Trekking Pole Spear

[Bolster]

I've been playing with a concept for backpacking/hiking, a spear shaft/tip replacement for the last section of a trekking pole. Planned as a backup/survival option on backcountry trips. Any broadhead can screw into it. The nice thing about it: I get almost 4 feet of spear for adding just 1.4 oz to my kit. It takes about 5 seconds to switch from pole section to spear.

Suggestions for improvement (other than doing a better job of sharpening!) welcome.

[Naperville]

It's interesting. Did you make the pole and shaft that the spearhead are on?

[Bolster]

It's interesting. Did you make the pole and shaft that the spearhead are on?

The shaft is a cut-down aluminum arrow! I had to make an aluminum sleeve to fit the arrow to the trekking pole though. Just a standard trekking pole from a sports store. If you make one of these, go with the cam-lock design pole, it's more dependable than the twist-lock design.

[Naperville]

It's interesting. Did you make the pole and shaft that the spearhead are on?

The shaft is a cut-down aluminum arrow! I had to make an aluminum sleeve to fit the arrow to the trekking pole though. Just a standard trekking pole from a sports store. If you make one of these, go with the cam-lock design pole, it's more dependable than the twist-lock design.

Thanks for giving me the know how to make it. I used to live in a pretty bad area on the South Side of Chicago years ago but live in a much better area presently. I hope that I never need to carry that particular tool. If I need that here, then the SHTF and we all have huge problems!

I carry a Spyderco Native Chief now and it is good enough. I'm watching crime spike everywhere and my biggest worry is taking a walk and someone driving up and attacking me from out of town, hence the Native Chief.

You're not really safe anywhere, but 35 miles West of Chicago is the best that I can do at the moment.

[Bolster]

An alternative method, if you have time to prepare before you actually need your edge, is to cut the arrow longer, and just substitute it for the bottom section of your pole. (I kept the shaft to 6" so it could be removed and stowed; it's a backup cutting tool that way, but that also means I can't hike with it as a regular pole when the spear shaft is installed--too short.) Then instead of switching out the bottom pole section as I do, you could just unscrew a target tip--which would work fine for normal use as a trekking pole--and screw in a broadhead. I don't know how much the pole would be weakened, if any, by substituting an arrow shaft for the bottom section of a trekking pole.

Downside: Unscrewing and screwing takes longer than a pole swap-out. You'd probably lose some pole strength for regular trekking, but that's just a guess.
Upside: Carrying a single broadhead would be even lighter and super concealable.

While looking for an appropriate arrow shaft, go as fat as you can...the fattest arrows are still narrower than the bottom section of a trekking pole, AFAIK. The target arrows tend to be fat. They're fat so you have a better chance of breaking a ring on a target, LOL. But I have yet to encounter an arrow shaft that will just slip into a trekking pole without a home-made adapter.

Yet another method I've not explored is to cut the tip off an actual pole and substitute the sort of threaded stud you find at the front end of hunting arrows. Then you'd use a target tip for regular walking and a broadhead for SD. You'd lose the 'basket' option, possibly.

Curious to see what you come up with! Stay safe man.

PS: The famous backpacker Andrew Skurka successfully defended himself against a charging Griz in Alaska with a trekking pole! Don't try that at home, kids!

[kennethsime]

Really cool idea, thanks for sharing.

[kerrcobra]

This is neat. I might have to take a trip to the sporting goods store soon...

[kiwisailor]

Hi, how about filling that hollow alloy shaft with 2 x pot Epoxy?

Remove threaded insert (heat) then fill.

You could even put some glass fibre rolled up inside to increase strength.