No brainer for me... bow and arrow.  Accuracy, range, ease of use, variety of game it can bring down.  Bow and arrow, no question. 
    That said I'd also make a sling and use it for certain purposes.  Slings are easy to make and carry, often the ammo is laying at your feet,  and they can be used in situations where you might not want to risk or waste an arrow.   And I'd make an atlatl for bringing down large game. 
    
Edit:  I wasn't thinking snares, traps, and such when I wrote this.  I would have at least a hundred snares set around my camp.  It would be nuts not to.   And if near water I'd definitely make a W type fish trap and a fish basket.  I'd probably have some deadfall traps set too.  And if there was large game around I might make some pit traps too.

I'd go for a bow too, but also make a spear, sling, traps, etc. The only problem is that I'd need some sort of knife to make more weapons. Maybe an improvised stone knife or axe would work.

Bows seem like they need a decent amount of experience to make right (I'm just guessing, though, as I haven't tried), which would explain their low effectiveness in survival shows. Most people would probably mess up and have a sub-par bow. All of the other weapons that you listed as more effective than the bow are relatively simple to construct and use proficiently, so they would be very effective for the average person.

Eino wrote on Jul 10^th, 2023 at 12:55pm:


Even a sub-par bow would be effective.  You would be lacking some power and range but as long as you made your arrows perfectly straight you would still be accurate.

Really depends on the environment you’re looking at. Here in my local area A pole spear (rubber powered) and a mask with no regulations on fishing sizes or species. You would find it rare to go a single day without catching some fish . The food is that abundant and easy to find and catch . Now if I couldn’t go near the sea in my area I would be hard pressed with any weapon to produce food every day.
In general hunting with a bow is a great option but from what I see on these survival shows the best thing is a trap of some type. It allows you to perform other tasks instead of actually hunting. Set lines , nets , deadfall’s snares ect.

Domt trust bear Grylls, he has been proven to be a fake, and a showman.

vetryan15 wrote on Jul 16^th, 2023 at 5:40am:


While most of these shows are scripted to a greater or lesser extent there is nothing stopping someone from actually hunting on these types of shows.

Some shows are pretty legit. Alone is a good one. Naked and Afraid is fairly good as well. There has been some scandals on that one but for the most part these people are losing too much weight in such a short period for there not to be an element of realism in it.

Eino wrote on Jul 16^th, 2023 at 10:33am:



Sounds like a great vacation.