[verum ago]

Another massively ignorant journalism major (I assume).

Actual hunting boomerangs don’t come back. They’re not supposed to. They’re supposed to fly predictably to the target and kill it with a strike to the vitals (usually head or neck), then be collected at convenience from the ground adjacent to the prey animal.

The horribly curved trajectory of a boomerang that comes back to the thrower is wildly awkward for the device’s original intended use: killing food for a hunter. Would you want to shoot a rifle that somehow returned bullets to you? Ignoring the risk of having a bullet come back at you for the sake of analogy, it’d still be a sh*tty idea because the steeply curved trajectory would make the thing a nightmare to aim. The same applies to a boomerang.

Returning boomerangs are a recent novelty version of a tens of thousands of years old hunting weapon. They are to actual boomerangs as cap guns are to a Winchester Model 70: an ineffective entertainment-oriented fascimile.

So yeah, of course a super old boomerang doesn’t adopt an absurdly curved trajectory. It’s job was to fly straight and brain something, not come back in a loop and make an idiot 2025 AD ‘newswriter’ who has no idea where grocery store meat comes from clap like a trained seal in delight because it did a loop (while cleanly missing the rabbit it was thrown at).

I might be grumpy this morning lol

[SunkenCiv]

Good ones will circle back *a bit* if they miss the target. The alternative is, a hunting tool that took time to craft has to be hunted *for*.

[Hot Tabasco]

Would you want to shoot a rifle that somehow returned bullets to you?

Well, it it was shaped like a boomerang, I suppose you could shoot around corners....

[Woodman]

Close. Throwing Sticks (non-returning boomerangs) are for hunting small to large game. They can be accurately thrown in a straight line. The spinning of the device ensures that the tips are moving faster than the forward motion and enhance the killing power.

Australian returning boomerangs are designed and used for hunting birds. When a flock of birds are on the ground the hunter can throw the boomerang in the direction of the flock, and as the rise increase their chances of hitting one or more birds.

the objective of a returning boomerang is not getting it back, or accuracy. Rather the objective is speed and coverage of an area.

As a side with returners, smaller equals faster and a shorter loop, bigger slower and a larger loop. The loops size in the Z axis also is affected by size. The best returners (IMHO) are smaller than 16” tip to tip and asymmetrical on the arms.