You guys are actually sighting through the center of the slingshot frame ... a lot like archers do with a bow and arrow? I'm guessing then that you use a good pair of impact goggles on your face while shooting. Otherwise there is risk to your eyes if one of the bands breaks.

The Carolina slingshot guy doesn't even sight this way ... he is somehow able to judge his shots - while not looking thru the slingshot itself. I guess this is just due to a tremendous amount of experience :-)

Pete2

Shooting accurately does take some practice, but it is not as difficult as some here are saying. Step number one: It you are not shooting accurately, it is your technique 99% of the time. This is one sport where high end equipment does not make you better.

Come over to http://slingshotforum.com and visit and learn from many excellent shooters there.

Thanks. Sounds like i will have to make the visit. :-)

Pete2

[/quote]

My only caveat is it takes a fair amount of strength to hold onto the pouch without a "bulge" to slip your fingers around. [/quote]

Very true, but it iooks like these guys found a solution to that problem. They rigged up a loop to hook a standard release onto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cHMYRJzzI

Pardon my doubting ways. There is no better evidence than meat in the pot.

I assume you are using steel shot and not pebbles out of the local streambed?

While slingshots are a relatively modern invention, slings are not. They've been used as weapons, quite effectively, all over the world for thousands of years. Even King Tut had slings buried with him in his tomb.

Now I won't argue that slingshots aren't great, as they are. However, they're not something that can be easily made with items typically found in nature. That means, you have to plan to have one on you when you need it and hope it doesn't fail on you. Personally, if I'm going to the trouble of carrying a weapon with me, I'm going to carry something that packs a bit more punch anyway (like a rifle, handgun, modern bow, ect).

Now a true sling (shepherd's sling) is something that could definitely be made with items found in nature and aren't horribly complicated. Besides the sling, you've got other primitive weapons like the throwing stick, atlatl/dart, or simple bow/arrow.

With that in mind, if you've never used a sling (or atlatl), try making one and giving it a whirl (though, do be careful). It's a fun way to learn a great lost skill that heavily contributed to the survival of our ancestors. As an added benefit, you never know when it might come in handy for your survival.

I do carry about 12 - 6mm steel balls with me, weighing in at about 1 1/2 ounce. One of the gifts of the glaciers here in MN is the deep and common deposits of smooth gravel. Appropriately sized round-ish pebbles can be surprisingly accurate due to the 'golf ball effect'.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that anyone depend on a slingshot as their primary survival tool. I am a big fan of the .22 and if I'm not carrying a shotgun, that's what I usually have with me. That said, there are places and times, such as big state parks and public hiking trails, where any firearm would be problematic, so I have my slingshot.

The little one weighs only 4 oz, and the balls weigh 1 oz for 8. If a person is gram-conscious, they could just carry a replacement power band and a couple of rubber bands to make a slingshot from a tree branch with the knife and saw on their Wave.

Some past postings here recount an incident where coyotes got bold along a public hiking trail, and killed a female hiker. If she had been able to deploy a slingshot with a marble-sized pebble at 10 yards, that coyote would have run howling into the woods.

All this rationalization aside, my wife has diagnosed that I never really grew up all the way. My latest quarry was ice formations along a partially frozen creek in the backwoods last weekend.

I love my slingshot. I don't practice often but I do use manufactured slingshot pellets when I do. I also carry it occassionally/fairly often when I hike.

After reading the responses, I now think I should have named the post " Slingshot....a low-tech survival skill? They really aren't primitive at all.

Apparently the ethnic Kachin rebels in Myanmar carry slingshots in addition to their AKs:



From: www.hydroworld.com/index/display/news_display.1586689741.html