Wednesday, 15 August 2012

Bola

The Bola is a primitive tool compromising of three lengths of cord and 3 objects tied to the end of each cord.
The benifits of this weapon is that it can be carried( doesnt require concealment) in urban areas without arousing suspision then used to hunt when you return out to an urban area.

There are many different types of bola, some with three weights and some with 5 or more. Some early Bolas only had one string and one rock and were used to kill Pumas.

Some things I have heard about Bolas:

"they need to be different weights so they spin at different speeds"

"one string sould be longer than the other two"

"the rounder and smoother the weights the better it will fly through the air"

"drill a hole in your weights so they don't fly off"

"3 leather bags full of steel shot and soft nylon braided 3/8 inch rope tied an equal distance (38 inches) from a central knot. I hold one ball in my left hand, swing the other two horizontal to the ground, and let the bola fly a little in front of the running bird. Just as I release the 2, I release the third with a slight flip to the right. They fly like a helicopter and will wrap up a 45 kg emu instantly. I don't know if I'm doing this right as I have never seen a Gaucho demonstrate, but I can catch a 35 mph emu without hurting him."

"The indians and matreros (outlaws) used the two weights type to break the telegraph lines. I passed many summers in the field with a cousin. The field keeper (the puestero) used part of a discarded grain sac to make two bags (roughly rectangles of 10 x 20 cm), filled them with gravel and tied with 1.5 metres of rope. It's a very simple boleadora, and it can be used to play with little risk (if you can avoid impacts on the head of your cousin, everything will be OK :-). If used near the house, you can put some grass inside the bag to soften the impact a little, or fill with grain. After the bags broke and without the possibility of repair (they lasted two weeks)."

"*The boleadora was not only a throwing weapon, but the Indians use them as well as a fencing weapon. And in that sense it was a really fearful, horrific one. In order to use the boleadora as a fencing weapon, they had to be standing. They held one of the balls between the big toe and the "index finger" of the foot; the other two balls were held on each hand from the chord. Then, they moved forward, slowly, step by step, moving the balls in his hand in a fast revolving motion. If you were attacked in this way, you were in trouble."

"The weights were usually covered in fresh leather that when dried would shrink to cover the weight snugly."(so as not to hurt so much if you hit yourself or to make a smoother surface to fly through air?)

Materials you could make them out of:

lead fishing weights

para cord

string

shoe laces

leather pouches full of sand

tennis balls

references:
http://www.flight-toys.com/bolas.htm

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