to try and find it each time you shot it if you let it go. Even worse, to watch it swim away if you didn't kill the target.

[crashdive123]

Good job Crash. When are you going to try it out in the real?

Probably won't be diving any time soon. This weekend I'm heading out to one of the marshes to try my luck while standing (more realistc for an expedient sling). Shot the oak round, so I know that it works. Just wanted to see how long it took and to show how easy they are to make. I've got a couple of collapsable ones that I fish with.

[Gray Wolf]

Real nice crash.

[Runs With Beer]

Must admit, Pretty Cool, Ex, post , Great Pics.

[klkak]

Very nice post Crash.

I've made and used them while in South America. I had a couple spear heads I made out of three pieces of 3/32 spring steel wire points rigged similarly to the one you made with nails. These points were about 10" long and had a 3/4" steel o-ring that slid back as the points entered the fish causing the points to open up, securing the fish to the spear. I used this setup while snorkeling. After some practice it was very effective. Come to think of it. I think the guy that showed me how to make them was a Navy Chief. We were in Salinas Ecuador at the time. He had some very cool boats with him.

[crashdive123]

The tips that you describe making sound about what I use exclusively on my store bought slings. Very effective.

[klkak]

I imagine you could make point's like that out of the bamboo. It is a pretty tough wood.

[crashdive123]

You can. The trick when it's green is that it isn't real tough. Maybe enough for smaller fish - that's why I did a quick fire hardening on it (could have used more). Another trick with bamboo spears is that if you break the tip, but don't want to shorten the spear, just cut a section with a slightly larger diameter than the tip of your spear. Sharpen and wedge onto the spear. Kind of like disposable tips.

[klkak]

One of my uncles taught me to make a detachable harpoon type tip for a spear that had a line attached to it. Not unlike the one's used by Eskimos. I have one stored in a box out in the shed that I made when I was in my teens. I made it from deer antler. I'll have to go look for it one day or make another and share it on here.

[crashdive123]

Here's the style tip I normally use. It's about 13 inches long (leatherman for size comparison (thanks for that tip Klkak)). As the spear enters, it spreads as you described above. Also, each one of the tines has a small barb about an inch and a half from the tip.

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[Gray Wolf]

Sometimes we use a detachable harpoon point to hunt gators. Rope stays attached to the point.