[rockman7]

ammonia in a super soaker squirt gun(or finger nail remover...but it'd prolly eat the gun up), a nail gun with the saftey taken off( use the 8 penny's....the 16's have horrible tragectory). my son even found out a small fireworks motar shot into a crowd will produce some amazing effects.

[scroamer65]

As a thought as a nonleathel item, that I saw was a "toy" machine gun
that spit out 6mm plastic beebees at a rapid rate and aimed at the face
would give you time to get in close to use the above suggested
weapons. Cost about $50.

[thrillbilly]

MOVE MOVE MOVE

[Dragunov]

Empty egg shells filled with cayanne or ground glass.
Dissolve pingpong balls or styrofoam in gasoline for napalm.
any piece of metal shaped and sharpened makes a knife, same with broken glass.
Sharpened garden spade tied to a broomhandle will make a passable spear.
Sharpened butter knives make pretty good throwing knives.
Most guitar/thinner piano strings will decapitate someone.
Of course, Molotov cocktails.

[mosman]

I like the wasp spray..the kind that shoots 20 feet and a lighter or maybe the foaming stuff for that lasting tingle

[sea_chicken1]

Pepper spray doesent work as well on someone who has been sprayed or is trained to deal with it and there are those few tha it has no effect what so ever.

[FS00008]

Paintball gun+Pepper balls. You can find them online at Police equipment sites. Tippman with a large hopper and a fast trigger finger roll and that 300+FPS will definitely make them change their minds...

Black Powder handgun. I like my Pietta 1858 :-). Those aren't firearms doncha know :-P... that .44 hard cast lead ball would do the trick though for sure.

[Capt'n Mil Coll]

A very good plastic explosive can be made from Draino Karo Syrup Nitric Acid and Moth Balls.
You can make a good explosive from a 100 count bottle of asprin and nitric acid.
Nitro Glycerine can be manufactured rather easily if you dont blow yourself up doing it.
ETN and PETN are other explosives that are easily manufactured.
A pocket .22 zip gun can be made from a hollow car antenna and a ballpoint pen.
Fishing line makes very good trip wires.
Rig a couple of cans to combine bleach and brake fluid and you have a HUGE cloud of poision gas. The trip wires could be used to set it off.
There is a very simple way to make a cartridge booby trap. It goes off at whoever is unlucky enough to hit the trip wire.
If you had hand grenades you simply find a can that fits the spoon semi tightly. You put a nail out one side of the can to hold in in the ground. Then put the grenade in the can tie a trip wire to it tie the trip wire to a post. Pull the pin. When they hit the trip wire it pulls the grenade out of the can and BOOM.
If you have enough time man traps with punji sticks are very effective.
If not just sharpened punji sticks can deter people from breaching your defenses.
A very effective BEAR TRAP can be made with punji sticks and some trees.
A killer electric fence can be easily made with open wire and a lamp plugin/cord.

[jason1965]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Capt'n Mil Coll

A very good plastic explosive can be made from Draino Karo Syrup Nitric Acid and Moth Balls. You can make a good explosive from a 100 count bottle of asprin and nitric acid. Nitro Glycerine can be manufactured rather easily if you dont blow yourself up doing it. ETN and PETN are other explosives that are easily manufactured. A pocket .22 zip gun can be made from a hollow car antenna and a ballpoint pen. Fishing line makes very good trip wires. Rig a couple of cans to combine bleach and brake fluid and you have a HUGE cloud of poision gas. The trip wires could be used to set it off. There is a very simple way to make a cartridge booby trap. It goes off at whoever is unlucky enough to hit the trip wire. If you had hand grenades you simply find a can that fits the spoon semi tightly. You put a nail out one side of the can to hold in in the ground. Then put the grenade in the can tie a trip wire to it tie the trip wire to a post. Pull the pin. When they hit the trip wire it pulls the grenade out of the can and BOOM. If you have enough time man traps with punji sticks are very effective. If not just sharpened punji sticks can deter people from breaching your defenses. A very effective BEAR TRAP can be made with punji sticks and some trees. A killer electric fence can be easily made with open wire and a lamp plugin/cord.

You just gave me some great ideas on how to deal with trespassers on my property.

[thrillbilly]

Keep a pan of water on the stove, a gallon of boiling H2O would deter someone quite well I would assume! I would think the blackpowder/cap&ball route would be most effective, just buy 10 or so extra cylinders for the revolvers and reload by swapping cylinders out, you can also buy double-barrel BP shotguns in 10G! Seriously though I would suggest moving to a gun-friendly area ASAP!

[JMcDonald]

I just made this yesterday. It is made out of an 8" survival knife, a 20" steel shaft (painted flat black, of course). The shaft just fits inside the hollow handle of the knife, and I drilled a 1/4" hole through both the knife handle and the shaft, and they are held together by a hitch pin. When I pop the pin and take them apart, I have an 8" survival knife and a 20" steel rod, both of which would be handy in a survival or even a simple camping situation (and could be used as a weapon in a pinch). Together, it is about 30" long and, unlike an axe or hatchet (which I did consider), can be used like a spear so it is not limited in tight spaces like an axe or bat of the same length.






This is more of a preliminary design. I plan to make a sturdier all-steel one, but at the moment I had a survival knife that I didn't have a real use for, and quite a bit of scrap steel in the garage, haha.

