JeepHammer
SHOOTER
As a kid I ran around with a grandpa made wooden slingshot hanging out of my hip pocket.
(That will get you blamed for every broken window in the county!)
As a young teen, I got the Daisy & Marksman versions of 'Wrist Rockets', an arm brace and surgical tubing bands.
We actually got pretty good with them, shooting rats at the dump, shooting glass bottles floating in the river, etc.
I can't remember being without a slingshot of some type or another, it's just something that's fun for me, launching pebbles while waiting for the wife to finally get ready to go, I just step outside a shoot a little while.
As age gets the best of me, I find it keeps my hands & wrists strong, and on this side of 50, keeping muscle/strength is harder to do...
So, a younger friend of mine pops in to show me his 'Survival' (nearly $250!) 'Sling Bow'...
(For people like me, that's a sling shot that will shoot an arrow and has a TAC rail so you can mount a laser)
He's bragging that it will shoot BOTH steel balls & arrows.
The arrows are carbon fiber or something, and cost about $20 each.
I reached into the slingshot box and pulled out a wooden frame that had a coat hanger loop to hold the arrow, vintage homemade circa 1972.
Then I pulled out the $15 Marksman wrist rocket with a 'Whisker Biscut' arrow rest off a bow mounted between the arms.
Then I showed him the fiberglass driveway markers ($2) with reflectors removed, and the plain old dime store arrows I've been using since Carter was in office...
I don't have a TAC rail, no laser sighting, no skull & crossbones cast into the body and I don't need 3 surgical tubes since I use spear gun tubing on mine, it's cheap, it lasts longer, and it doesn't degrade like plain laytex tubing does, some of my tubes are 10 or more years old...
I've busted hundreds of squirrels & cotton tails, more than a few birds that get I to the shop, and it's my version of 'Physical Therapy' instead of stretching rubber bands.
I have a cousin that killed at least two deer with the same rig using a broad head arrow.
What goes around comes around again...
I wasn't aware this was a 'Thing' in the first place, and I had no idea it had come around again, but there are dozens of YouTube videos of people making & using these things.
I don't see any of them just popping rocks or fence posts to keep in practice, they all seem so serious
It's hard to take a 'Survivalist' serious when they are holding the 'Latest-Greatest' that Huck Finn carried around and every country kind had when I was that age...
Like seeing someone trying to sell a soda straw and 'Death Bomb' peas for their brand of pea shooter!
Is it practical? YES! Ever since Mark Twain's day...
Is it effective? YES, that's why it's survived at least 150 years.
It's it affordable? YES! You can still make one from a tree branch fork & a rubber band.
Do you NEED to spend $200? Only if you want the 'Tacti-Cool' version, the $20 Wally-World version still works great.
My 'Ammo' is picking the pea gravel out of the driveway, or if I'm REALLY going high-tech, I get some round balls for my muzzle loader.
'Specialized' ammo includes rubber balls to break up dog fights and smack birds indoors so it doesn't damage the building...
I can recommend a slingshot for anyone with two arms/hands, builds eye/hand coordination, builds wrist & hand strength, improves 'Reflex' shooting skills, and generally is fun to do so you don't get bored...
(That will get you blamed for every broken window in the county!)
As a young teen, I got the Daisy & Marksman versions of 'Wrist Rockets', an arm brace and surgical tubing bands.
We actually got pretty good with them, shooting rats at the dump, shooting glass bottles floating in the river, etc.
I can't remember being without a slingshot of some type or another, it's just something that's fun for me, launching pebbles while waiting for the wife to finally get ready to go, I just step outside a shoot a little while.
As age gets the best of me, I find it keeps my hands & wrists strong, and on this side of 50, keeping muscle/strength is harder to do...
So, a younger friend of mine pops in to show me his 'Survival' (nearly $250!) 'Sling Bow'...
(For people like me, that's a sling shot that will shoot an arrow and has a TAC rail so you can mount a laser)
He's bragging that it will shoot BOTH steel balls & arrows.
The arrows are carbon fiber or something, and cost about $20 each.
I reached into the slingshot box and pulled out a wooden frame that had a coat hanger loop to hold the arrow, vintage homemade circa 1972.
Then I pulled out the $15 Marksman wrist rocket with a 'Whisker Biscut' arrow rest off a bow mounted between the arms.
Then I showed him the fiberglass driveway markers ($2) with reflectors removed, and the plain old dime store arrows I've been using since Carter was in office...
I don't have a TAC rail, no laser sighting, no skull & crossbones cast into the body and I don't need 3 surgical tubes since I use spear gun tubing on mine, it's cheap, it lasts longer, and it doesn't degrade like plain laytex tubing does, some of my tubes are 10 or more years old...
I've busted hundreds of squirrels & cotton tails, more than a few birds that get I to the shop, and it's my version of 'Physical Therapy' instead of stretching rubber bands.
I have a cousin that killed at least two deer with the same rig using a broad head arrow.
What goes around comes around again...
I wasn't aware this was a 'Thing' in the first place, and I had no idea it had come around again, but there are dozens of YouTube videos of people making & using these things.
I don't see any of them just popping rocks or fence posts to keep in practice, they all seem so serious
It's hard to take a 'Survivalist' serious when they are holding the 'Latest-Greatest' that Huck Finn carried around and every country kind had when I was that age...
Like seeing someone trying to sell a soda straw and 'Death Bomb' peas for their brand of pea shooter!
Is it practical? YES! Ever since Mark Twain's day...
Is it effective? YES, that's why it's survived at least 150 years.
It's it affordable? YES! You can still make one from a tree branch fork & a rubber band.
Do you NEED to spend $200? Only if you want the 'Tacti-Cool' version, the $20 Wally-World version still works great.
My 'Ammo' is picking the pea gravel out of the driveway, or if I'm REALLY going high-tech, I get some round balls for my muzzle loader.
'Specialized' ammo includes rubber balls to break up dog fights and smack birds indoors so it doesn't damage the building...
I can recommend a slingshot for anyone with two arms/hands, builds eye/hand coordination, builds wrist & hand strength, improves 'Reflex' shooting skills, and generally is fun to do so you don't get bored...
