Whistling Arrows - What is the point?

In the video above, available on Project Gridless on YouTube, myself and a random stranger demonstrate shooting whistling arrows - for fun.

Historically (or Traditionally, whatever) whistling arrows were used primarily to signal allies, which did serve a purpose at the time. The Mongolians and Tibetans also used "howling arrows" during wars in order to scare their enemies. Several thousand howling arrows coming towards their enemies would scare the bejeezus out of their foes and send them scurrying. Seeing comrades shot down by such arrows and then hearing one coming closer to themselves was a nerve wracking experience for the soldiers fighting against the Mongolians/Tibetans, and such soldiers would often suffer PTSD symptoms after fleeing the combat because of the fear the arrows had instilled in their damaged psyche.

Many other cultures used similar arrowheads too. Below for example is a Japanese Whistling Arrowhead.

Modern Whistling Arrowheads are pretty simple.

They are not even sharp, typically. Just a piece of hollow metal with two holes in the tip.

So what would you use them for?

Honestly, entertainment.

They are fun to shoot. That is it. They have no actual practical use these days. I suppose you could use them to scare off predators from your cabin, or even scare off trespassers, but that is it.

But if your primary goal was to scare off predators / trespassers, just get a big dog for your Off Grid home. And then put up signs that say BEWARE OF DOG.

Most trespassers would rather not get bitten and would avoid any area with signs that say BEWARE OF DOG (TRESPASSERS WILL BE MAULED).

Or just skip the dog and get the sign. Works too.

Either way, have fun shooting your whistling arrows. :)

Traditional Archery Roving in Norway

Roving is a traditional practice of archery dating back centuries whereby you go for a nature walk and shoot targets along the way. There is even songs about it...

A Roving We Will Go, We Will Go No More A Roving, etc. There is a lot of old songs about roving.

In the olden days groups of men (usually young unmarried men) would grab their archery equipment and go for nature walks, roving as they went along - sometimes with alcohol - and have a really fun time walking along and shooting things in the distance.

Back then and even now roving was a good way to practice your hunting skills without actually injuring anything.

In the video below is a Norwegian couple who demonstrate roving in the woods.

As archery oriented sports go it looks pretty fun. Very good practice for hunting too.


Not to be confused with another archery sport, which is Clout Shooting. Clout shooting your goal is to shoot for distance, but still manage to hit within a radius of a flagpole. It is a bit like lawn darts for distance shooters. For men the clout distance is 180 yards, for women 140 yards. (These rules sometimes vary by country. The distances mentioned here are British GNAS.)

Scoring for clout shooting is as follows:

18 inches	5
3 feet	4
6 feet	3
9 feet	2
12 feet	1
> 12 feet (3.7 m)	0

Clout Archery traditionally used rope to mark the boundaries of each radius.

As archery sports go there is also Popinjay - which involves shooting at a fake bird on top of a pole.

Archery - Uphill and Downhill Shooting Video

Archery - Uphill and Downhill Shooting Video

Useful for both exercise and hunting.

For archery lessons in Toronto visit CardioTrek.ca.

Hunting Food Off The Grid

Archery is a great way to get yourself food if you decide to go off the grid.

STEP ONE

Check local laws, provincial / state laws, federal laws and so forth.

Check to see if you need a hunting or fishing license to hunt various things.

Learn what you can hunt in your region in terms of what kinds of animals.

Badger
Beaver
Boar
Caribou
Dove
Deer
Duck
Elk
Fish (using bowfishing)
Geese
Goats, Wild
Moose
Opossum
Pheasant
Quayle
Rabbit
Raccoon
Seal
Sheep, Big Horn
Snakes
Squirrel
Turkey

Basically its a big long list of things that people hunt regularly. Depending on your morals you might not want to kill baby seals however.

STEP TWO

Learn how to shoot a bow. Its actually a lot harder than you think. It doesn't matter whether you get a compound bow or a recurve bow either, there is a learning curve and its strongly recommended you get archery lessons early on because that will speed up your learning process.

If you want to do bowfishing you should probably learn how to swim too, so swimming lessons may also be a necessity.

You can also get Free Archery Tips from various websites, but nothing beats get instructions from a professional archery teacher because they can tell you what you are doing wrong.

And how you can fix it (assuming you listen to the teacher's instructions - nobody can teach a student who doesn't listen).

If you don't want archery lessons then you may want to purchase a book on the topic. The best book I've found (and read numerous times) on this topic is "Precision Archery". The other books I recommend is Zen Bow, Zen Arrow and "The Unfettered Mind", but those are more about the mental discipline that goes into archery.





STEP THREE

Practice, practice, practice... honestly. Archery is one of those sports where practice makes perfect... And if you don't practice regularly then you will be a sloppy archer who misses constantly.

STEP FOUR

Learn how to track game. Lets leave that discussion for another day.

STEP FIVE

Learn how to skin and cook game. Again, lets talk about that in the future.