Thoughts on Micro Birdies

[Raymond G]

Originally Posted by Tejas

It's the age old ballistic debate. Big Slow vs Small fast, some people carry nines others carry fourty's.It's all preference, the Navejo used deer skin that "had not been punctured" for spiritual purposes.If you could kill a deer without "puncturing" it, Imagine what you could do with a tiny little arrowhead.

Tejas and a few others brought up a few interesting points on Desertwalkers Tiny Point thread, and it got me to thinking. Before I got hooked in this hobby I used to bow hunt. One thing that I always took into acount is the fact deer will "jump the string." Deer are capable of hearing the release of the bow and will will either jump or duck causing you to miss. By the time I quit I was using 100 grain mechanical broadheads (the blades tuck into the point and open on inpact) on a 25" carbon arrow (I had a 5" overdraw that allowed me to use very short arrows). Very light... Very fast... Fast enough that the deer I killed with it never heard the release before it was hit.
It dawned on me that jumping the string for whitetails is not a recent event for them. They've had thousands of years to adapt to them... It makes me wonder if the Native Americans figured this out and used these little points for a speed advantage in order to kill more game... Raymond

[Tejas]

Potentially, At the same time there could have been a few who carried heavier bows and shot spear tips mounted to broom stick size arrow shafts. But look at the transformation of points after the bow became common place, They got smaller.. I'm sure they caught the concept..

[Tejas]

And another factor.. Penetration... Big tips have more surface contact on impact. More surface contact equals more resistance,Smaller heads & shafts will penetrate deeper when fired from the same speed.

[Chad Gilbert]

I agree with y'alls theory on bird points. The analogy of big tips on broom sticks is funny.

Chad

[Tejas]

broom stick arrow's of the Amazon...

[joshuaream]

I have a couple of those thick amazon arrows. They are a very light weight cane, and about 4 feet long.

Their bows don't seem to have a lot of pull, and the arrows don't seem to move very fast, but they are effective. It's interesting to note, however, that the same groups seem to use poisoned blow gun darts on bigger/faster prey. The arrows are usually for scaring other people and birds.

[DesertWalker]

When you look at some of the desert areas we hunt nowadays there is a lack of reeds, willows, sticks and the like to lash these little points to. All that's there are scraggly bushes. Who knows what was growing in these areas 100s or 1000s of years ago, though. I think, in reality a small hafted point would be good for killing most anything from lizards to big game. Also think that the whole family hunted and gathered, and the small points were probably made and used by children also.

[mootsman]

Is it really more complicated than just the transition from atlatl points to arrowheads?

[arrow719]

One thing I have noticed in the Great Basin is that right after the transition from atlatl to the bow and arrow the arrow points were much larger. As time went on they got smaller and smaller and smaller. This tells me that they realized the smaller points worked just as good, probably better than the larger ones.

[rockhunter]

first of all, I'm sure they had alot more time and patience on their hands and probably used what would kill best and fast. as far as small points go, the first thing I think of is children practicing, and as wild as natives thousands of years ago were, I'm sure they were way tougher than us and I also wouldnt be surprised if they used small points to shoot each other like we do with paintballs. just a cloud of thoughts.