Slingshot primer

[Deltaboy1984]

They are fun and now that it is summer Time I am going to do some more slingshot shooting .

I have a Trumark , a old rebanded with Black Widow Power bands Wrist Rocket and a Refinished Wham-O frame that I am going to get some flat bands for.

 

[ulfrik]

About 10 years ago I had alot of tube slingshots that were very powerful and accurate. Right now I have a tube slingshot that has been in a drawer for the last 10 years and it is very powerful and accurate.

Is it possible that they are making tube bands lower quality than they did years ago???

 

[hang fire]

About 20 years ago I built a shoulder fired slingshot gun. It was made in a steel square tube within a steel square tube slide extension configuration, with inside tube locking in place when fully extended. Used standard leather pouch retained in a slot and had trigger let off. The sights were mounted on a separate fixed configuration which extended several inches above tubes for slingshot. Rear was an aperture and front was windage adjustable offset archery pins for different distances.

If warm ambient temperature remained constant and for a given set of tube slings, the accuracy one could obtain was amazing. Ragged one hole groups at 10 yards was almost child’s play, minute of bunny rabbit out to 50 yards was common. But even a small temperature drop could raise havoc with accuracy beyond a few yards.

I gave a fleeting thought as to marketing, but liability concerns, insurance cost etc. nixed that. Possibly could have sold the design, but never even considered a patent for it, as slight changes in the design could have easily gotten around it. Gave it to a friend who went ga gah over it.

 

[Pete D.]

Slingshots

I have about eight or ten slingshots. Most are purchases but a couple are homemade.
My favorite is a folding wrist rocket. It goes in my back pocket when I am out walking around the woods and fields. I favor white marbles for ammo. They hit hard and are easy to see in flight so each one is a learning experience.
I keep a half gallon milk container sitting at an accessible spot in the woods - one that I can see and approach from a number of angles. It is a favorite practice target and shot at from many angles and distances.....kinda like stump shooting with a bow. One bonus of this use is that I am able to recover many of the marbles as they are easy to see against the woodland floor.
About ball bearings .....traditional slingshot ammo, yes......don't know what they cost you but you might try a five pound bag of OOOO buckshot. Maybe cheaper.
Each pellet is a bit heavier so there would be a trajectory change.
Pete

PS - Hangfire: that sounds like a remarkably clever invention.

 

[reppans]

ulfrik, I don't mean suggest that all tubes are inherently weak or inaccurate - I just think the commercial store-bought (yellow Daisy's I have) have chosen longevity over performance and the inaccuracies probably comes from holding a heavier draw at maximum extension (using a consistent anchor point). Compared to Theraband Gold flats, it feels like the difference between shooting a 75 # recurve bow to a 75 # compound bow.

There's no free lunch however, and I'm pretty certain the Daisy bands will last 5x the number of shots as the Therabands. There are also much lighter/faster tubes you can buy on the dedicated slingshot sites, but they won't last as long either.

Pete, agree lead is probably the best hunting ammo, most kinetic energy for a given wind resistance, less ricochet risk, but more handling/environmental health concerns, and "vacuuming" steel at the bottom of your target catchbox with a magnet sure is nice. Steel sells for $3.50 a lbs, any size.

Very cool idea Hangfire, especially like the sights which I think these things really could use.

 

[hang fire]

The downside for such was the surgical rubber tubing being so sensitive to temp changes. I often thought of Kalrez as an answer for such. At the time I was a maitenance mechanic on gas turbine (jet) engines in Alaska. We used high temp Kalrez o-rings which could withstand temps of several huindred degrees. But I noted when working on units at even below zero, the Kalrez seemed to retain it's elasticity and snap. They were a very high dollar item then, maybe now not so much.

 

[AStone]

Haven't visited this thread in a couple of months because I've been off in blade land during that time, but I don't want it to die because I'm still super interested in acquiring a sling shot for my wilderness kit.

Last night, I was surfing sling shot sites. (You can recognize genuine nerds easily;
we're the one's who surf the I'net on Saturday night looking at slingshots. )

I found a new maker that I hadn't found before.

Pocket predator slingshots. Any thoughts about his work?

They appeal to me. I like the idea of a G10 slingshot, and his "universal forks" that accept bands and tubes is a good idea (although it's certainly unique: Joerg's Cougar forks are universal, also). There are also some useful videos on the site.

 

[AStone]

And, does anyone know a source of Jörg Sprave Limited Edition Cougar? That one reportedly comes set up with bands, v the Dankung version that comes set up with tubes. I can't find a source online for the limited edition.

I also found this one which ostensibly comes with neither, which may be best anyway: I could just cut my own bands from thera band.