I’ll bet some primitive diehard has done it.

“Original point”… Meaning an old point found lying around somewhere? I suppose if you sharpened one, it could be useful. But as far as folks hunting with homemade stone points, it happens all the time, all over this nation. I’d venture to say stone points are hunted with every day somewhere in the US. I just received Billy Berger’s film Primitive Instinct, Vol. 1 in the mail today. It’s a self-filmed DVD, all of him hunting with hand-made primitive gear. Pretty cool stuff, man. It’s the direction I’m heading for next year’s deer season.

Check out http://www.primitivearcher.com for more info.

I believe it is illegal to hunt with stone projectiles in the state of Michigan.

I found a pretty good point that is about 8000 years old, if the experts are to be believed…

I made a cane arrow with it and it hangs over my office door. I plan on one day taking it hunting.

Wouldn’t that be a big circle completed? Deep time as some put it. I wonder if the maker of that point pondered it’s possible future while he or she was chipping it out.

And if I do shoot it into a deer, will it be another 8000 years before another deer falls to it?

Nice thoughts, Steve. I often wonder the same things…..Another 8,000 years will bring us back closer to the archaic than the modern. I hope.:D

Paleo, you’re prize point can always be a guide for a new endeavor… Flint/Obsidian knapping is actually a pretty cool thing. I just picked up a “starter” set. I was going to use it to make decorative arrows, etc, but there is no reason (except if it is not legal, as in a post above) that an animal cannot be taken with a home-made stone/glass tip. As a matter of fact, knapped Obsidian is sharper than any metal blade man can create. It is not a problem with man, but a property of Obsidian and metal. Something to think about. And just think, 8K years from now, someone might be finding a point that YOU made. Be well.

Alex

😀

wow 8000 years , that is amazing. just to hold it in your hand would be something

paleoman wrote: Oh man! Don’ t shoot an 8k yr old point. Hold it and love it:wink:

Agreed, BUT… Making your own is pretty cool. BUT…

IMHO it would be a real hit to some “modern” archer when they say something like “you can’t get stuff with that trad gear…”, and you pull out a photo (or smart phone) and say “I got this one with an 8,000 year old broadhead!”. 😈 😈 😈

Just a thought, and again IMHO. (still think making your own and just using the found one as a template) Be well.

Alex

😀

Paleo– If your point is 8k years old it’s very unlikely to have been used on an arrow. Likely an atlatl spear point, or even a knife point (many “knife” blades back then were very short and look more like broadheads than knives today. Which doesn’t lessen its “Wow!” value at all.

On the other discussion here–whether or not to hunt with such an artifact–I see both views and (local laws aside and discussing this hypothetically) I personally would decide based on age and rarity of the point. There are millions of stone points in N. America, found and still in the ground. In some places and with some styles they are so common I’ve seen cigar boxes full for sale at swap meets. If I had a common point that was up to the task, I’d take it to a good knapper to have it very gently “sharpened” and then hunt deer or turkey with it. If it was a rare and special point for any reason–age, condition, style, quality of stone, or the only one I had–I’d frame it. Either way, the idea of a “full circle” hunt with an original stone point is about as romantic and exciting a bowhunting challenge as I can think of. But then, to make it full value, I’d want to make a bow from local wood and an arrow likewise. To hang an ancient point on a modern arrow and shoot it from a modern bow would feel to me incomplete and not very satisfying. But this is all fun to think about and I’m betting that somewhere, sometime, someone has already done this.

Dave you’re right, it would be as romantic as you could get. Just a shame my wife has a different version of romance 🙄

A fun thread! Allow my unsolicited responses: First, my apologies to Paleo and Steve for conflating their prize points into one. And likewise to Duncan, who beat me to the point about someone already having done it, without me taking proper note and so being redundant. And Wex, there’s more than one kind of romance, thank the gods: some kinds tragically die from long familiarity, while others happily never do. Which is which is an individual issue. 😆 Tailfeather says “Another 8,000 years will bring us back closer to the archaic than the modern. I hope.” Me too! I would favor that happening the day I was born. Of course I’d likely be dead long by now, but I reckon I’d have had more fun, less stress and worry … and all that’s wild and good on Earth wouldn’t be extinct or in dire danger of destruction today if we still had the 10 million world population as we enjoyed during the Pleistocene and before. A happy thought, indeed. 😀

paleoman wrote: That said, does anyone know if someone has ever taken game with an original point in recent years? I could never do it but if it can be done it must have been.

