Spears for Hunting

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It may seem anachronistic, but as more and more sportsmen are discovering, spear hunting is an exciting way to test their skills against nature. Armed with one of mankind's oldest and most basic weapons – a sharpened head of wood, stone, or metal on the end of a long shaft – spear hunters accept the unique challenges of this tried and true killing method.

A spear hunter's range might be minute in comparison to one who hunts with a rifle or even a bow; the weapon's range is limited to the distance its handler can throw it, or, more typically, thrust with it. However, this is part of its allure. Anyone who chooses to hunt with a spear knows full well that he or she will need both the skill to get within close striking range of the target and the strength to drive the point home – and testing one's strength and skill is, after all, the primary goal of any sport. In fact, many in the spear hunting community regard hunting with guns as a form of cheating.

Animals that are often hunted with spears include deer, elk, bison, alligators, fish, and even exotic big game such as buffalo and lions. Perhaps the most commonly spear-hunted animal, however, is the feral pig. Found all over the world, and considered a destructive nuisance everywhere it roams, the pig is nearly the perfect sport animal: wily enough to make tracking it a challenge, dangerous enough with its razor-sharp tusks to be a tough, adrenaline-pumping fight in close quarters, and delicious to boot. Typically, the hunter is assisted by at least three dogs, whose job is to first locate the pig and then corner it. The hunter must then grab the pig by the hind legs and flip it over before stabbing it in the heart, all the while avoiding injury to himself and to the dogs.

Of course, the strategies used in spear hunting vary depending on the quarry, as do the types of spear utilized – alligator hunters use harpoons similar to those thrown by old-time whalers, spear fishers use barbed prongs with two or even three heads to keep their prey from wriggling away. Those who hunt the deadly cape buffalo arm themselves with heavy shafts and iron heads. Whatever the technique, and whether for sustenance or just for the challenge of it, practitioners of hunting with a spear continue to engage in this archaic method of pitting man against beast.