How to Build an Atlatl Thrower : Part 2 

Hey Folks, I accidentally edited out the portion where I talk about length of the thrower so I will put that info right here. I personally prefer longer than shorter so I can create more tip speed. My thrower is about 30 inches long but also remember my spears are 9ft long cane. If you are throwing shorter spears you may need a shorter thrower. If your thrower is short, it's going to be robbing some potential energy and prohibit you from throwing a heavier/ longer spear. There is no standard length that you have to use. I would honestly start as long as your arm and reduce as needed. This again is why it's important to figure all your spear specifics out first, then build the thrower to match.

"Spear hunting is some exciting shit" No truer words were ever spoken on RU-vid.

"it's a stick, that throws another stick"😂👌

I finally find your discussion on bannerstones. Thanks so much for all the great info. There is so much discussion on there true use. Hearing you say that you have used weights with positive results is worth so much more than speculation. I’m a artifact hunter and I’m always trying to find a deeper level of understanding about the stone tools I find. You have been an incredible resource. Thanks for all the hard work.

I love these videos. I'd made atlatls before but these videos opened my eyes to how simple it can be. I spent so much time and effort and was so nervous about messing it up but this video helped me get out of my own head and just do it. I can knock out an atlatl in a couple hours now. 👍

Great stuff... The simple thrower is the best for sure. You know what you are doing. THANKS!

Thanks for explaining clearly, the why of the features and design, that's appreciated.

Man I just belly laughed for ten minutes “ spear hunting. Is some exciting shit!!! That was f’ing funny!!!!

Yet again, thanks for being awesome! Love that you put these great videos out!

You are very entertaining! Your knowledge is very impressive. Thank you.

Can you make a part 3 video where we see you making the atlatl because I would just love to see your making process please. I ask because there a lot on how to make darts which are very good and help me make my own darts but I want to make my own atlatl to have the full primitive skill package and to make it just like yours because you prove that you can take down literally anything . Love your vids keep up the good work.

I see some commenters who wanted a step-by-step instruction manual with, I guess, precise dimensions and how to use each tool. I find your discussion of theory and broad goals of the build more interesting and more helpful. I'm 2,800 air miles away from any river cane. I use softwood and fiberglass driveway markers for darts, because I'm doing it at a hobbyist level, not to hunt with.

Wow thank you!, that was some great advice. I literally was going to build the thrower before the Dart! LOL once again thank you and good fortune on your future hunts.

Another beauty, love your style

i must have asked for this video 1000 times thank you for making this

"Its a stick that throws another stick" well said.

Heya from Virginia! 🏖😎 love the videos you make! You've inspired me to start some projects myself. Keep up the great work! I'm the lowest beginner lol but hey gotta start somewhere 😉👍

By far my favorite channel ❤!

Cool stuff Ryan!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience 🙏 I've been working on one for a while....going about it backwards lol .I've got a very interesting piece....just not to usable lol .... gonna try again using your method.

Excellent videos, thank you!

Good advice based on real experience and success.

I would like to see the banner stone that you attached. Very interesting stuff. I used to teach junior high kids a course in Indian studies. We started with the paleolithic stuff. I put a drawing of an elephant on a cardboard box, cut a circle for the kill zone, and had the kids throw at it with a makeshift spear and atlatl. Nobody could ever hit it, so we had one member of the tribe sacrifice himself by punching the spear in the kill spot so the rest of the tribe could eat the home made jerky. I guess the jerky was pretty good because nobody wanted to sacrifice themselves and be counted out so that the tribe could eat.

great video Ryan, good stuff!

You certainly got your point across! Good video!

I really appreciate your videos, thank you.

Great stuff buddy!

This video was more helpful than anything I've watched, now i know what is wrong with my stick and how to fix it

The size of the darts this thing throws is what I been wanting the qualifications on for a very long time. I want the maximum sized projectile a atlatl can launch for maximum impact at greater then throwing launch. Something for proper megafauna.

The fletching's on your dart are huge and perfect . When a person first uses the atlatl , they are stunned by how accurate they are ... even out to 100 yards . River cane and bamboo are awesome . Trying to find dart material like sumac can be difficult in some parts of the U.S. and other countries . Great video . Respect and 1000 thumbs up .

I always wondered what the banner stone was for. I assumed it was for tuning the flexing type of thrower. Your explanation makes better sense.

