Knife throwing-Who can do it?

[NB4ZOT]

My wife is pretty accurate with a skillet. Trust me, I know first hand.

[JohnKSa]

Skeeter Vaughn found it necessary to silently remove a German sentry during World War II. 90 feet away, downhill and in the dark, Mr. Vaughn nailed the sentry with a thrown knife.

Even "removing" someone silently with a knife when you can reach out and grab them is not exactly simple.

Where do you aim to kill someone silently with a throwing knife?

[USP45usp]

I'm not bad. Can throw just about any knife, just have to find the balance point and think about how many revolutions that it will take.

But, I'm not anywhere near 90%. Maybe 70% is the best that I can do.

Been throwing knives since I got my first sheath knife, around 10 or so.

Wayne

[blackmind]

Why are so many people talking about throwing knives that are not intended as throwing knives?


And this guy who threw the knife 90 feet downhill in the dark in a snowstorm during an earthquake blindfolded backward with his off-hand... Um, is he supposed to have managed an instant kill from a knife wound? I mean, I can't imagine a SILENT AND INSTANT kill from a throwing knife unless it penetrated through the sentry's eye into his brain... More details, please, if I'm to believe this one...


-blackmind

[Blackwater OPS]

Killing someone with a knife will almost always result in some noise, unless you can cut the spinal cord, which is pretty well protected. Of course, I'm not speaking from experience, having never knifed anyone to death. If anyone here has, please share

[LawDog]

And this guy who threw the knife 90 feet downhill in the dark in a snowstorm during an earthquake blindfolded backward with his off-hand... Um, is he supposed to have managed an instant kill from a knife wound? I mean, I can't imagine a SILENT AND INSTANT kill from a throwing knife unless it penetrated through the sentry's eye into his brain... More details, please, if I'm to believe this one...

Find the book Knife & Tomahawk Throwing: The Art Of The Experts by Harry McEvoy. A summary is found here: http://users.rcn.com/comlogic/knife/...er/skeeter.htm

Google "Harry McElvoy" and "Skeeter Vaughn" for other reference sources.

LawDog

[psssniper]

There is a nice scar on my foot thanks to MOM! When I was around 8 we were playing a game where you throw and stick the knife in the ground and the other guy has to put his foot there, object being to make the other guy fall eventually. Well 'ol Mom missed once and stuck me in the foot, left inside just behind the arch. mommie dearest still feels bad to this day.

[too many choices!?]

When I was 12 I got a Buck Knife(looked like a baby Bowie knife), and after a month, I could stick it into the garage 3 out of 5 times at distances from 20ft and closer(20 ft being my longest throw ever!). If nothing else, when I fixate on a skill , it usaually gets done or I keep going till it does. When I started getting closer to the leagal age of firearms ownership, for some reason my practice at this,"Art", seemed to take a backseat to guns. That and the fact that I never got good enought to be 5 out of 5, back to back, made me nervous about throwing my weapon to the enemy with no effect, except leaving me defenseless, facing a now armed opponent!!!!! I sling copper-cased lead now and have no worries of having to throw my knife...

[Kilroy08]

Hey,

Did anybody see Mythbusters the other night? They had a guy who could throw playing cards and make the stick in a foam target. The guys also made a card thrower that could really zing them out there. I gotta make me one of them!!!!

Bad things happen when your overactive imagination refuses to grow up!


Kilroy, you'll shoot your eye out, was here

[XDoctor]

I throw knives, but only for fun. Its a great way to release tension.

[payne]

TMC, my situation with throwing weapons is alot like yours. When I was younger I was pretty decent at it. I would go out and throw into pine trees in the back yard. I started throwing anything with a point or sharp edge. This was about age 8-16. I now am more absorbed in my firearms. I still have a large collection of knives that started when I was 6 with my first little Buck folder from my dad which is regretably lost. I just haven't thrown knives for a few years now. I was bored in my first year of college with a dorm room to my self and I would throw stars into a 1' by 1' board at about 9' distance. I almost got into trouble with that cause I missed and hit the door with a star when my floor assistant was walkin by. He looked in my room with the star stickin in the door right beside his head and never noticed it.

[Pointer]

I can throw a knife...

Can't hit anything with it...

And for some damned reason it only sticks about 7 out of 10 throws...

Lousy knives I suspect...

Actually, it takes one revolution for all distances, and the speed of the revolution is determined by how far up the blade you take your grip.

If the blade is HEAVY, like a Bowie Knife, then throw 1.5 revs by the handle.

If you're like me...
perfect practice doesn't help much.

[axslingerW]

I'd do better with a folder. Closed. Might be able to hit something at 10 feet or so.

[losangeles]

I can do it but have a terrible hit rate. I wouldn't think about trusting myself with this technique in a life-threatening situation.

[mpi]

i attended a class on combat knife throwing in the 1980's in the army, it consisted of an nco [e-7 i believe] who said "the first rule of combat knife throwing is...................never throw your knife! smoke em if ya got em".
i compete with both knives and hawks, i like the large cold steel ones, just pointy metal slabs, nothing to break.
mpi

[losangeles]

Yeah, though it is a lot of fun trying to hit a target in the backyard.

