Weaponry

I have to divest myself of dangerous things. Soon I will have no space to store them and no place to use them. I can get more dangerous things in the future. To be honest, I’m quite dangerous enough – mostly to myself – without adding sharp and pointy things to the mix. Especially sharp and pointy things that can be fired at quite some speed.

This is my takedown recurve bow with the string fitted the wrong way around. The beads marking the arrow nock should be in line with the arrow rest on the handle. Since I wasn’t planning to fire it, there was no point fiddling around with changing it.

 

It was soon returned to its takedown condition anyway –

Yes, it has a good case and a string fitting thing. You need that. Not many people can string one of these by hand.

It’s a KAP Surprise bow, a good one for a beginner and powerful enough to make holes in most things. Especially people so you do have to watch where you point it.

Ammunition comes in an arrow storage box –

– but for actual archery that doesn’t look too good. What you need there is a fine leather quiver with belt.

A three tube quiver with pockets for bits and pieces. What bits and pieces? Mostly these –

I never used those plastic arm guards. I have a leather one with a dragon embossed into it that I find it hard to part with. The finger guard is useful if you want to keep your fingers from going numb. Beads and bead pliers for fitting your arrow locating beads to the string and a lining-up thing to tell you where to fit them. Not in the picture is the little thing of wax to lubricate the string. It makes a difference.

The posh flipper rests I never got along with. I just used a simple one. I also never fitted the sights because I didn’t need them and couldn’t work out how to use them anyway.

The rubber grip is for pulling arrows out of targets when you embed them a bit too tight. It’s useful…

The bow does have holes for fitting all those girlie balance weights so beloved of show-offs but I never needed them either. Nor, to be honest, did I ever understand what they were meant to achieve.

This lot will all go on eBay. If anyone wants to make an offer for all or part, I’d rather sell it all privately.

Also going up for sale is my crossbow. It’s a Barnett bow, a Panzer V with telescopic sights and looks like this –

This is the bow that punched through a target, a palette, a plank and the garage door with one shot. If you think you’re safe in your car, this thing will penetrate the car door and pin your leg to the seat. If you hold it so your fingertips are above the stock, it will take off your fingertips when you fire it. Definitely not a toy.

I do have the original namby pamby sight that came with it in case you’d rather slum it with that.

It fires these –

Really pointy little arrows. The coiled-up wire is the thing you need for changing the bowstring. Even Arnold Scwarzenegger would have difficulty doing that by hand.

There is also a quiver for this one, again in leather with a belt and pockets –

The crossbow will be problematic on eBay but the rest won’t. However, I put them here first to see if anyone out there is interested in any bits before I let eBay take ten percent. I am open to offers; it all has to go.

There are many more dangerous things in my possession. Neither I nor CynaraeStMary are really safe with these things. It didn’t matter to me before but it does now, so it’s time I removed some of the excessive risk from my life.

And maybe turn some of it back into cash. Any offers before it goes under the ten percent hammer of eBay?