I know a guy in South Texas who put a new edge on a point he found and used it to kill a javalina.

Never found a stone point but have handled a few and agree with you all they fire the imagination. Once camped by some guys knapping stone, no peace from dawn til dusk like camping amongst a flock of stonechat’s.

I do have a small stone bead and often wonder where it came from and who it belonged to.

The pros and cons of living in a ‘simpler’ earlier age I don’t know, I like the idea of penicillin/antibiotics, thank you Mr Jenner. And the 1’000 and 1 other things I just take for granted.

Oops Flemming discovered penicillin, Jenner small pox vacine but who knapped the first blade, was he using a flint nodule to crack a nut when it flaked or even trying to get a spark to start a fire I would like to see that moment in time.

Rambling now, Mark.

I would guess the Pleistocene looks a lot better from here, than it did from there. And I would continue to surmise that if a fellow from that period looked at how hard we work to use bows instead of guns, he’d have a low opinion of us pilgrims.

But where is the fun if we can’t romanticize some time and place? Who really cares what the truth is. What’s important is how it makes us feel, and how it helps us improve ourselves and place ourselves in the human story.

And as for the point. It was made by man for some purpose related to getting food. There is no further purpose built into it, and there is no further knowledge to be gained from it. Around here it takes only a few hours effort to find another like it. So I see no reason not to put it to task. It has no intrinsic value other than that which we attribute to it.

And as for the bow, well I just happen to have a piece of ERC in my shop that came from a tree no more than 100 yds from where the point was picked up. And just as Dave thought it would be appropriate to use a local bow to shoot a local point, I was thinking the same. In fact, the cane is local too, as are the turkey feathers. I guess if I was to take it all the way, I should use a squirrel skin string on the bow.

Now if only a deer would cooperate and make these fantasies anything but the dreams they are. I would surly thank that deer. My guess is that deer ain’t been born yet 😳

Steve Graf said of stone points: “It has no intrinsic value other than that which we attribute to it.”

Steve, you’ve just defined the heart and soul of ALL art. Assigning aesthetical value to things is a definitive human trait. Antiquity provides additional aesthetical value, overlayered on our appreciation of the object for its own (intrinsic) beauty, as well as our respect for the artisan’s skill. It’s all fun.

I have a collection of Stone artifacts I found on my grandfathers place in northern Arkansas when I was a kid.

I never made an arrow with one, but I did make a tomahawk with an especially large and beautiful one that I lost.

I’ve made a few points but never was good enough to duplicate the points used by the norther California tribes for bear and such. I worked on a site in school and did some survey digs for EIR reports for developers. I got to find and catalog points,pot shards and one turtle amulet..no, another guy found it, but I got to hold it in my hand and look at it for awhile. Finding this old stuff whether it was prehistoric or not was always an amazing thing. Never thought to hunt with one though.

Great thread!

Gary

I guess the value is in what they add to our knowledge of the maker, method of manufacture and culture beyond that I agree with Steve.

I find it disappointing that vast numbers of these artifacts are cataloged boxed up to rarely if ever see the light of day again languishing in the bowels of a museum.

Steve, I wish you good luck in finding a cooperative deer.

Mark.

paleoman wrote: Oh…and hey Wex…do you guys in Ireland ever find cool stuff over there in farm fields, etc.? Maybe a suit of rusty armor now and then:D?

Paleo, there have been some outstanding finds here over the years. Probably the most famous being the Ardagh Chalice found in a field:

But this country has been occupied and agriculturalised so long that unless you’re digging deep there’s very little to be found on the surface 🙁