Slingshots

[Clarifixer]

I just started getting interested a few days ago and have spent waaaaaaay too much time on-line delving into the world. Of course is it as multi-faceted as any hobby--vintage collectors, hunters, makers of of frames from primitive sticks to exotic materials, band makers of many styles, etc. Fascinating!

There are many fine craftsmen making them--one that caught my eye is at http://flippinoutslingshots.com/ Gorgeous. I'm just plinking now with a Sauders Falcon-2, but a nicer one is surely on the want list.

[Toxic515]

this makes me ssad... LOL. Over the 4th of July weekend (the weekend before) I took some surgical bands (the kind they use for starting an IV) and an old leather purse (for pouches) with us to my brother in law's house. Taught all the nieces and nephews to make their own slingshots from found wood. We had a great time, and the kids were active and engaged for several hours, scouting for better branches, lots of pebbles, and more empty cans and (plastic) bottles to shoot at. Now some of their mothers weren't super happy when I reminded each of them to get their pea-shooter as they were getting ready to go home!

Slingshots = great fun!

[nannahill]

Yes - good times. We'd make them with jelly rubber (same stuff on our spear guns). WalMart sells them too. I'll see if I can dig out a picture.

[Clarifixer]

^^ Fun?? You bet!

Our extended family is renting a house in upper Michigan during the first week of August, so I've been doing a production line of clay balls for slingshot use. I read about it somewhere on-line--they burst on impact, leaving a mark so that you know where you hit, and the residue just turns to dust.

They are pretty light, though. I have an accurate scale and made them 4.0 grams wet (a little over .5 inch diameter) and they are drying to 3.6 grams. That's a little under 55.5 grains, so they will get tossed around a little in a cross wind. Who cares--it's just for fun, and everybody has the same conditions.

I'll bet everybody will want to do some plinking--my wife already said she would--so I'd better make a bunch since there will be 12 people there. These are not shooting sports folks, so we'll have a safety meeting before and some extra safety glasses available. I foresee some heated tournaments and lots of laughter.

[Argonaut]

Not recommending it for your family getaway, but we used to have slingshot dirtclod wars when I was a kid, headshots counted extra.

[Clarifixer]

^^Amazing we survived reasonably intact, eh? When I think back to those days.......

[Robert45]

Sixty years ago we would make a slingshot out of a forked tree branch and a bike inner tube. More than once I can remember driving a rock that I was going to shoot into the back of my hand that was holding the handle! Sure made one twitchy on the next try!

[Obiwan]

Just stumbled accross this thread. Reminds me of my youth. I loved my slingshots. Of course, now I want another one.