Kalahari bow, quiver and staff.

potapych · 21st April 2007, 02:58 PM

Very nice. I have one of those also and experimented with it many years back, out of curiosity. At the time I didn't know what I had and thought it might have been a sort of token ensemble, such as used by the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo's Ituri forest in mating rituals.

I shot it at a spot about 4 feet up on a substantial 6 foot tall wooden fence from a distance of about 20 feet. I did not want to stress the bow or string too much and therefore only pulled it perhaps 30%. The arrow hit near enough (wink) to my mark and stuck. When I went to retrieve it, the triangle portion of the tip was nearly totally embedded and this was not soft wood, the entire fence rocked as I worked to pull it loose. Even at 30% it would have absolutely skewered any soft-skinned animal shot at that range. I gained a lot of respect for it then and you are quite right to assume it's deadly serious stuff.

My arrows are wrapped similarly to yours and are not fletched either. As a matter of interest; I remember reading somewhere that the metal tips were originally procured by the tribesmen using the expedient of dismembering barbed-wire fence lines they encountered on the Kalahari plain; then untwisting, cutting, straightening and working the individual strands into points, using campfires and rocks.

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21st April 2007, 02:58 PM	#6
potapych Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Left Coast, USA Posts: 14	Very nice. I have one of those also and experimented with it many years back, out of curiosity. At the time I didn't know what I had and thought it might have been a sort of token ensemble, such as used by the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo's Ituri forest in mating rituals. I shot it at a spot about 4 feet up on a substantial 6 foot tall wooden fence from a distance of about 20 feet. I did not want to stress the bow or string too much and therefore only pulled it perhaps 30%. The arrow hit near enough (wink) to my mark and stuck. When I went to retrieve it, the triangle portion of the tip was nearly totally embedded and this was not soft wood, the entire fence rocked as I worked to pull it loose. Even at 30% it would have absolutely skewered any soft-skinned animal shot at that range. I gained a lot of respect for it then and you are quite right to assume it's deadly serious stuff. My arrows are wrapped similarly to yours and are not fletched either. As a matter of interest; I remember reading somewhere that the metal tips were originally procured by the tribesmen using the expedient of dismembering barbed-wire fence lines they encountered on the Kalahari plain; then untwisting, cutting, straightening and working the individual strands into points, using campfires and rocks.