What is your favorite weapon?

I'm too weak to hold any of em...

 

...

 

I love throwing weapons~
It's a pity that they're so hard to retrieve~
Oh well, my claws work pretty well too~

 

I'm changing it, I now like claws

 

I was thinking about buying a short naginata (53 in) when I came across this thread.

A long time ago I was fascinated with the whole two swords dual wield thing. Later on I moved to a more classical sword and shield approach or a two handed sword approach for reach and power. All of this is from rpg/anime/movies.

Recently I found that spear/staff and other medium length pole-type weapons were really versatile in range and attack vectors from watching an online class. They are also less tiring to hold and use compared to a medium weight sword because of the leverage.

The whole sword cutting the shaft thing probably rarely happens since most swords are not designed for chopping thick branches. If you ever tried to chop wood with an ax you probably know how difficult it is, and swords are not axes. Spear users will also not stiffly hold out the shaft with both hands for you to chop. They can just stab you with their extended reach.

I've also been trying to learn knife throwing which I seem to be completely inept at after 20 hours of practice (using both spin at variable distances and no spin methods). My throws are just very inconsistent so most of the time it doesn't even strike point first. XLFD I am not.

This frankly surprised me since I have OK archery skills (I can more or less consistently hit a basketball size object at 60 feet). I'd also like to think my pistol skills are decent too (4 in groups at 50 feet with a p226 on a good day). Throwing knives is just a very different animal.

I'm curious as to who has actually tried out or held their favorite weapon.

Note that I'm just a mall ninja at heart so I'm far from an expert when it comes to weapons. The thing that I have the most experience in is probably shooting since I've probably put thousands of rounds of .22 and 9mm down range in the last 2 years. That is barely novice level compared to other people.

 

well.. a sick loli isn't gonna hold anything heavier than a glass of milk.

There is an incredible amount of inaccurate information out there about weapons, and weird ideas. Like greatweapons weighing 20+ kilos and shit like that. A two-handed sword would only weigh a bit more than a tenth of that normally. (with some variation of course)

Throwing weapons are really difficult even if you train a lot, though. You can get decent or good at it, but to become an expert I think is one of those things that requires talent.

Poleweapons are the most versatile; it's the reason why they became so popular. Swords are by far more lethal, but they are expensive and have limited reach. They also don't really have group utility in the same way spears and polearms do.

I've held a lot of different kinds of weapons, but I don't have a particular favorite. Polearms, swords, spears, crossbows and bows.. Guns etc. I've been in a couple of tanks, even. I don't really have any experience using them, but I'm familiar with their history. Only thing I've any real experience with is throwing knives and axes, which is why I know a bit about those.

 

I've handled poles before, for a martial art performance. And technically a bit of the sword. But I can't imagine handling them properly enough to survive anything.
So, favourite weapon to use will probably be some automatic gun of sorts.

Most idealized weapon for me is probably a crossbow or sniper riffle.

 

Ah, throwing knives. Back when I was in high school throwing knives seemed like the ideal weapon to carry around to me. You could use them at range, easily concealable, they were knives so of course they could provide utility in day to day life, and they were relatively cheap. They were the perfect alternative to a handgun for self defense for someone who wasn't old enough to buy or carry a handgun... Then I bought a set and all those fantasies went up in smoke. I still like my throwing knives and still have a set laying around but that's mostly for the challenge aspect. I spent enough time to get decent with them back in high school but actually using them in combat would take way more talent than I have and way more training then I'm willing to put into them.

If I had to pick a favorite weapon it'd probably be the compound bow. Again for the challenge of it. I've used a lot of guns over the years either out hunting or in a shooting range but nothing beats the difficulty of hunting with a bow and arrow. Though it takes a lot more patience and perseverance than most people seem to have but the feeling of accomplishment when you actually get something is great.

 

I got a pair of throwing axes after trying different throwing knives but since they weigh a lot more I can't really throw them indoors. My range also doesn't have a throwing section so my practice options are limited.

