Equipped To Survive Equipped To Survive® Presents
The Survival Forum
Where do you want to go on ETS?

Page 2 of 2 < 1 2
Topic Options
#76657 - 11/12/06 11:54 PM Re: Slingshots for hunting?
wildman800 Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 11/09/06
Posts: 2846
Loc: La-USA
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!
_________________________
QMC, USCG (Ret)
The best luck is what you make yourself!

Top
#76658 - 11/13/06 12:39 AM Re: Slingshots for hunting?
haertig Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 03/13/05
Posts: 2322
Loc: Colorado
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.

Top
#76659 - 11/13/06 02:00 AM Re: Slingshots for hunting?
Susan Offline
Geezer

Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
You can buy bags of plain glass marbles for use in flower arranging. Check Michael's or similar types of stores.

Top
#76660 - 11/13/06 02:19 AM Re: Slingshots for hunting?
Susan Offline
Geezer

Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
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

Top
#76661 - 11/13/06 03:56 AM Re: Slingshots for hunting? Bolos
Blast Offline
INTERCEPTOR
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 07/15/02
Posts: 3760
Loc: TX
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
_________________________
Foraging Texas
Medicine Man Plant Co.
DrMerriwether on YouTube
Radio Call Sign: KI5BOG
*As an Amazon Influencer, I may earn a sales commission on Amazon links in my posts.

Top
#76662 - 11/13/06 04:20 AM Re: Slingshots for hunting?
OldBaldGuy Offline
Geezer

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 5695
Loc: Former AFB in CA, recouping fr...
Now why didn't my wife, who seems to live in Michael's, tell me about that???

Thanks guys!!!
_________________________
OBG

Top
#76663 - 11/13/06 05:14 AM Re: Slingshots for hunting?
ironraven Offline
Cranky Geek
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 4642
Loc: Vermont
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="" />
_________________________
-IronRaven

When a man dare not speak without malice for fear of giving insult, that is when truth starts to die. Truth is the truest freedom.

Top
#76664 - 11/13/06 06:33 PM Re: Slingshots for hunting?
teacher Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 988
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

Top
#76665 - 11/13/06 07:06 PM Re: Slingshots for hunting? Bolos
haertig Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 03/13/05
Posts: 2322
Loc: Colorado
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.

Top
Page 2 of 2 < 1 2



Moderator:  Alan_Romania, Blast, cliff, Hikin_Jim 
March
Su M Tu W Th F Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Who's Online
0 registered (), 474 Guests and 15 Spiders online.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
GallenR, Jeebo, NicholasMarshall, Yadav, BenFoakes
5367 Registered Users
Newest Posts
Zippo Butane Inserts
by NAro
Today at 11:57 AM
What did you do today to prepare?
by dougwalkabout
03/27/24 11:21 PM
Question about a "Backyard Mutitool"
by Ren
03/17/24 01:00 AM
Problem in my WhatsApp configuration
by Chisel
03/09/24 01:55 PM
New Madrid Seismic Zone
by Jeanette_Isabelle
03/04/24 02:44 PM
EDC Reduction
by EchoingLaugh
03/02/24 04:12 PM
Newest Images
Tiny knife / wrench
Handmade knives
2"x2" Glass Signal Mirror, Retroreflective Mesh
Trade School Tool Kit
My Pocket Kit
Glossary
Test

WARNING & DISCLAIMER: SELECT AND USE OUTDOORS AND SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT, SUPPLIES AND TECHNIQUES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Information posted on this forum is not reviewed for accuracy and may not be reliable, use at your own risk. Please review the full WARNING & DISCLAIMER about information on this site.