Let me preface this with the admittance that there are about 4,000 other hand to hand tools that make better "practical" weapons than the whip. Then again, while I am sure I could make shorter work of a charging attacker with my 50+" Claymore, I'm even less likely to have that on my person than my whip...and I almost never have a whip on me. I am in no way saying that we should all channel our inner Indiana Jones and rely on our opponents to stay 10 feet out of range and only attack us in wide open cattle country or in spacious palaces with high ceilings while we deploy our whip. If nothing else, I am wondering who here has dabbled in cracking a whip and if there are any improvised self defense accessory techniques you could see fit to use if engaged in CQC with nothing in your hand except for a bullwhip. Might be kinda fun in a novel/academic sort of way.
So my experience with a bullwhip...not a great deal, but probably more than your average Joe off the street. I bought my first non-garbage bullwhip about 15 years ago. I got it from a Western Prop supply catalog paying the pretty high (for the time) 80-ish dollars for the braided nylon cord whip. Im not sure the number of plaits, but I would guess around 12. Good weight, nearly indestructible (case in point as I still have it and pop it from time to time), and accurate enough that I got to where I could hit small targets with generally decent accuracy. Once I had mastered getting the whip to crack, I spent most of my winter months in our empty warehouse at work targeting a leather "rat" i had made out of a an old scrap piece of leather that was folded over and tied to about the size and shape of a standard rat. It had originally been my cheap target for my old Crossman pump pellet pistol.
So the more I cracked this whip, the more it felt like second nature in my hand. I recognized the familiar whorl whihh sound slide past my ear as pulling the body of the whip back chambered my strike. I knew where every part of the whip was at every moment and really got a thrill out of knowing that I controlled the sound barrier. What was a whirling dance of nylon and centrifugal force could easily be channeled into a thunderous crack wherever I deemed put it.
So flash forward 15 years. I have some Amazon money to burn and have had a hard time coming up with something I feel like splurging on. I came across a 16 plait 6' kangaroo hide whip for about $120 bucks and decided to give it a shot. It should be here Wednesday. When I was a kid, I always bought those super cheap $5 3 braid pieces of junk from the local fall festival. They generally would fall apart within a couple of days...partly because they were of terrible quality and mostly be abuse spend those days whipping at trees and trying to swing on branches
I have always wanted a "real" leather bullwhip as I am a child of the 80s and Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones was the pentacle of cool. Besides, ammo is still scarce and I need one more activity to do in my backyard to give the neighbors pause besides my axe throwing
So as I have been waiting on my new toy, I have brought out my old 6' nylon whip to see how else a coiled roll of weighed flexible material could be used. Even digging on YouTube, I wasn't able to find much in the way of whip weaponry short of some fancy cracking and a couple of Dude Bros just whacking the hell out of a heavy bag with a short snake whip as a form of self defense. What I did find was some good reading based on how to use a bullwhip as a close up tool from a few martial artists who were asked hypothetically if they would find merit in using a whip. It was an interesting read and very much a good showing of the old Indian/Arrow adage that holds a lot of water.
Choking up and making a big loop in your cracking hand yielded a heavy jack that could not only strike but could be used to trap and entangle an incoming strike. The large knot at the base of the whip handle was basically a slap jack. A powerful strike would easily damage an attacker. I found that even giving a good sweep of the elbow with the fall and cracker trailing resulted in a bit of sound and potential misdirection. Furthermore, if an attacker did break off and distance himself from your heavy close up strikes and traps, if the whip is held in a way where it can fall freely, it can be deployed as it was meant to be in short order. Now you have distance, range, and the full arsenal of Mother Physics on your side again.
Depending on your coordination, some talked about holding a knife in your off hand to keep an attacker from closing in too much. I think I would end up hitting myself or cutting my whip. At a certain point even a bullwhip becomes too absurd regarding theatrics.
Once again, I am not trying to shoehorn a tool for cattle driving into an actual defensive role. I see such hypothetical discussion about the same way as those who practice two handed sword play. Potentially effective but impractical to the point of being something only enjoyed in a training/exercise setting. I would say that I am thinking about bringing my whip along to the cabin. Mostly because the cracks echoing off the rocks would be impressive, but we do get a few stray dogs and coyotes that thunder through and im more likely to want to scare them off rather than kill them.
