Besides say throwing sticks, spears, fishing spears, caveman stars, snares, and so on, what are some other effective primitive hunting techniques/weapons?

I killed a damn opossum with a rock once. It was mostly bum luck. Nailed the thing right on the side of the head. Dropped right there and never got back up.

If you're quick enough a machete works quite well, probably now exactly a hunting weapon tho.

http://www.primitiveways.com/ Might interest you .

bow
crossbow
although im not sure what you would count as "primitive"

I've always been a fan on the sling

By primitive I'm speaking strictly a weapon you would be able to create from simple parts found from nature in nearly any survival situation.

I'm ruling out bows as creating an arrow from scratch that will fly straight is next to impossible unless you're a skilled craftsman when it comes to arrows. the sling is a good suggestion i hadn't thought of.

any trapping or snaring ideas which can be put together easily in the wild to catch live animals for food? a drop pit of sorts perhaps?

i
m gong to check out that primitive ways site now...

Their is either a US army or USMC Field Manuel that shows you pictures and tells you how to setup different kinds of snares, there is a site too but i can't find the bookmark that describes different pit and tree snares. It pays to experiment with different kinds of trees because some 'set' to the shape a lot faster than others and they lose power quickly .

Not the one i was looking for but you might find it interesting: http://www.aircav.com/survival/asch08/asch08p04.html

that's a common misconception
once you know what wood to look for arrows are very easy to make
sure they won't be as good as the commercial ones but they will be good enough to hit a rabbit at 50ft
but if that doesn't convince you i will submit a bola (or bolas) instead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas

what woods work well for crafting good hard straight arrows?

and those bolas look like one hell of an idea for possibly hunting larger game. wrapping the prey up in the bolas and lunging into it with a spear might just work. thanks fo the heads up on those....



just wanted to state that the PrimitiveWays site has a load of other kickass information too, definitely bookmarked...

the best wood is ash
if ash is not avalible then pine birch and sycamore will do
i usually use sycamore due to the fact that here in England its everywhere