Making a Cheap Easy Survival Bola With Metal Nuts
by jluo2 in Outside > Survival
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Making a Cheap Easy Survival Bola With Metal Nuts
These are nifty little guys for capturing small to maybe medium game in a survival situation or for those really Batman-esque moments =) You can easily make them and store them compactly for later, or improvise them on the spot. Do follow through with the instructable, there are a few things to note. I made it at TechShop!
Gather Your Materials!
You'll need:
- Rope needs to be strong enough to not break for whatever it is that your trying to catch.
- Metal nuts or anything heavy with a hole through it. You can use either 2 or 3. Two is a bit easier to use and throw because they don't tangle as much, but the bola might not wrap around whatever you threw it at. Three is harder to use because it's easier to tangle, but because you can have a lighter weight on one of them (which facilitates wrapping) and there's more "arms" it wraps around your target better. Needs to be heavy enough to guide the rope your using.
- Rope needs to be strong enough to not break for whatever it is that your trying to catch.
- Metal nuts or anything heavy with a hole through it. You can use either 2 or 3. Two is a bit easier to use and throw because they don't tangle as much, but the bola might not wrap around whatever you threw it at. Three is harder to use because it's easier to tangle, but because you can have a lighter weight on one of them (which facilitates wrapping) and there's more "arms" it wraps around your target better. Needs to be heavy enough to guide the rope your using.
Tie the Rope to the Nuts
Tie the rope securely to the nut maybe two to three times just to be safe. How long you should make this rope, depends on what your trying to catch. Rabbits are pretty small but something like the wingspan of a bird needs to be bigger. You can gauge this by doubling the length of your rope and it should be at least slightly longer than the size of your target.
However, at this point cut the length of the rope with plenty of slack, because you can always cut it down afterwards. And do this for all the weights.
However, at this point cut the length of the rope with plenty of slack, because you can always cut it down afterwards. And do this for all the weights.
Snip Off the Extra Rope
Here we snip off the extra rope from the end attached to the weights. Also this is when you decide how long to make each "arm" of your bola. There are many ways to do it, just check out different bola designs on the internet and decide/experiment on which one you like. In my case, I made them with equal length.
Tie the Ends Together!
Yep! Just tie all the ends of the rope together!
Finished!
Here it is! As you can see it's really easy to make a bunch of these. The only thing is using this can be tricky. You really can't spin it very much before it gets so wound up on itself so that if you threw it, it would just be one tangled mess. So you need to get used to getting it up to speed in as few a swings as possible and throwing immediately afterwards.
Happy hunting!
Youtube video on use and a design variation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ect-_mPhss
Happy hunting!
Youtube video on use and a design variation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ect-_mPhss