So do any of you have any thoughts on the matter? I would even like your thoughts on the use of cords of rope or chain. My old man kept a 4' piece of greasy chain in his truck tool box "just in case" that im reasonably sure was more for attitude adjustment rather than any hitching chores.
Thanks in advance
So my experience with a bullwhip...not a great deal, but probably more than your average Joe off the street. I bought my first non-garbage bullwhip about 15 years ago. I got it from a Western Prop supply catalog paying the pretty high (for the time) 80-ish dollars for the braided nylon cord whip. Im not sure the number of plaits, but I would guess around 12. Good weight, nearly indestructible (case in point as I still have it and pop it from time to time), and accurate enough that I got to where I could hit small targets with generally decent accuracy. Once I had mastered getting the whip to crack, I spent most of my winter months in our empty warehouse at work targeting a leather "rat" i had made out of a an old scrap piece of leather that was folded over and tied to about the size and shape of a standard rat. It had originally been my cheap target for my old Crossman pump pellet pistol.
So the more I cracked this whip, the more it felt like second nature in my hand. I recognized the familiar whorl whihh sound slide past my ear as pulling the body of the whip back chambered my strike. I knew where every part of the whip was at every moment and really got a thrill out of knowing that I controlled the sound barrier. What was a whirling dance of nylon and centrifugal force could easily be channeled into a thunderous crack wherever I deemed put it.
So flash forward 15 years. I have some Amazon money to burn and have had a hard time coming up with something I feel like splurging on. I came across a 16 plait 6' kangaroo hide whip for about $120 bucks and decided to give it a shot. It should be here Wednesday. When I was a kid, I always bought those super cheap $5 3 braid pieces of junk from the local fall festival. They generally would fall apart within a couple of days...partly because they were of terrible quality and mostly be abuse spend those days whipping at trees and trying to swing on branches
I have always wanted a "real" leather bullwhip as I am a child of the 80s and Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones was the pentacle of cool. Besides, ammo is still scarce and I need one more activity to do in my backyard to give the neighbors pause besides my axe throwing So as I have been waiting on my new toy, I have brought out my old 6' nylon whip to see how else a coiled roll of weighed flexible material could be used. Even digging on YouTube, I wasn't able to find much in the way of whip weaponry short of some fancy cracking and a couple of Dude Bros just whacking the hell out of a heavy bag with a short snake whip as a form of self defense. What I did find was some good reading based on how to use a bullwhip as a close up tool from a few martial artists who were asked hypothetically if they would find merit in using a whip. It was an interesting read and very much a good showing of the old Indian/Arrow adage that holds a lot of water.
Choking up and making a big loop in your cracking hand yielded a heavy jack that could not only strike but could be used to trap and entangle an incoming strike. The large knot at the base of the whip handle was basically a slap jack. A powerful strike would easily damage an attacker. I found that even giving a good sweep of the elbow with the fall and cracker trailing resulted in a bit of sound and potential misdirection. Furthermore, if an attacker did break off and distance himself from your heavy close up strikes and traps, if the whip is held in a way where it can fall freely, it can be deployed as it was meant to be in short order. Now you have distance, range, and the full arsenal of Mother Physics on your side again.
Depending on your coordination, some talked about holding a knife in your off hand to keep an attacker from closing in too much. I think I would end up hitting myself or cutting my whip
. At a certain point even a bullwhip becomes too absurd regarding theatrics.Once again, I am not trying to shoehorn a tool for cattle driving into an actual defensive role. I see such hypothetical discussion about the same way as those who practice two handed sword play. Potentially effective but impractical to the point of being something only enjoyed in a training/exercise setting. I would say that I am thinking about bringing my whip along to the cabin. Mostly because the cracks echoing off the rocks would be impressive, but we do get a few stray dogs and coyotes that thunder through and im more likely to want to scare them off rather than kill them.
So do any of you have any thoughts on the matter? I would even like your thoughts on the use of cords of rope or chain. My old man kept a 4' piece of greasy chain in his truck tool box "just in case" that im reasonably sure was more for attitude adjustment rather than any hitching chores.
Thanks in advance
