Good old-fashioned fun

[Infrared]

(Ivy-league accent)
It's easy to get caught up in the world of advanced weaponry these days. When you're out in the desert dumping 30-round mags into steel plates and water bottles, one can get caught up in the moment easily (who could blame ya?) and forget that firearms are a relatively recent innovation. However, humans have been around for far longer than the gun, as we all know. Before we had our FN-SCARs and Colt Delta Elites, we were using bows, spears, stone axes and clubs and other, simpler weapons for our hunting and warring needs. One of my favorite throwback weapons?

The slingshot!

Ok, ok, forget the History Channel intro. Anyway, one of the first projectile weapons I ever learned to use was the plain, simple slingshot. I had loads of fun as a 3-year-old, snapping rocks at cans, at water, at the occasional bird...In the years following, I played woth slingshots on and off. The last time was perhaps 8 years ago...Until last week! I bought a classic Marksman "wrist rocket" type of slingshot, a heavy-pull band and some steel shot (roughly the size of 00 buck, and the other package is maybe the size of #4 shot or so, kinda small but I'll get to why they're fun), and also a couple packs of those white marbles too. Normally I never bothered buying shot: I would just launch whatever rocks I could find, but this time I wanted some uniformity and better aerodynamics. I wanted to see what kind of range/accuracy I could get, just for fun.
Anyway, I'll spare you all the crap: I had forgotten just how much fucking FUN slingshots are! They offer a decent challenge as far as mastering your aim and technique, but not so much of a challenge that it gets frustrating or cannot be mastered. The steel balls (the larger ones) fly pretty true, but you have to make sure you pinch it right in the center of the pouch, or else they will fly off in the wrong direction. The smaller steel balls are really fun to make "shotgun shells" - get a square of toilet paper or something, place 8-12 steel balls in it, then wrap them up in such a way that the entire packet will open up if you blow on it, or fire it. Think of putting steel balls in a flower or something and closing the petals and you have the right idea. Pinch the load firmly in the pouch, opening facing forward, and let fly! If you did it right, the paper should fly open and off to the side, just like a shotgun shell, and the steel balls should fly in a nice cluster. I had loads of fun with these "shells", and loads of fun in general. My targets were the stop sign at the end of the apartment street (about 50 yd.), a fire hydrant (about 75 yd) and some water balloons. I also absolutely did NOT take potshots at the truck and trailer belonging to the asshole in apt. 1404 that keeps parking in my shaded reserved spot despite several kind (and later, not so kind) requests to stop. It was NOT about 200 yards away. Once I got good, I was not able to arc steel balls and marbles into the side of this vehicle (because I never shot it....remember?). Oh, and I also went "hunting" - With practice, I was able to nail the head of the ugly green brontosaurus sculpture belong to Dino-Stor Self-Storage about 140 yards away. Now to find a taxidermist.

Anyway, yeah, slingshots are lots of fun. I highly recommend safing the guns and having a great evening with a slingshot sometime. It's cheap, it's fun and it's a satisfying challenge getting the hang of (you know what I mean: getting GOOD with it. I know any dumbass can use one, lol). Also, you can shoot it nearly anywhere without your busybody neighbor that lived on Stagecoach Avenue like 9 years ago calling the police on you because you were shooting a BB gun in your backyard that she thought was a .22!

..........


Er, sorry. Anyway, any of you guys like slingshots? What's the most powerful one out there? Any ideas for cool things to use for ammo (already thought of paintballs; awesome, by the way)? Do share.

Infrared

[p6867]

I used to wreck it with my wrist rocket. I had all these steel ball bearings about the size of a marble. Killed a turkey with one once.

[slicknickns]

Originally Posted by p6867

I used to wreck it with my wrist rocket. I had all these steel ball bearings about the size of a marble. Killed a turkey with one once.

Damn

[Spence_tron]

I used to love my slingshot when I was a kid, never had a wrist rocket type though. I shot out my first window with one in a junkyard, and killed my first bird with one, this thread made feel all nostalgic.

I remember I used to shoot fireworks out of mine a lot, and used modified novelty smoke bombs as "slingshot tracer ammo". Had a lot of fun doing it when I was younger.

Now I need to go buy one for old times sake.

[Infrared]

Yeah, it's definitely worth it. I forgot about fireworks! I think I still have some of those really loud "safecracker" fireworks lying around
I used to tape them to arrows, then let one fly towards a big flock of birds in my buddy's field - You get someone to light it, then you draw and fire quickly, aiming towards, but over, the flock. If you do it right, the firecracker will explode right over their heads, resulting in a frantic and fun-to-watch flyoff. Lol. Good times

[unstableasatable]

me and my brother used to lust after those wrist rocket ones that strap onto your whole arm.

my friends dad killed a duck once by shooting a mint imperial at it with slingshot

[mrbarbwir3]

Ahh my favorite all time weapon besides the humble knife. I used to lob off swan and goose heads at a local beach with the proper rock, a nice flat round one. I used to be a really good shot back in the day before I advanced to real firearms and pellet rifles. I could probably still do some damage, the only problem is my original bands broke so I replaced them with surgical tubing. Still works well but sometimes it rolls the leather cup around.

