The OSS experimented with latex powered missile weapons during the 2nd world war. The elastic was very short lived for anything bigger like a crossbow etc. From this it is best to limit any designs using latex to small weapons like a hand held catapult or similar.
By the way, strips of innertube plaited roughly together can make a servicable expedient elastic skein. There should be plenty of this stuff - just lying around PSHTF - well blow me down!
For info on casting lead balls, just look up any anglers forum. Many of them cast up lead weights all the time. Alternatively you could buy a small easily portable single lead ball mold from a shooters supplier. Once you have the info on the actual casting process, remember that this can be done in an expedient situation with a campfire and some basic sourced items. The mold itself can be utilised from quite a few different materials/objects once you start to look around with scavangers eyes. A simple time honoured one is to make a mold of your thumb end by pressing it into soft sand if I remember right. This makes a very effective bullet/slug shaped missile. You can look it up anyway. TL.
(24 June 2012, 14:07)bigpaul Wrote: i believe that eventually post SHTF, as everything gets used up, we will go back to an agricultural existence, the cities will not be habitable and will eventually go back to nature as they are abandoned and left to rot.
Like the end of the Roman Empire or that Mayan job! :-)
(24 June 2012, 08:11)James Jackson Wrote: not blinkered, just prectical, get what you can. if you cannot get something, do the best with what you can get. Then if you can get it sometime later then get it then. No point in complaining you cannot get something or saying one thing is better then another, become the proficiant at what you have and keep your eyes open for the item you would really like
A bit of lateral viewing would be helpful! It is not all about what you can get.. One of the most useful survival skills is being able to recognise certain items in your environment that can be adapted to your needs. So just the fact that you don't have a type of tool/weapon, does not stop you from being able to make one up from expedient materials. Prior knowledge through open minded research is a pre-requisite to this. It is like having studied and knowing how to make up medicinal cures from everyday materials or plants, rather than just the fact that you can either buy it or not... Also this applies to licences for various things. Not having a licemce does not barr you from obtaining the knowledge or from some limited proficiency.
A wider point of note - A knife is not the next down on the list of self defence items from a missile weapon. There is a whole host of other exciting, intimidating, exceedingly proficient hand held weapons that are available to be utilized, from purpose made to expedient nasties. Remember, a knife for self defence is fundamentally just a sharp edge or point or both.. Sharpness is not all that critical anyway for melee combat. Bronze & iron weapons were pretty indiscernable from steel to the unfortunate soft skinned human recipient. Food for thought..
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