I was outside today, playing with my slingshot, just shooting at a handy tree stump, when I got to wondering: Has anyone actually tried to use a slingshot against small game, like rabbits or squirrel? is it actually effective, or just a waste of space? The slingshot is attractive in that you could just pack the band/pouch and fashion a frame later, if need be. But, is it really worth it? And, speaking of small game, does anyone have any clever and tasty ways of fixing dinner? Thanks everybody.

-Kyle

Yes a slingshot can be used on small game, you may not kill it out right but you will at least stun it long enough that you can finish it off with your knife or a club. As for just packing the pouch and band unless you are a skilled wood worker take the frame too. They are light and take up little space and if you run out of the steel shot you can use rocks as ammo. The down side of slingshots is that they take time to get good at them and the range, but like all things if you work at it your aim will improve

In my younger days I took the occasional rabbit and squirrel with my trusty old Whammo wooden slingshot. I still play around with a slingshot, but have upgraded to a WristRocket. I haven't shot at anything alive in years, but can hit cans often enough to have a pretty good chance if needed, as long as I can get in range. Do not plan on using rocks as ammo, unless you can find real round rocks. Most rocks are not areodynamic enough to fly straight. Marbles work really well as ammo, if you can find them in todays world...

I have gotten some rabbits & birds with a slingshot (while skipping school in the 70's) & we roasted them on a spit over an open fire. Another easy weapon to make is a sling. Two lengths of cord & a small piece of leather. It takes a lot of practice to master & I never did get good enough to hit a rabbit but I have bounced some dirt clods off of my friends at times.

By the bagful, at the dollar store...

Good to know. Will a body shot be enough to stun a rabbit, or is it worth the extra effort to try to sneak closer for a head shot? Obviosly, closer is better anyway, since you'd get more power, but the closer you are, the more likely the rabbit is to bolt. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess, since I don't have any experience with it, but I'd venture to say that even if you don't stun your target, it's small enough you'd probably hurt it badly enough to slow it down enough to knock it over the head with a big ol' stick, right?

I like the sound of a sling. That's an idea I've heard of, but never really applied to this kind of situation. Do you have any advice on how to make one, or perhaps more pertinently use one? It seems like the two lines would just twist around each other rendering it useless, but I'm clearly missing something. There has to be a way of holding it to keep that from happening while keeping the ammo in the pouch, because the sling is a really, really old weapon. So I know it works, I just don't know how to make it work! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
-Kyle

That kind of weapon is called a Throwing Sling, rather than a slingshot.

Here is a site on them: http://www.slinging.org/7.html

Sue

I've looked all over dollar and toy stores in Alaska and Washington, haven't seen a marble yet. I assumed that todays kids are too high tech for marbles...

Marbles can be had by the 1000's at hobby/craft shops like Hobby Lobby/Mardel/Michael's/Etc. They are glass and very inexpensive. Also try Walmart in the craft/sewing section. Happy hunting!!!!!!!!

The long cord is about 3' long & wraps around your hand. the short cord is about 2 1/2' long and the end is held between the thumb & fore finger. You have to be careful as you sling it around, but practice makes perfect!

Another old hunting tool that sounds interesting to me is the bolo (I think that's what it's called). Never tried one personally. Tie a rock to the end of each of three strings. Then tie the other ends of the strings together. So when laid out, it looks like a three-legged star with rocks on the end.

I believe the use is to grab the middle knot where the strings come together. Spin it around your head, and let it go to wrap around and tangle the legs of your prey. Then run over and bash your prey in the head while it's trying to get it's legs free. Sounds pretty brutal in operation, but it might be simpler for a new user to be "accurate enough" to entangle something, rather than having to hit it dead on with a slingshot or throwing sling.

I remember thinking about one of these things back when the Y2K (non)event was coming up. At that time of year we are usually treated to so many migrating geese that you can't walk through the park without doing a line dance trying to avoid all the poop. I figured I might be able to snag a goose dinner with one of those bolo things. You could walk up pretty close to those geese. But alas, all the lights stayed on, so my Neandthal-style goose hunting plans never came to be.

You can buy bags of plain glass marbles for use in flower arranging. Check Michael's or similar types of stores.

Here is a photo of a traditional bola:
http://www.flight-toys.com/bola/bola_argentina10.html

And here is another site with some photos. Note that #7 is used to throw into a flock of birds: http://www.primitiveweapons.com/products/bola.html

The only bola I used as a kid (no idea where it came from) was of leather thongs with three hard rubber balls. Fortunately... since I hit myself in the head with them rather frequently.

And I also don't remember who told me how to throw it, or even if it was correct, but I was told by someone to have two of the balls spinning in one direction, and the third one going in the opposite direction. Mine was only four feet or so, from ball to ball. Funny... I just remembered that I was yelled at for practicing on the dog, but not on my sisters.

Sue

Here is a picture of my bolo:

The thick gray bar along one leg is a yard stick for scale.

I used to use it on grampa's farm to capture wayward calfs. It is made of two billard balls and a slightly smaller, solid, heavy plastic ball all of which are encased in leather. The two larger balls (brown leather) are fastened at either end of an 80-inch rope and the smaller ball (grey leather) is tied to the center of the "big ball" rope using a peice of rope aboout 15 inches long. All the rope is approximately the size/thickness of paracord.

To use, hold the smaller ball in your throwing hand and twirl the rest of the bolo around your head 2-3 times to build some momentum, then throw the smaller ball at your target just like throwing a baseball. Time the release of your throw so that the larger balls will fly towards your target when you throw the smaller ball. The goal is to impact the beast's leg with one cord of the bolo. Momentum will wrap the rest of the bolo around the beast's legs. It's neat to watch as due to conservastion of momentum the bolo wraps faster and faster as the cords shorten. It takes suprisingly little practice.

A note on the twirling: don't try and swing the balls around as fast as possible. You actually want to do it slow-to-medium, especially while first praciticing. If you swing them too fast you'll have no control. The smaller ball is supposed to be about 4/5ths as large as the larger balls but I don't remember why anymore. I think the differing sizes help the bolo open up in flight.

There was some concern at first that it'd cause the calf to break a leg but that never happened. I do not know if I just always got lucky or if calves' legs are really strong. Having been kicked by a few I'm leaning towards the super-strong theory.

-Blast

Now why didn't my wife, who seems to live in Michael's, tell me about that???

Thanks guys!!!

Can a slingshot work? Yes. But how many hits kill or stun the animal so it can be eatten, vs the number that aren't even close? I'm not sure if it would be worth the time spent scrounging rough ammunition, or the weight carrying good ammunition (I use pistol balls or buckshot in my slingshot) with that in mind.

I would say that the arrow firing adaptors are a bad joke, aimed at the guys who buy blowguns out of catalogs. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

do wear eye protection, as they can shatter
and the rubber parts of your wrist rocket can ( and will ) snap.

but you knew that, right?

Teacher

Billard balls? Man, you could do some damage to yourself with those while practicing! Especially if you took these comments literally, "twirl the rest of the bolo around your head 2-3 times..." I'm sure technically you mean OVER your head, not AROUND it! <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Billard balls + "around" taken literally = Darwin Award candidate.