Sling shots ( the rubber powered kind)

[LDS]

https://sites.google.com/site/aplusslingshots/

Found this site for those that are craft challenged.

I did a world of damage with a slingshot when I was a kid. Right up until I entered the world of really heavy duty air guns.

[coon4492]

I like how these guys go for the classic slingshot look I'm use to seeing the high tech slingshots you see in the stores. What was the material of the sling they use? Most people seem to use surgical tubing I can't tell what this sling was made from possibly a rubber band? I might just buy a slingshot from walmart or something it's a little easier than ordering offline.

[LDS]

Doubled rubber bands about 1" wide.

I have a hard time paying for a slingshot. They are just too easy to make for me to justify $25 for something i can make for $5.

Rubber tubing is $2.75 per foot at the local ACE HDW. The leather tongue out of an old shoe and a good fork. Twenty minutes of time and it is done.

When I was a kid I used to snag every rubber band I could find. I would braid them into solid slingshot rubbers. My Dad never did realize why his newspaper was always waiting for him at his recliner. Slingshots and rocks were free shooting. So were bows and arrows. I made my share of them too.

[coon4492]

I could never make a good enough slingshot when I was a little kid. It always seemed to snap and hit me in the face I use to buy those water balloon launchers you can get at the pharmacy for 5 bucks and use that like a large slingshot. I'd tie it to two trees and launch stuff at my neighbors garage roof that wasn't easy because I had to shoot it through a forest so it hit tree branches alot of times before it hit the target. The suburban kids I played with had a clear shot to any neighbor of their choice with no tree interference if they did it. Those kids had it pretty good

[Bernoulli]

I still have the one I made as a kid. I don't know where it is (probably in the U.S. at my son's house) or I'd post a pic. I looked for a long time before I found the proper tree branch. It worked fine, but I don't remember what I used for propulsion. I have a hi-tech one here. It's a very handy thing to have around.

I did replace my homemade slingshot with a BB gun. I found one for $.25 that didn't work. I fixed it and used it for years. It worked well for shooting minnows to use for bait to catch bigger fish to use for bait .....

[LDS]

I still feel that I have harvested more critters with an air gun and black powder guns than with "real" firearms. Should have kept a list.

[dixieangler]

When I was a kid, I tried out the new fangled "Wrist Rocket" slingshot I think when it first came out. It also even had metal shot that came with it. Ended up eventually breaking the rubber tubing and rather than getting more tubing, I just went back to the sling. I did better with the sling anyway. The critters would just laugh at me with the Wrist Rocket but the sling had a way of permanently silencing them. Then again, I probably will never be able to go back to being as good with the sling as I was back then. I practically practiced all the time (daily) with the sling. Just don't have that kind of time or that good of eyesight anymore.

[coon4492]

I used to use my airgun to hunt small birds with and shoot coffee cans. It was alot of fun it was the crosman quest 1000 .177. I broke it when I dry fired it, learned an important lesson not to dry fire weapons that day. I switched to a bow when I was about 13 and never really used anything else except a rifle on occassion.

[Bernoulli]

I carry my wrist rocket while deer hunting. I use it to put a few rocks into a thicket from a good firing position. Hasn't run any deer out yet, but it's not over yet either.

[LDS]

Back in the '70s the people in my area were still learning how to hunt deer. First legal seasons around then. I was the first in my group to make use of a tree stand. The others waited on the ground during the AM, sometimes made a kill. If not they would go stalking latter in the morning.

I will never forget watching through boniculars as the deer moved across the ridge 1/4 mile ahead of the moving hunters. Sometimes they would even look back over their shoulder at the approching men, then amble away with little concern, like sleepy children awakened from their naps.

We got into some areas that were so thick with squirrels they would scamper right up to you scolding you like crazy. I actually started carying my Crossman .22 pellet rifle for the squirrels and a .357 Ruger Blackhawk for the deer. I was seeing more squirrels than deer. A slingshot would have been great for that effort.

I once knew an older fellow who had been a kid during the Depression. He was from a family of 4 boys and two girls. He said the 4 boys kept the family partly fed for most of the 10 year period, using slingshots. You just could not be picky about what you were eating; Rabbits, squirrels, 'possoms, racoons and lots of birds one would not normally consider food.

[Running-Free]

There's a slingschot forum i belonged to for a couple of years ( i cant find it right now) and although is shoot a wristrocket myself, the best shooters an builders al used surgical rubber in SHEETS!
12" x 12" wich they cut up in tapered strips 1" on one side, down to 1/2" on the other. To produce somthing like 10 strips per sheet. They swear that these shoot harder and straighter than surgical tubes... They also give you some artisitc freedom to make your own fork, since the ends don't have to be as narrow as to hold the regular tubing...

Here in Holland it's pretty damn hard to obtain some 3/8 steel shot. i just can't seem to find a factory that makes bearings. And these steel ball aren't sold in stores as amo, since slingschot are illegal weapons where i come from...

P.S.
For that reason i use marbles as shot...

[LDS]

My favorite shot is .30 caliber lead balls. I bought the mold for my .31 cal muzzleloader and find the small shot excellent slingshot ammo. You can also buy buckshot in bulk packs. I bought a box of 1,000 .35 caliber buckshot for a .36 caliber ml rifle I did not want to start casting for. It works well too. I have also used the .375 caliber shot intended for Colt Navy revolvers but it is almost too heavy.

Back when I was a kid I used to hunt all the smooth creek gravel I could find. We lived in a linestone dominated area and the smooth pebbles from creeks were prized ammo.

[Bernoulli]

When I was flying cargo, if I had time, I'd check the ramp around the cargo door area and usually find ball bearings that escaped from the multitude of upside down skate wheels that pallets and containers are carried on. A little small, but free.