Ok, i have made a braided bolas using paracord, a marine grade steel ring and three round lead sinkers. two of the same weight 5oz and one of 3oz weight on a longer cord.
monkey fist all three then four plait round braid the whole lot.
It was a practice project for the braiding but it still should have worked as predicted.
Should the weights be the same?
should they be two light and one heavy? the reverse of what i have now.
Or do i suck and need more practice? :D
Or all different  weights.
I am building the reverse of what i have now for experimenting and will breakdown my first one should it need it.
Thought i would ask those who have gone before. :)

Ajax wrote on Aug 10^th, 2014 at 11:16pm:

Or all different  weights.

Any cords with the same sized weight on the end need to be a different length. Try swapping the 3oz weight with one of the 5 oz weights. The bigger the difference between the length and weight, the better it will spread.

bolases are hard to throw - you probaby just need more practice :-)
:thumb:

How do you throw bolas ? Do they revolve in the air, or is it just three or more balls flying in parallel until a cord tangles on the target ?

4 plait round braid with paracord? Trying using just one strand of normal paracord for each "arm". It should be plenty strong enough for bolas and it will wrap around the target much better.

Thearos wrote on Aug 11^th, 2014 at 10:24am:

How do you throw bolas ? Do they revolve in the air, or is it just three or more balls flying in parallel until a cord tangles on the target ?

The bola has to spin in the air so the balls will separate as they fly. If the balls don't separate, the cords won't be able to fully entangle the target.

Morphy,  it was my version of a rawhide one i saw on the net, it was also good practice, i like the sturdiness of it as it wont tangle before deployment, but i was having issues getting it to splay out.
As it stands i am going to deconstruct it and start again.

Your steel center ring, can the cords slip and slide around on that?  I have found that the cords have to be fixed at the center to work.  Otherwise they will slide together and tangle.

Bill is right…I've tried the "ring" method too and it didn't work too good.

And you have to get the right spin on release or they wont open up like helicopter blades. Takes a fair bit of practice.

Yea they slip around the ring very easy, ok, i was wondering if that may be part of the problem.
Looks like i am doing a rebuild, followed by a lot of practice :).

What I do is hole one weight and rotate then release it so they are separated.