Survival Knives by James Morgan Ayres

Author:James Morgan Ayres
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510728431
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2018-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

The Staff

Some survival books recommend a staff as the first survival weapon/tool to make. The reasoning is that with a staff you have a tool that will aid you in crossing shallow streams, or perhaps aid you in climbing or descending a hill, and will function as an impact weapon, one that can be used to fend off angry or feral dogs. I view a staff as a spear without a point, and think it is very useful, particularly in built-up semi-rural areas, or in fringe primitive areas such as exist in many developing nations where villages are at the edge of wilderness. In those instances, a staff is less threatening to friendly folks than a spear and can quickly be converted to a spear with your knife, if the need arises.

In the Balkans, Russia, some Eastern European countries, India, Asia, parts of Latin America, and other places, feral dog packs are common and dangerous. Bulgaria, for example, has the largest population of European jackals, which interbreed with feral dogs, and is plagued with such attacks. These packs attack frequently, and sometimes kill. During a period of five years when I was spending a good bit of time in the Balkans I was attacked three times by dog/jackal packs either in or near villages. On two occasions I was able to fight them off with walking staff and rocks. On the other occasion I had only my knife. There were only four dogs in this pack (as opposed to six and more than a dozen in the other two attacked). On this occasion I was able to get my back to a wall and injure the alpha enough to make him retreat; more about that attack and defensive tactics in the chapter on self-defense. The other dogs in that pack retreated with the alpha. Such attacks are not uncommon, even in the capitol city, Sofia, where an American was killed by a feral dog pack two years ago. A British woman who I know was attacked a few months ago and suffered many wounds before a passerby could beat off the dogs with a stick. Yet another woman was killed by dogs in a village near the one we were visiting. In a rural area, the staff is innocuous and good to have. In wilderness, I prefer to make and carry a spear.

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