silent weapons.. airguns vs. bows and crossbows

reply to post by mindfreak21


180 lbs draw crossbows aren't too hard to find. A simple google search comes up with quite a few.

reply to post by warbird03


yea i kno that, im talkin bout the ones with a foldable prod, that will fit in your backback, i can only find them 150lbs at budk.

reply to post by mindfreak21


I don't know much about the company, but here's a 180 lb folding crossbow.

reply to post by warbird03

My Jennings Crossbow, which has a different design from traditional crossbows in that it is more like a shorter long bow mounted horizontally with no bolt groove and takes special (regular arrow) knocks and a longer bolt (22" arrow), has a 150# draw and will completely disappear into one of those large tightly wound farm hay bales (rolled side not the ends) from 40 yards and I have heard of them going thru a deer at the same distance and people taking deer from 90 yards with one. And even lesser crossbows can send a bolt right thru regular kevlar body armor...so I dont know why one would need a higher pound pull.

The reason I included the sling bow as an option was price as well as general functionality. You are right that the rubber tubing has a limited and unpredictable lifespan, however the learning curve can be useful when it comes time to use an actual bow and arrow. Especially for instinctive shooting, which is how I take 10-20 yard shots.

Most SHTF scenarios are short term with a max of 4 weeks. Hurricane, tornado or other natural disaster. In that situation, even short term economic collapse, the sling bow is light, portable, fairly concealable and most of all inexpensive.

In a long term, Situation X deal. It can still be handy while out and about and not necessarily hunting but tending to a target of opportunity in hunting. Deer would be the largest animal I would try to take with it and I know that I will have wasted meat unless I smoke it and use it for barter, since it is just me. However my deer hunting would be for bones, leather and sinew more than meat in the first place. The arrow portion steps you up from just squirrels and rabbits to groundhogs and raccoons.

It does one other thing exceptionally well in a long term situation. It is a functional hunting weapon while you are constructing a proper longbow. Sure, you could make a bundle bow fairly quickly out of natural material or even modern tent poles and duct tape. But you still have to carry that around in addition to other gear if you are having to hoof it out of Dodge. And it is a lot less suspicious and hands free with a slight bulge in a cargo pocket than a bow slung over your shoulder or carried in your hand.

When the rubber tube does break: you still have a small leather patch, a partial rubber tube for a straw or small cordage and nice piece of steel that can be heated, re-bent and then sharpened into a two pronged spear point for example or a variety of other uses.

reply to post by BarmyBilly

The english long bow is the primary reason that the English won the Battle of Agincourt (along with a muddy field) against a French army (including many mounted, armored knights) that out numbered it approximately 7:1.

primer gun ,22cb, 380, or 45acp is the best choices for silenced weapons "outside of a blowgun"

silencers can cheaply and easily be bought and made from this: www.mojoimage.com... without too much effort and to ensure its quiet just place a piece of tape over the end of it as a wipe and you're good to go

what i love about it is, you can put it back on your lawnmower and no one will be the wiser

reply to post by mindfreak21


They do have large caliber air rifles that are sub sonic and offer about as much power as a 22lr.

This is an example of one.

Sam Yang 909s

Here is a site dedicated to large bore airgun hunting:
BHD

Most people seem to forget what I said earlier in this thread. The more moving parts in your weapon, the more things that can break and the harder it will be to fix which which are probably the most important factors in a SHTF scenario. An airgun especially should be out of the question imo because of both of those points plus the fact that you cannot fashion your own ammo as easily as you can with a bow or crossbow. Then it comes down to crossbow versus bow. Between these 2, physical strength is another factor to consider. Most people would have a rather hard time shooting a 100+ lb longbow compared to a similiar draw crossbow. A crossbow is also far easier to transport in most cases. However, the bow has it's own advanted in it's rate of fire. If you're hunting anything that can fight back, that rate of fire could save your life if you missed the first shot.

true but if you were injured or something than it would be hard to use bow or crossbow, also the most powerful bow i can shoot is eighty pounds, and when it comes to a crossbow i can probably load twohundred pounds, and you cant put a scope on a bow.lol.

i just got tubing for my slingshot and moded it for arrows... omfg it is soo friggin awsome.. im goin huntin with this thing.

reply to post by mindfreak21


Depending on the injury, it could make aiming with any weapon difficult. Granted, an injury to an arm will make it nearly impossible to shoot a bow properly. A crossbow would indeed be good in that situation. Regardless, an airgun shouldn't be anything more than a short term consideration.

reply to post by mindfreak21


I know this would also be prone to fail because of complexity but it does have geek appeal.

reply to post by warbird03


I would disagree. Once you realize how airguns work you could see that they are quite simple. I would think that the trigger mechanism of a crossbow is about as complicated as an airgun. As for the ammo I think casting lead pellets would not be any harder than making a bow. In any case a large bore air rifle could probably be muzzle loaded with a homemade dart/bolt.

Edited to add this vid. It's just a kid playing around with a very simple homemade airgun shooting different ammo.

reply to post by mindfreak21

AIRGUNS(high velocity1200fps and up), i have .117 and .22 the .22 packs a punch but both break the sound berrier and produce a loud crack when fired,(there fore i almost didnt want to include it) so they are not totally silent but a homemade silencer helps it a little.

If you're going to throw a home made silencer on an air rifle, why not a .22 rimfire?
Assuming that you have no tax stamp for either, the legal penalties if caught will be similar.

reply to post by daskakik


Yeah a modern crossbow is probably about as complex as an airgun. A crossbow will still usually be quieter than an airgun though. One thing's for sure, I'd much rather be hit by an airgun than a 180 lb draw crossbow. Either way though, a bow will usually be easier to make and maintain. I will say though it would be much easier to hit something hostile that's already near you with an airgun or crossbow, plus both of them could also be used as a club.

because i use insulation in the silencer chambers to absorb the noise and i am afraid that if i put it on a .22lr that the insulation will burn,, i have not tried it but maby i will give it a try tomoro and see what happens, asfor the air gun that shoots arrows, i have one, its just a ball vaulve on a 2 inch pvc pipe with a bike tire vaulve, and a barrel and a wad to propel the arrow out, its neat but is long, i gota fill it with air which takes like 50 pumpsfrom a bike pump or air from aircompressor, witch i would need with me, but it does have power.

reply to post by mindfreak21


You could just apply the same idea to any regular air gun. You would have to use sort of a scaled down arrow or bolt, more like a dart. I'd imagine that would be fairly painful, a splinter at faster than the speed of sound

i tried that with an old .22 pellet gun, it was only about 650fps, but still the dart didnt have mutch energy, and it tumbled in the air becayse i coodent have fletchings of fins to stabilize it, that wood be kool if some one found a vid or a link explaining how to do it better, i also have messed arround with home mede ballistic knives, i went to home depot and got everything i needed for it.. it was bassically a home made blade with a round handle that fit in a pipe with a spring at the end,it had a screw in the handle of the blade that when loaded would hang up on the pipe and when released it would fly about 20yards it would mess someone up if you shot them with it, and with a under hand toss action it will penitrate all the way through 3/8in. ply wood, problem is it is almost imposable to hit anything, i coodent hit a deer with it, not even at four yards.

Here's a video of a guy taking 200 meter shots with an air rifle. There's no background noise or music so it gives a good sample of how quiet these rifles are.

reply to post by warbird03


Not saying that standing in front of a bolt won't put a dent in your survival plan but after seeing these pics I could honestly say that I wouldn't want to be hit with a pellet coming out of that air gun either.


Bison Hunt