[Japle]

I got into it as a kid. Once I understood that it's a matter of visualization, it was pretty easy.

Half turn, full turn, 1 1/2 turns, two turns.... that's as far as I got. The trick (for me at least) is to see what you want the knife to do, concentrating on the point, all the way to the target. If you have this firmly in mind at the instant of release, you've got it made. If you lose your concentration, you'll miss.

The longer knives, 10-12" at least, are easier to learn with. I have a bush knife that I cut down from a machete that's 14" long. The point of the Bowie-shaped blade is on the centerline of the handle. I can hit with that one out to 15' or so.

The usual 7" "throwing" knives are about useless. If you want to learn, get a big, heavy, cheap knife and practice on trees. Hold the knife by the blade and visualize the knife turning over and the point entering the target. Start at 8 or 9 feet. The bigger the step and the faster the throw, the slower the turn.

You'll figure it out. It's kinda fun.

John
Cape Canaveral

[Blackwater OPS]

After reading all this today I went out and tried it with an old buck knife. After some pratice I could see improvement, but when I change my distance I was back to square one. I think it would be impossible to hit a target with any reliability if the distance was a dynamic factor.

[blackmind]

Exactly. That's why I always laugh at movies that have some action hero killing people easily and efficiently with a throwing knife.

I even saw a really bad action movie where a female action (was it Pamela Anderson? It was some woman you'd know, but I forgot who) hero killed some dude by throwing one of those plastic Delta Darts. I think they referred to the thing as a carbon fiber throwing knife or a composite throwing knife or something.

Just IMAGINE how hard you'd have to throw one of those to get it to stick into flesh or muscle!

Stupid movie. Anyone remember what it was called or who was in it?

-blackmind

[Japle]

I think it would be impossible to hit a target with any reliability if the distance was a dynamic factor.

Actually, it's not. If you learn to throw by figuring out how many turns the knife makes in a certain distance, then it'll be true. Unless you're throwing at a distance where the knife will be going point first, it won't stick.
If you learn the way I did, distance isn't nearly as important. At around 12 feet, for instance, I can throw holding the knife by the handle (one full turn) or by the blade (turn and a half). It's a matter of controlling the way the knife behaves in the air by using throw speed and wrist action.

John

[Capt. Charlie]

...a matter of controlling the way the knife behaves in the air by using throw speed and wrist action.

And how far up the blade you're holding it when you throw.

[Japle]

And how far up the blade you're holding it when you throw.

I haven't found that to be the case.

John

[blackmind]

Have any of you put this into practice by actually throwing at a moving body that is "dynamically" changing its distance to you?

Sounds great in theory that you can modify the throw, grip, etc., but are you speaking from having done it? Did you have a friend run around the yard with a big picnic table held in front of him or something?

-blackmind

[greeneggsnham]

I almost didn't tell this story for fear of being considered a quack or something, but during my short college days before the military, I lived in a fraternity house, and happened to work for the University Police Department. We had one member who was later blackballed because he was vulgar and abusive. I was just past my pledgeship and living in the house and found myself alone one day outside. He snuck up behind me in the front yard and grabbed me in a bear hug and wouldn't let go, so I whacked him with a tree limb beneath me. He was not playing around. A fellow about as large as me, he was the winner of the Sigma Chi Fight Nights. He managed to peel the skin off my big toe to the point of it being a hanging bloody mess. As I hobbled up the steps a baseball sized rock slammed into the door about a foot past my head and as he screamed, I turned to see him charging me across the yard. We had been bar-b-q'ing a few days before and a large dirty meat fork was lying on the steps. I quickly grabbed it and hurled it and it hit him about twenty paces away at a full charge. It stuck out of his head between his eyes like in a cowboy and indian movie and he simply crumbled to the ground and didn't move. The guys came pouring out of the house about the time he collapsed in mid stride with fourteen inches of meat fork sticking out of his head. I thought I'd killed him, and so did everyone else. He lie there not moving with his eyes open. Common sense did not prevail, and he was thrown into the back of a pickup truck and we took him to the hospital where it was determined that he was drunk, and that the fork had not penetrated his skull, but simply slid under the skin as the forks bent. Lesson: I had practiced throwing knives maybe two days a month for the past several years. In a personal combat experience, the training paid off, and was very effective at stopping a large intoxicated, and known violent aggressor. I hope no one ever has to rely on this in an actual situation as it was then, and is now, many years later, simply horrible.

[cracked butt]

Instaed of trying to pound a round peg into a square hole, why not use something made for throwing: Shurikens. When I was a kid my friends and I would buy these 'ninja throwing stars' at the local flea market for about $1.50- 3.00 a piece and have a blast with them for countless hours. Heck, all of the boys in my 7th grade class got once suspended for 2 days for throwing them at trees on the playground as they were asy to conceal and bring to school for throwing fun.