Got a Real-World Weapon or Armor Question? Mk. VI

[Galloglaich]

So you can throw it back quickly.

So long as the point is past you already (or beside you) it's not that risky to catch it.

When I was in high school we used to do it as a (very irresponsible) game with athletic javelins. Thrown at long range it's about as hard to catch one as it would be to catch a football, albiet with much direr consequencess if you miss. I'm hardly the only one to have noticed this.

http://regia.org/bow.htm

The art of the javelin is to throw them in a mass. This ensured that despite their slow speed through the air, some or all could not be avoided. The overall weight of the thrown spear is small by comparison to the fighting spear, however the added pace that the thrower imparted to the shaft, more than made up for it's lack of weight (snip) ... Oddly enough, a single javelin is easy to side step, and depending upon how it was thrown (a fairly flat trajectory), it can be caught and thrown back. The man in the shield wall didn't have the luxury of space to move or the choice of only one javelin to avoid. Tests we have carried out demonstrate all of these aspects, resulting in some sickening findings.

In fact the Romans thought the re-use of their javelins was a major problem which is why they designed their special armor piercing javelins (pilum) to break or bend when they landed. There are several Roman documents where they describe Barbarians (celts and Germanic tribsemen) were catching their javelins and throwing them back.

That is one problem you never have with bullets, or arrows, or crossbow bolts, or sling-stones, for various reasons.

G.