One idea I had was buying another of the same survival knifes, using the blade section to make a twice-width, double-edge "spead-head," and using the handle as a pommel and grip for the other end of the shaft. The advantage of the double-edged spear would be that obviously it would have two edges, but more importantly it would have twice the weight behind it for more powerful swinging blows. But, that would be turning it much more into a "combat" weapon than as a couple of survival tools that happen to have the capacity to be combined to form a short spear, hah.

Here is what the modified version might resemble:

[thrillbilly]

^Nice, but you have WAY to much time on your hands!

[JMcDonald]

Haha, yeah I was sick so I didn't do much this weekend. It caused me to miss a shooting trip, so that was my way to make it up with still something zombie-related .


Though, today I went to test it out, and two mild whacks on a 2x4 broke the blade part off at the handle (the knife handle broke about 2" above the pin), so I guess I was right about making a more durable version. Its finals week and I am already pretty much set for those, so with the free time I started on a new one today. Another advantage I thought of with making it double-edged (I'd also weld another ~1" of steel between the blades to make it look more like a spade), is that it could be used as a shovel in a pinch. But I am trying to decide if it would be worth it to make it collapsible down to <20" (my pack size), or just make it 30-36" solid and call it good. Naturally I'd get more durability as one piece, but if its too conspicuous to be able to take anywhere, that kind of defeats the purpose of "always having it just in case," heh.

[thrillbilly]

I think it would be easier to carry a good .45! If you're wanting a knife/spear, look at the Cold Steel Bushmaster, they're not very expensive. I ordered one, waiting to take delivery.

[JMcDonald]

Heh, probably so :P .

I thought about something like that, but I do really want something two handed, and I've grown fond of the idea of the handle being longer than the blade. The relatively long OAL for the relatively short blade length not only makes it safer for me to handle, but simply easier to wield in general.

But now that I am actually going to be really fabricating something instead of just rigging two things together I'll have to think a bit to get a good design drawn up. But I think I'm on to something.

[thrillbilly]

The CS Bushmaster has a hollow round handle designed to put a shaft into, that's why I suggested it. It was made for a wood shaft, but you could find a metal pipe in the right diameter and weld it in place. That particular combo would probably last long enough to pass on to your grandkids!

[one in the pipe]

If used as a spear in its current configuration bone would stop it with the split between the blades . In my experiance a double blades weapon must be forged from one peice of steel . Or If you dont have those tools you could pound one out of brass or bronze . They are a challange to make but when your done makeing it, is quite a feeling .

[Metronome]

Quote:       Originally Posted by milproakron

Once you start looking at your environment differently, as in when you see something, "how sturdy is that? How could I use that to defend myself?" Then the rest is all about figuring out how to use it to its best effectiveness. Study some anatomy, physiology, etc. Figure out the softest, weakest points to attack on the human body, then develop an improvised weapons strategy that will exploit them.

Very good comment!
Maybe it was just me, but I have always modified things into weapons in my spare time. Heck on a family trip this weekend, my nephew noticed I had no less than 6 knives in my car alone; he didn't realize the glass coke bottle or the brass-bodied flashlight were also part of the picture.

In everyday situations you can use simple things to defend yourself, my favorites are in the garden department of any home improvement store. Those girly pink and teal hand spades look nice enough, but would be quite effective clubs and cleavers in a pinch (plus they don't draw attention if left in your vehicle - like a machete). Just remember, the majority of martial arts weapons are simply commmon farm implements that were on hand once the government disarmed the people.

[JMcDonald]

Quote:       Originally Posted by thrillbilly

The CS Bushmaster has a hollow round handle designed to put a shaft into, that's why I suggested it. It was made for a wood shaft, but you could find a metal pipe in the right diameter and weld it in place. That particular combo would probably last long enough to pass on to your grandkids!

Ooh I didn't notice that!

I actually just finished welding up my spear-axe thing. I kept the single-blade design, largely for safety and efficient wielding as mentioned above. But it is pretty much a solid piece of steel now so durability shouldn't be an issue. I just painted it but if I like it I am thinking about having it hardened (heated up in a furnace, then quenched), and then perhaps powder coated. Right now the paint is drying and I am thinking up a scabbard design. Will post pics later!

Great thread, btw!

[Coeloptera]

I'll just pile on and reiterate. Your kitchen, your bathroom, your toolbox. Plenty of potential there.

Aside from 3 firearms between my wife and myself, we have, off the top of my head...a double-sided camping axe (useful for shoveling ashes and the like), a 5 pound sledgehammer, 2 knife-blocks plus a decent-sized cleaver, a stone fountain more-or-less the size and shape of an open-topped bowling ball, screwdrivers, 2 power drills (with the really big cobalt bits), drain cleaner, bleach, roach spray (also flammable), a small butane torch, a metal teapot, metal pots and pans...

We've got a metal rasp with a point that, in a pinch, I'm sure I could shove into a person, keys, abrasive powder cleaner (Comet-like stuff, it will cause your lungs to seize if you breathe in a cloud of it), 2 staffs and 2 bokken from when I played around with that stuff in a college class, she has a ren-faire sword with what seems to be a decent blade, we each have a Leatherman-style tool, there's a tire-iron in my car, the tops of certain jack-stands can slide out and act as a decent bludgeon, we have rope and tubular webbing as well as marlin line, and we have 2 wrought-iron chairs I am easily strong enough to smash someone with.

Yeah, pretty much most things around the house can be used in a self-defense situation without even altering them. Once you start in on that, it's kind of scary what can be done.

- Coeloptera