I used to use my wrist rocket as a back up paint ball gun when i ran out of co2 with a rental or a friends gun or my shity talons. I still fuck about with my wrister on occasion when I'm fishing and not having any luck or out of pellet ammo for general plinking. my favorite ammo is by far 1/2" ball barrings, but being expensive i settle for about 1/2" roundish rocks. on occasion ive been know to load up multiple rocks as a primitive bird shot.

[Eskorbuto]

I got a slingshot right here. I use nuts (metal nuts that go on screws, right behind the washers?) as ammo.

I was shooting beer bottles on the roof the other day.

I'm pretty good at it.

[Infrared]

Another fun and closely-related weapon is the sling. You can easily make one with a couple shoelaces and an old piece of leather or cloth. They take some practice to become really accurate with, but they're very fun and they can have amazing range.

[mizled]

This is my slingshot, there are many like it, but this one is mine...

[Infrared]

Nice . Mine is a lot like that one but with a red power-band. Lol, before that pic loaded, I was expecting it to be a pic of your Glock! Glad you enjoy the basic stuff too.

[Mantikore]

Ive got a home made one, and yeah, theyre fun. Its quite an underrated device these days. The main use it gets is tinfoil balls to take out bugs

[Groundhog whacka]

I used to shoot mothballs out of mine at the beginning of the summer. We camped up in Michigan and when we opened the camper up for the summer I would throw all the mothballs in a bucket to use for ammo. I was hell on the chipmunk population at the campground.
I bet mine is still layin around somewhere at my moms house. I snagged my old Daisy 881 from there the other day, will have to look for my old slingshot next time I'm out there.

[mizled]

Originally Posted by Infrared

Nice . Mine is a lot like that one but with a red power-band. Lol, before that pic loaded, I was expecting it to be a pic of your Glock! Glad you enjoy the basic stuff too.

[1983]

I al lways broke the slings for some reason or another and ended up shortening them... One day some kids were throwing crab apples and I happened to have my sling on me.

Did you know fat kids don't like being hit with a crab apple going god only knows what an hour.?

Al

[Infrared]

LOL. Yeah, I had a new band break on me the other day too, on like the 3rd shot! Some of em really suck I guess. My current red one is lasting nicely, though.

[1983]

Cut down the tubes and try em, They got a little extra spring if you know what I mean.

Al

[Mantikore]

Originally Posted by 1983

Did you know fat kids don't like being hit with a crab apple going god only knows what an hour.?

Al

Did they explode when they hit??


Anyway, i find that those 'theraband' elastics work really well

[roasted]

Man, this takes me back...much hell was raised with my wrist rocket. Anything that would fit in the sling was at risk of being shot. Pebbles, paintballs, ball bearings, anything. Once when I was like 12 we found a dumpster full of hex nuts (it was a company that manufactured fasteners). That was trouble.

Luckily, my slingshot/bb-gun phase lasted me until the beginning of my potato cannon stage. My old man loved that....we'd build em, he'd cut them up and trash them (then we'd retrieve them from the trash and rebuild them)

Good times....good topic OP

[1983]

Originally Posted by Mantikore

Did they explode when they hit??


Anyway, i find that those 'theraband' elastics work really well

Nope but they broke the fat fold continuum and brought in a new age of launching a fatty fat fat fat kid off the hood of a car.

Ahh technology what will you think of next.

Al

[RadicalApex]

Originally Posted by p6867

I used to wreck it with my wrist rocket. I had all these steel ball bearings about the size of a marble. Killed a turkey with one once.

When I was a kid we used to fuck around by the train tracks looking for pig iron to shoot out of our slingshots. I killed my first rabbit with one of those haha.

Originally Posted by Infrared

LOL. Yeah, I had a new band break on me the other day too, on like the 3rd shot! Some of em really suck I guess. My current red one is lasting nicely, though.

Use some surgical tubing that shit works wonders.

[unstableasatable]

this has brought me to youtube where i found this

Jörg Sprave's best slingshots - YouTube

Jörg Sprave's best slingshots - YouTube
Video: click to display

guys makes some awsome slingshots, such as slingshot shotguns, and tell you how to make them strong.

Can a slingshot break bricks? - YouTube

Can a slingshot break bricks? - YouTube
Video: click to display

enjoy! im going to try making one of these when im back home, even one should give it a try!