Very well explained.. I understand..

Ryan: Go watch the video on the darts first! Me, watching Ryan at 1 in the morning: Ok

Brilliant. Thank you

Nice video, i really love that. SurvivalAustria

Merchandise idea: put "Spear hunting is some exciting shit" on anything, hats, shirts, mugs, all of it. Love your content 🤙

Hey I cannot seem to find the Spear Building videos. I remember seeing I believe it was two videos on River Cane Spears but... ? I already watched how to build a Hunting Atlatl part 1. Thanks for all of your information

Good information

I love making and using stone age tools, but for me it's about being able to cope in any survival situation. In most types of terrain and regions, I can go into the wild with nothing, and have fire, food, shelter, and a weapon before a day is out. But my goal is not to be a bear, grizzly or otherwise. My goal is to be a human who is able to kill a grizzly, if I have to do so. So in the wild, I'll use whatever I can find on the killing end of a weapon. It will likely be flint in most areas, obsidian in other areas, or, if I'm really lucky, lost or discarded metal. Different reasons for learning. For me, primitive weapons and skills are fun to make and fun to use, but the fun stops when survival starts, and survival is why I spend time on primitive weapons and skills when fifty other things are calling for my time and attention. I've heard the argument for heavier atlatls, which is what you call the thrower, before, but it doesn't make any sense, and is completely unscientific. Dart speed is generated purely by atlatl speed, and atlatl speed is generated by arm speed. The more mass something has, the more inertia it has, and the move difficult is is to move. The reason you can't throw a cannonball as fast as you can throw a baseball is not because the cannonball is heavier, it's because the cannonball has far more inertia. This applies to atlatls and darts, as well. The more mass, the more inertia, and the more force is required to start them moving, and to accelerate them to high velocity. There is no potential energy in a atlatl, heavy or light. A heavy atlatl does not impart a single speck of energy to the dart. To the contrary, the heavier an atlatl is, or to be precise, the more mass it has, and the more mass the dart has, the more inertia there is to overcome, and the more force will be required to start everything moving, and to accelate it to a high velocity in the span of time between when the motion begins and when the dart leaves the atlatl. In other words, a heavy atlatl generates less velocity than a light atlatl, and a light, flexible atlatl generates more speed than either. The reason a heavier atlatl can be important is purely for balance. No one ties a rock on an atlatl because they think this will improve the speed of the dart. Any mass added to the thrower slows the velocity of the dart to some degree. The rock is there for balance, and balance is needed for better accuracy. Well, actually balance is needed for EASIER, not BETTER accuracy. A six foot dart that weighs 4,000 grains is easier to balance than a nine foot dart that weighs 4,000 grains because there's less weight out in front of the thrower. And when it comes to energy, let's get real. Energy equals one half mass times velocity squared. If your dart knocks an animal down, it is not because it has more energy than an arrow, it's because it has more inertia. The atlatl is a fun, and even deadly weapon at close range, but it's a piss poor hunting weapons for game of any size, and should never, ever be legal for large game. The odds of wounding a big game animal are many, many times higher with an atlatl than with a bow, and enough animals are merely wounded with bows. Wounding an animal and allowing it to escape is unconscionable, and something only a very primitive man would ever risk, unless his life were on the line, and nothing any good regulating body would allow. And, again, let's get real. The ONLY reason primitive man used the atlatl was because they had no better weapon. When the bow was invented, the atlatl quickly vanished from the scene because the bow is INFINITELY better in every possible way. The bow is also an infinitely better survival weapon than an atlatl. The atlatl is fun, and I love using one, but I can't even imagine a situation or setting, where I'll make an atlatl for