Does anybody here use a slingshot?

What do you recommend for backyard plinking?

How about ammunition? Clay vs. glass vs. steel?

This is what we had as unruly teens:

https://www.amazon.com/Beeman-...ngshot/dp/B000MD68JM

We had gotten pretty darn dangerous with 'em.

David said they were effective.

I have one. Hitting something is not easy.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
David said they were effective.

I have one. Hitting something is not easy.

You are correct that David used a sling which is different from a slingshot. God Bless

Thanks.. Did not realize we had a Biblical scholar on board!

quote:

Originally posted by tigereye313:
This is what we had as unruly teens:

https://www.amazon.com/Beeman-...ngshot/dp/B000MD68JM

We had gotten pretty darn dangerous with 'em.

Thanks for the link. Had a few bucks credit and picked up a replacement kit. My wrist-rocket has the padded metal wrist part.

Slingshot Man Carolina Camera

Old video from Carolina Camera - The Slingshot Man North Carolina

It’s a YouTube link. I don’t know how to embed

www.simple-shot.com
Mine is the Hammer XT.

quote:

Originally posted by tigereye313:
This is what we had as unruly teens:

https://www.amazon.com/Beeman-...ngshot/dp/B000MD68JM

I have a very old one of those -- it belonged to my grandfather.
He was wicked accurate with it.

Taconite pellets are great sling shot ammo. I used to get them for free where the train tracks made a sharp bend near North Lake, WI. They'd fall off the ore cars. They probably don't ship taconite pellets to Florida though.

Maybe YooperSigs has a source. Taconite is mined from the Marquette Iron Range.

When I was a teenager I had a wrist-rocket, brand unknown. Pachinko balls were effective on an unfortunate phone booth at 75 to 100 yards.

I feel badly about it now.

I also tried rabbit hunting as achieving a headset seemed doable but the rabbits were wary enough to run away upon being seen.

I shoot every day. My target a Walmart Metamucil-copy Equate container on a pole at about 60 feet. For economy I use BB's, they hold their trajectory very well at that distance and make an unmistakable sound on target. That sound is it's own reward, it's wonderful.

If I use bigger ammo -- 1/4" up to about 40 caliber steel -- I use a looped tube (single tube for BB's). Bands may be faster but they're a pain to make and don't last as long. Shooting bigger ammo requires some backstop to collect the shot. It's throwing money away not to retrieve it but I rarely go to the trouble setting up a collection system. Somewhere in the woods there are tens of thousands of BB's, I need a big magnet.

I've recently gone from tubes to solid latex rubber "cord", it lasts forever and is similar to tubes in velocity.

Small or big ammo require similar technique so the BB's aren't a waste of time. You don't linger when either is pulled back, just pull and release. You hold the sling sideways, the tubes or bands line up on one another and elevation is the variable.

There's a ton of good vids out there on bandset making and shooting technique.

There are also a bunch of versatile slings as well, I use a Bill Hays Sniper. When I get more time, I'll try to provide a link.

It's easier to use a sling effectively than a gun but there is some crossover benefit to slingshotting.

I never owned a slingshot. That was probably for the best.

My best friend moved to the D/FW area from KI Sawyer AFB (in the Yupe) in 1975. He and his brother both had wrist rockets and they found their ammo in the form of "Processed taconite ore" balls found next to railroad tracks. Evidently they are about 65% iron, sintered into these little marble like balls for handling and transport.

I always thought that would have been ideal to have an unlimited free ammo source and have your house backed up to a national forest.

Check county ordinance for slingshot use

I had the wrist rocket when I was a kid. I remember seeing a bird on a branch probably 30 yards away so I decide to fire a marble at the bird. The bird never flinched and dropped dead straight off that branch. I don’t know if it was from astonishment from the miraculous shot or the fact that I didn’t really want to kill this bird.

I have hunted many times over the course of my life and for whatever reason that little bird still bothers me. I suppose because it was a waste and no need to do it.

Let me know if you need Taconite pellets. The LS&I tracks are just around the corner.
They turn your ammo pouch red. And your fingers.

Here you go, V-Tail --

Old vid of Bill Hays shooting his target sling that evolves into the Hathcock Sniper --




A lot more to choose from at his site, top quality, a little pricey --

https://pocketpredator.com/


And yeah, start with latex tubes (or solid latex "cord" - recommended) rather than bands which are a fair amount more work to whip up. If this interests you, shoot me an email about sizing, I'd have to dig up info on that.

Get a sling shot, you'll love it!

Scout XT slingshot from SimpleShot. Have several different bands and ammo to include clay balls that disintegrate on contact. But have never learned how to use this accurately.

https://simple-shot.com/products/scout-xt

quote:

Originally posted by tigereye313:
This is what we had as unruly teens:

https://www.amazon.com/Beeman-...ngshot/dp/B000MD68JM

We had gotten pretty darn dangerous with 'em.

I had one of those taken away from me, permanently, when I was 9.......

Ran across this Hays vid, excellent info on design thoughts and a good idea of what he offers, please watch this --