I was curious to learn what early man went through by making functional survival tools and weapons from just rocks and sticks. So, I set out into the wilderness to make a primitive bow and arrow using only rocks as my cutting tool.
As I set out to an area that I wanted to make this video, about a 7 mile round trip hike into some rugged country, I collected items from nature that would assist in completing my project.
I was able to locate bones for arrowheads, green saplings for the bow stave, turkey feathers for the arrows, pine rosin and wood coal to make pine glue, yucca stick to make arrow shafts, rocks to fracture for cutting and sanding, and a nice survival site with trees and running water.
I was hoping to locate spruce trees or agave plants to use to make the bow string, but none could be found within the area, but are located in the region I was in (Chihuahuan desert). So, for the bow string I used my boot laces, which were made of para-chord. I also used a pocket survival tool that I wanted to test, which I used to start the fire with to make the pine glue.
It was a lot of hard work scraping, cutting, shaping, sanding and pounding to make a bow and arrow, but I was able to do it in about 6 1/2 hours. I sure have a lot of respect for early mans capabilities. They sure had it hard to survive off the land, but they did it and so can you and I.
Stay Prepared! Stay Alive!
Charlie