huntign or survival or self-defense. Compared to a bow, it sucks dead bunnies. In a day, I can make a bow capable of flinging an arrow at forty-four meters per second, and accurate enough to put three arrows in the heart/lung section of a deer at twenty-five yards, or in the heart/lung section of a moose at fifty yards.This is never, ever going to happen with an atlatle. In a week, I can make a pretty well-seasoned bow that is stronger and more accurate, that can kill a grizzly, or anything else, at a safe distance. You're light on terminology, and lighter still on physics. What you call the thrower IS the atlatl. What you call the spear is the dart, though yours really are spears. Atlatls come in all sizes and shapes, , and yours, a heavy, stiff, straight atlatl, is by far the least efficient of them all. It may be the easiest to learn how to use, but you're trading ease of learning for both distance and power. And like it or not, if you take the time to learn how to use a long, flexible, curved atlatl accurately with much smaller darts, you will have a far deadlier weapon with much greater range. You've taken the easy way out at every turn, rather than face a steeper learning curve. You would be almost as well off just using a speare. Within reason, there is no correlation between length of the dart and length of the atlatl. These matter only in ease of learning. A six foot darts throws just as well from a thirty-inch atlatl as a nine foot dart. Again, it's about balance and ease of learning. But everyone talks about adding a rock to the atlatl for balance, but are seemingly unaware than you can add a rock to the end of a much shorter dart and not only achieve balance, but increase killing power by making a much larger wound channel. The rock you add is a longer, heavier point or broadhead. There is no reason why a six foot dart cannot weigh 4,000 grains, but there is also absolutely no reason why it should, or why a nine foot speare should, either.. Velocity always more than compensates for mass. If it didn't, firearms wouldn't exist, and if they did, a bullet traveling at three thousand feet per second would just bounce off our skin. The simply fact is that you do not have a very good underastanding opf physics, and you make assumptions that simply are not true. And while the atlatl was wonderful when first invented, only a total lizard brain would ever use one for hunting big game, unless he had to have that big game in order to survive. Killing a big game animal is not about your ego, it's not about wanting to emulate primitive man, and it sure as hall is not a sport. It's about taking a life, and if you're going to do this you had damned well better be certain you do not would an animal and allow it to escape. You simply eliminate this possibility to every reasonable degree. The simple fact is that an atlatl, even a good one, which your is not, should never be used on anything larger than a deer. The simple fat is allso that a six foot, fairly light weight dart, and a long, flexible atlatl that has a curve near the handle is a far better, far, far more efficient weapon that your is. The atlatl was valuable to primitive man because it extended his killing distance, not because it allowed him to do something at ten to fifteen yards that he could already do with a throwing spear. It was the sixty yard throw, and longer, that elevated those who had the atlatl from those who did not. A volley at atlatl darts could stop an attacking tribe long before they got in range with throwing weapons, jsut as that same volley could make several kills when lauched into herd or flock animals at sity to seventy-five yards. All you're doing with a heavy, stiff atlatl and nine foot long, 4000 grain darts is turning a wonderful, innovative long range weapon back into a throwing spear. You might decide to tackle the steeper learning curve of learning to use the atlatl as it was intended to be used, as a long distance weapon that use shorter, thinner high velocity darts, rather than an extremely short range weapon that uses giant, heavy darts. It is possible to be just as accurate with a six foot dart and a long, flexible, curved atlatl as it is with a stiff, heavy, non-flexible, straight atlatl. The six foot dart is every bit as deadly, and at a far greater distance, and even more accurate, if you take the time to learn how to use it.

