In warfare the concerns are completely different than in hunting and disposable ammo is a definite advantage in warfare and self defense. Generally speaking, throwing separates man from the animals and shooting separates men from each other.

Hunting boomerangs were used continuously for at least 20,000-30,000 years or more in Australia and elsewhere to put food on the fire. They were developed to a very high refinement and allowed for the efficient survival of humans during those times, such that they balanced well with their environments and each other.

In modern times it has become a common misconception that disposable ammo provides a superior method of survival hunting. But when disposable ammo is available, hunting is more often a luxury than a method of survival. Most have the choice to work in ammo factories for money, rather than to be forced to use it to put meat on the fire. We live in a unique and brief time in history in which the illusion exists that natural resources are disposable. By contrast with the 20,000+ year history of the boomerang, our disposable resource methods of survival have not yet begun to pass the test of time themselves, and have become so destructive that they seem likely to fail in the long term.

Other than the modern bullets we use today at $1 a shot, hunting projectiles have never truly been disposable. Even modern ammo has an expiration date and requires modern industry, the cooperation of modern laws, as well as a stable market. In hunting, only one shot is usually available on a target before it escapes or is taken. Thus the main concern for the true survival hunter is whether his non-disposable projectile could be re-collected and used again or not.

While the sling uses disposable ammo, it was never too much of a hunting weapon due to accuracy and rapid or stealth deployment issues. It could be used in a pinch and definitely was, but it could only kill on a head shot against large game, and historically it was used primarily by agricultural societies to guard crops and animals. It was also practical for ranged warfare against an army. The bola is an exception to this in many ways, but is not considered disposable.

Good quality (accurate) arrows more than bows and even throwsticks were always the most difficult ranged weapons item to source and construct properly in all regions of the world. Even assuming suitable materials were available in a given region, a single arrow could take a huge amount of work to produce correctly, let alone a quiver full of arrows with matched spines and weights. Arrows were thus not particularly disposable items, despite their fragility. Shots had to be carefully chosen or costs would be high. This is one drawback that primitive peoples had to deal with whenever they released a bowstring. Bowstrings themselves were fragile as well, and generally needed dry weather conditions to be effective until they eventually would break and need replacing with specialized materials.

For large game hunting where the cost of an arrow was worth less than the game it would take, the bow was an effective choice for large game at ranges below about 21-38 yards / 20-35 meters max. But the valuable arrow was rarely worth the risk of a long shot that would probably miss, or a rabbit, even at close range. Even a heart shot on a large animal might still not take the game fast enough to guarantee it wouldn't run away and die in a hidden place. The Hopi Indians knew these things and used throwsticks on rabbits at ranges out to 54 yards / 50 meters or more, where even if they missed they just picked up their stick and kept trying. The American Indians did hunt large game at close range with the bow to some degree, but they also used numerous other clever methods which were more effective, including traps, etc....

The atlatl is an excellent survival weapon but it required suitable dart material, which is not available everywhere. The high skill level needed to make matched spine darts for accurate shots is similar to that of matched spine arrows, meaning that individual darts are not truly disposable and a hunter may come to rely upon an individual dart to achieve maximal accuracy. Atlatl darts are also fragile and may break off in game.

The spear thrower was more crude than the atlatl and had shorter ranges than many other ranged weapons, but was deadly within its maximum range. The spears were collected again after each use. Manufacture of spears is relatively fast and easy, even if broken. Thus, the spear thrower is a great sustainable hunting weapon, yet it requires a specialized environment to allow for a close concealed stalk up on game, yet without numerous trees in the way which could tangle with the spears. The boomerang has thus been noted to be superior for stalking by ethnographers who studied Aboriginal cultures.

The Australian continent was isolated from the rest of the world and the ancient Aboriginal cultures presumably did not have access to or knowledge of primitive ranged weapons other than the boomerang and the spear thrower. I am unsure as to whether they had access to suitable archery components anywhere on the Australian continent, whether they knew they did or not. Like the unique animals on their continent, they used unique weapons. They developed their throwsticks to the height of technological development found anywhere in the world, particularly in the central desert region of Australia where very long range shots were sometimes necessary, since close stalking was impossible to do in the open. Very dense local hardwoods such as desert mulga provided a durable and deadly construction material which makes most oak feel light in weight by comparison.

Over ages the Aboriginal craftsmen refined and passed on very advanced information on the proper making and tuning of long range hunting boomerangs. This practical development eventually gave them flight ranges beyond 109 yards / 100 meters. Where the bow shoots on an arched trajectory with a limited effective range, the boomerang flies straight and has an effective range at least 2 to 4 times longer, making close stalking skills less important. It is also a multi tool. It could thus be effectively argued that the boomerang is a more effective desert hunting and survival tool than the bow and arrow would have been in these particular environments.

Of all the hunting weapons mentioned above, none had ammo that was truly disposable, but only three had ammo that was truly durable. The bola, the spear thrower and the boomerang. In a survival hunting scenario where one is not being backed up by the manufacturing capabilities of an empire, or at least a village, unless one has the skills to manufacture good arrows and darts, the bow and atlatl are poor weapons to use. But the throwstick never runs out of arrows/bullets and can be retrieved again after a hunt is over. This makes the throwstick an ideal survival weapon against a variety of game, large and small which wouldn't be even attempted with a bow. It stood the test of time for long generations until it encountered the firearm.

Up until the 1950's and to a limited degree beyond, there were still Australian Aboriginal peoples in the central part of Australia who were uncontacted still using their ancient weapons to put meat on their fires. The boomerang and spear throwers provided them with ample food supply until they were defeated and removed from their hunter/gatherer anarchic lifestyle by the European colonists who used firearms. The boomerang is a great long range desert hunting tool but a poor weapon for lethal warfare. The Aboriginal peoples rapidly lost the fight against guns. Their boomerang technology was put onto the walls of Australian homesteads as decorations, and eventually into museums as another culture became dominant through the use of more lethal technology. The ancient throwsticks that remain are now sometimes valued at thousands of dollars a piece depending on the quality and age. Relics of an old way of life now vanished. To the Aboriginal peoples they were not valued in terms of dollars but in terms of the food they provided.

Firearms will always be dominant in hand to hand warfare until something even more lethal is invented and refined (like the sub-sonic spinning steel blade gun..., based in hunting boomerang technology). Yet when the ammo is expired or all gone, too heavy to carry with where one is going, or not possible to acquire..., then boomerangs will come back again as a hunting tool of choice.