New Thumb ring archers from Borneo

Good luck.

Here is a tip that is very useful in hunting because that type of shooting is done at very short ranges. At a short range, the arrow can still be oscillating so there is a chance that it will not hit the target straight on. You want to practise getting the smoothest release possible so that the arrow does not have any extra vibration in its flight. The reason that hunters use larger feathers and often have them applied helically to the arrow is that both features straighten out the flight of the arrow more quickly even if your release isn't perfect. The leverage of the feathers is increased by having the centre of gravity of the arrow forward of the geometric centre of the arrow.

A flat trajectory and a straight flying arrow are very useful in wooded country where tree branches and bushes can deflect an arrow if it rises too high or fishtails too much.

Welcome! Sarawak is certainly an interesting place. I had the opportunity to visit there in 2006. What kinds of animals will you be hunting?

As Bede says, you might find larger (modern size) feathers than the usual Asian style arrows better for short range hunting.

We would certainly be interested in anything you might be able to tell us about Dyak archery practices -- or did/do those peoples use only the blow pipe?

Thanks for the tips. Currently I practice at 20m distance and accuracy is so so. My target is old/mature coconut fruit, we plant plenty around our yard. coconut fruit is about the size of our head.

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Right now, out of every 3 arrows per round I could hit 1 or 2 arrows right on coconut. In future I will practice at 30 ~ 50 meter distance. Arrows I got in the picture is using Bohning 2" blazer vanes, Goldtip 5575 expedition hunter carbon arrow, which is my old stock. currently i'm still using carbon arrow with 4" vanetec vanes and soon want to try Aluminum shaft (Easton Gamegetter XX75) with 4" vanetec vanes. I really want to try feather fletching but it's hard to get locally, best option is to order online but then again, I still get plenty of 4" Vanetec vanes in my stock :D I will surely get feather fleching in the future, available at LancasterArchery. If you guys know where to get at lower price, do let me know.

Shooting distance in our jungle are very limited, 20 meters is as far as we can go because there are plenty of branches or small plants and bushes grow around just like Bede mentioned.

KenH, around here wild boar is the most wanted game as they keep ruined our farm. Other than that we also hunting deer and mouse deer. Archery are very new to our land, it was introduce under sport catergory. We are the first generation practice Archery over here. Most tribes here using blowpipe as traditional hunting weapon, with poisonous dart in order to kill big game

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Thanks wandyhee; the blowpipe was what I remembered as the primary tribal weapon there, but I wasn't sure.

Good luck with your hunting.

I live in tropical Florida, similar to your jungle, but not quite as thick. We have wild pig here too, some as large as 300 lbs! Quite exciting to hunt. Practice your tree-climbing skills as well! I know -- I have been chased up a tree by a boar which wasn't quite dead.

Mouse deer must be quite challenging, because of their small size. Sambar would be a worthy quarry. There is even an island here in Florida where we can hunt Sambar, although I have not done so.