Firearms are great for survival, as we’ve covered on this site many times before. But as we’ve also covered, there are many reasons why you might not have one when disaster strikes. You might not currently be a gun owner, you might end up in a survival scenario somewhere other than your home, you might run out of ammunition or you may simply want to have alternatives to firearms, which is very prudent. Here are a few simple options for improvised or DIY weapons when you don’t have a gun.
Club
The age-old blunt object is a very reliable weapon. You also have a wide range of options when it comes to finding or making one. For instance, cast iron skillets can make extraordinarily effective weapons. They’re not ideal, but that might give you an idea of how many regular objects can be utilized. A very basic type of club could be a thick tree root, but make sure it’s heavy and has plenty of swinging power. You can also affix a large rock to the end of a stick, a very rudimentary and classic design for a club. This can be a bit challenging though as the rock needs to be secure enough, leather is the classic material used for this design but duct tape might work too. Even just a large, heavy stick fashioned into a staff can be quite effective in defense.
Spear
Spears are also an ancient weapon, for combat as well as hunting and fishing. The easiest way to make one is either by affixing a knife securely to a long stick or carving a point at the end of a stick. There are variations of this design of course, for instance, you could even take the lid of an aluminum can and tie it to the stick, or even a thick shard of glass, the reason this is a good weapon is it can be improvised easily.
Slingshot or Bow
Projectile weapons like slingshots or bows are definitely going to require more skill to fashion than a spear or club, and if this is something you’d like to be able to use to defend yourself or to hunt for survival, you’ll probably need to have a good understanding of how either works beforehand. But these are worth mentioning because they can, with the right engineering, be made using a lot of found or scavenged objects such as fabric, plastic, twine or thick cord, and small sharp objects for arrows, or simply small pebbles for a sling. There are a wide variety of methods and designs for both slingshots and bows though, so you’ll want to do some research online into the best options for you and maybe keep the materials or supplies in your bug-out bag or survival kit.
When civilization experiences a set back or fails completely, the sad reality is that being able to defend your life might take threatening someone else’s, be it human or animal. So you might as well plan ahead for self-defense in any situation.
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