I've shot .223 semi and .308 bolt, and doubt I would have any degree of accuracy over 30 feet if I rapid fired (pressed the trigger as fast as I can). Can probably do OK with a 22 but I'm afraid of FTF/FTEs.

Never fired anything full auto or 3 round burst -not sure I would want to since it would cost more than $1 per second even with .223. The recoil and barrel heat are also major concerns.

There are places in the U.S. where you can fire full auto weapons for a couple of hundred dollars without a license but I'd hesitate to visit such a place. It takes a fair amount of training for even basic firearm safety to stick, and the thought of untrained people shooting anything full auto frightens me. I have poor recoil management because I don't like to bunch up my shoulders and lean forward so I can just imagine what happens when a complete noob starts shooting full auto in a "cool action hero" pose.

Suffice to say my enjoyment of action movies has severely plummeted. Matrix is still OK but Expendables is like a spoof.

 

In a fantasy setting, I would quite like whatever weapon that shoots laser beams. Swords are not bad, if they are not the Yun-Che-heavy type. Finally, magic shields are cool too, rippling when something collides with them...

 

I've been experimenting with a throwing knife and some PVC pipe. Looks like it might make an OK spear. Might also throw well.

Went through a bow hunter class about a month back. Not sure if I have the skills to actually put it to use. Even if I could get a double lung shot my blood trail tracking skills are abysmal.

Do you hunt from a stand/blind or do you roam? I actually got a license this year but don't know if I have the patience to sit around in the wilderness for hours without looking at my phone.

 

I've used blinds and tree-stands before with success. I've tried roaming on private property owned by my family before but that's always ended up as just an exercise in hiking. You might have better success if you set up cameras throughout the area before the season opens and review the footage beforehand so you know where the common trails and areas that the animals like to use are and then roam following those but I've never tried that (and it also kind of takes the spirit out of nomadic hunting if that's what you're trying to accomplish). Then again maybe I'm just unlucky but most people I know who use a bow use tree stands or blinds.

Tracking afterwards is a real pain in the ass and I've lost several animals because I've failed to track them but that's true with guns as well... I swear I hit twice as many doves one season as the amount that I ended up with but without a dog to track them down I just couldn't find them in the high grass (obviously hunted those with a shotgun not a bow). Hunting in general takes a lot of patience since you'll spend several hours at the crack of dawn trying to be as quiet and motionless as possible and not everyone has it in them to do that. You can usually get away with a bit more movement in tree stands than in ground blinds in my experience but I always feel like I could fall too easily if I move around to much in those even if I'm in a really stable position (that might just be a slight fear of heights though).

 

I was actually in favor of Yun Che's heavy sword but now it's all about Lin Ming's heavy spear.

As a side note it's interesting that the super heavy two handed sword fetish seems to be fairly recent. Prior to FFVII, Beserk and maybe Soul Calibur I can't really think of an iconic character with a super heavy sword. There's Yang Guo with his Xuan Tie Jian but it's still just a large single handed sword. I wonder if this trend is also due to D&D 3.x introduction of the great sword with its 3d6 damage coupled with 2x Power Attack, Cleave and Greater Cleave feat chain. This probably fired up the imaginations of many with the concept of an unstoppable, overwhelmingly powerful two handed sword.
(Personally I prefer a swift Burning Blade with a Mountain Hammer while using a great sword -long live ToB!)

You mean like a force field?

 

Sword - great sword to be precise

 

Yes, that's what I mean. For some reason, I love the sight of it rippling.

 

sword...since childhood they were the only weapons that were famous ..
katana~ one that rurouni kenshin uses actually

 

A spear, mostly because I've taken a liking towards MC's wielding spears nowadays. They can be very interesting.

I like how they describe it moves like a serpent

 

I don't have any favorite I'm a peace advocate..
and I'm pretty harmless

 

staves/bows/swords
my favourite weapon(s)~

 

The sakabato with the reverse edge sharpened? Interesting concept but I've always felt it was weird because regular katanas have a thick back and a thin edge on the convex cutting side... Making the concave side the cutting edge just seems awkward. I presume he uses it to cut rope and other nonrigid objects like nets because he can just use the blunt side to basically smash everything else apart.