How to make simple and affordable Basketmaker atlatl darts from dowels

These darts are easy to make and cost about $2 each. They mimic Basketmaker darts from the ancient Southwest. I make a lot of them and use them for public demonstrations where participants get to try out atlatls. With some use the foreshaft connection and the mainshafts get a little crooked, but they are easy to straighten. The method shown is a variation on the original described in, "Ray's Lumber Yard Basket Maker Darts," by Ray Madden, published in the newsletter of the World Atlatl Association. You can find it and more on our website, www.Basketmakeratlatl.com.
Warning: Do not attempt to use open flame to heat the pex pipe connectors. You absolutely do not want the pex pipe to catch on fire, at which point it could produce dangerous fumes. I have never smelled any fumes coming off of pex pipe using a heat gun.
Are you putting together or helping with a public demo using atlatls? Check out this article on our website for more tips: basketmakeratla...

[@johnswoodgadgets9819]

I make mine out of 7/16" four-foot poplar dowels. They hold up better than pine. I use one drilled three-inch piece of bamboo for a joint sleeve and add a six-inch extension to the four-foot section. I use a drilled four-inch bamboo sleeve as a foreshaft socket. A carbon fiber 20-inch crossbow bolt serves as a foreshaft. I use plain old blue masking tape to size the bolt up to 7/16ths in the part where it inserts into the bamboo sleeve. I reinforce the sleeves with artificial sinew. My fletches are made of aisle marking tape. When the smoke all clears, the dart, foreshaft and all, is 74 inches long. Not as authentic as my seven-foot cane 'show' dart, with turkey feathers and antler point, but will hold up to the rigors of the hundreds of throws I needed to get to where I could hit the broad side of a barn. (I darn near gave up on the whole idea but began to see some improvement in accuracy at around throw number six hundred.) Eight or nine hundred throws later, the barn wall target hits have now become coke can hits about three times out of five from ten yards. That is good enough for cottontail rabbit hunting around here. Finally! My beautiful mammoth-killer dart hangs on the wall. It is there in case I ever run into a mammoth.

[@NathanSmith-ns4sh]

Awesome! I will definitely be making a few practice darts like this 👍

[@jpharmon7343]

Thank you for your insight

[@terryg4179]

good vid, thank you