I’d love to hear what kind of knaping oil you prefer

Hey, for the darts/spears, there will be a little bit of taper in every piece of cane right ? So should the thicker end be in the front or back ?

I am having trouble with my atlatl and accuracy. However I cannot find usable River cane where I live. I built my dart out of Ash and it is very nosey I'm going to build a longer thrower and hopefully that works. I love this Channel and the information you have! And if this fails I may be buying some rivercane darts from you

I need to thin my thrower down more. Darts are 7.5 with bone head, 8ft with refurbished kitchen knife point and 8.5 with the same steel point. Thrower is 30 inches

Great video! Is there an ideal ratio between spear length and thrower length (besides of balance in weight)?

excellent ! ..

even more simplier if you use a branch wich allready has a spur on it and i use bamboocanes as dartshafts

Badass. What do you use for a spear tip when you don't have access to flint? Next best stone? I'm in New England and am out regularly and never see flintstone. I see quartz everywhere. I see old stone tools everywhere also but never see any arrowheads.

Great stuff, enjoyed the practical no bullshit attitude. Any rule of thumbs for length of the thrower? What’s the length of yours compared to your fingertip to armpit length? Cheers

Hey Ryan, is there a video of your alligator hunt?

Great video. Lol…. But I gotta wonder if I’m the only person to notice this. Early in the video I hear sirens in the background and my first thought is … oh sh*t dude, it’s fish game, hide. Lol…. Not bad mouthing the video at all just a funny thought. and actually this I feel brings up a good topic on primitive hunting and knowing the laws in the area that a person would hunt. My state for example (last time I checked) even has a minimum pound draw weight restriction on bows. Which I feel is a good thing for obviously reasons. Anyway great video.

Can you use a removable banner stone for your thrower

Would’ve been good to see how you make that spur because a lot of people make the Spurs were it’s sticking out

What do you think of Thunderbird Atlatl’s??

Wish the video actually showed how to make the atlatl, still a lot of useful info though

Are you gonna do a video on the shafts ? I’m sure that you have More ideas on the shaft than a novice would get intuitively

Would Oak serve as a good wood?

How do you carve the "trough",notch? Do you need a special carving knife of a chisel?

How would you compare the atlatl experience with archery? I've been doing archery practically all my life--but I've only become aware of the spear thrower very recently, especially since reading Les Guerres Du Feu (Quest For Fire) by J.-H. ROSNY Aîné. I highly recommend it, but I'm not sure it's available in English, or in any language other than French. I can see the similarities, but it strikes me as being very difficult to aim precisely, as one is in continual motion, unlike archery, where total stillness is the point.

Great video! Question; Your 4000g dart is tipped with what appears to be a target point? Can you show the point(s) you intend to use on the large game hunt?

what happens if your atlatl only pisses a large boar off? do you carry a backup?

As a side note, thrusting swords tend to be slightly point heavy...

How do you hold the spear in the thrower with your hands?

How do you measure the grains of your spears?

Nice video! Not trying to be annoying or anything but I believe the "atlatl" is the handle, and the spear is the stick that is thrown. In episode 1 you call the spear an atlatl and in this episode the handle the atlatl thrower.

Brasil

Did this man actually cuss, I tried to make an easy first build arrow just for practice and I cuss like a sailor this man spends 2 hours on a arrow head, breaks it in half and is like well I learned something today

Dude, you're one bad-mamma-jamma. Btw, that's a compliment lol

hi about a year ago i made a spear out of a hickory hoe handel and an sks bayonet welded to an old u bolt from the rear axel of my f 250 4wd it weighs a couple pounds and throw nice...well i had this old socket handled chisel thats about 8 inches long and i bought a 3/4 oak dowel rod and glued it on the end with epoxy glue...i made my thrower out of a peice of juniper thats about 18 inches long i thought the thrower had to be about the length of my fore arm look like im gonna try one about 3 foot long but my dart is less than 6 feet long what do you suggest im in payson az and we have elk....thank you for your time..

Actually a lot of engineering in one of these things

How wound I figure out the grain ?

would cattail stems work instead of river cane because there is no river cane around here

Where can I get one your T shirts??

I paused, made one, and right when I unpaused he said stay away from cedar...... great

Some exciting shit! Lol

what is 4000 grains (or gramms?) ? thanks

How do you find hard wood

So it's about a third of the length of the spear? "ish"

It went from south American jungle to Oakland in half a second

I wanna know how the fuck you got into making all this. You’re so smart and so good at it

sirens destroyed all wildness)

I like how you dont give a shit about police sirens while filming

I make my atlatels like a bow limbe so it acts like a Spring

Would white oak work for a thrower

I use 4-5 foot darts when i use the atlatl I hate long atlatl darts

Thrower should be the lightest possible; It adds nothing to impact energy , same as bow limbs should be lightest possible. The spear on the other hand must carry mass to impart energy and penetration. A heavy thrower will just slow down your hand and contribute nothing to energy. Spear E=MV squared / 2

The police coming for u 1:20

where is the other parts

i didn't really see it being made ro demonstrated so how is this really a how to v being a sales video?

I hope that I can become proficient with throwing the atlatl I pitched in little league I hope that will come in handy

How heavy are your arrows? Around 600 grains?

you keep talking about grain weight, but you don't say how you measure that, can you explain that part for us?

I guess the build video knocks gun control right on its ass.

Watched both vids and not one spear was chucked... Came for the destruction 🧐

We didn't start the fire....

Spear hunting Is exciting as shit 🤣😂

So many other videos bumpin gums about nothin related, and bein' real finicky over their thrower.... "It's a stick." -from a man who uses it

Lol filming while the cops raid your neighbors

Good explanation but you should have thrown it

First

No cursing please, my young kids are watching thankyou