Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Missouri Atlatl Deer Hunting

Atlatl. Funny name. It's pronounced "atlatl."

For the first time this year Missouri allows the use of atlatl to take deer, but only during the regular firearms season. The conservation commission must think these 10,000 year old spear flingers are in the same category of accuracy and deadliness as a firearm. They may be right. Missouri Department of Conservation's definition of the device: "atlatl, which is defined as a rod or narrow board-like device used to launch, through a throwing motion of the arm, a dart 5 to 8 feet in length."

Missouri requires the use of centerfire expanding-type bullets, shotgun slugs or 40-caliber ball-type black powder ammunition when hunting deer. Or atlatl. Whatever works best. But Wooly Mammoth is a different game entirely. None of the firearms methods allowed for deer today would be effective in harvesting a mammoth. Except the atlatl. Atlatl points have been found deeply embedded in the bones of killed Mammoths. Elephant meat tonite, sisters and brothers.

I wonder what advantages an atlatl has in an urban guerrilla warfare setting?