Catapults for huntin small game?

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
Messages
4,453
Is it possible to hunt small game like rabbits, birds and other small animals? I remember reading an article in a huntin magazine that catapults can be quite effective if you can shoot straight.

A catapult is silent, fast and easy to reload. And pebbles are free!

I used to have a fine collection of catapults in my teenage days but these days people are apt to use guns and bows.

What has happened to all those catapult hunters?
 
Sure it's possible. Ball bearings or lead balls work better than rocks, but rocks work too. We used to make them with rubber tubing and try to shoot lead fishing sinkers across the Kanawha River. Never got all the way across, but came close.
 
Oh yes, I forgot. Catapults are called slingshots in America. They are the same thing.

Are slingshots illegal in some parts of America? How strange!

Slingshots are fun. Children play with them all the time in my country. Of course, they don't shoot at windows.
 
LWS-1.jpg


A modern slingshot.
 
I used one on small game for years. Best (read: luckiest) shot was bagging a Dove with a nickel (coin). The bottom line is you need to be close (less than 100 feet) and very accurate. Among the game most frequently gotten with a slingshot were: grey squirrels, quail, duck and rabbit. Body shots don't work even with .50 caliber lead balls. I favored lead shot of 1/4 inch or so.
-carl
 
Originally posted by BruiseLeee
Catapult as in siege engine or are you talking about a slingshot? :confused:
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Bruise-- I was thinking the same thing. Trying hard to imagine someone quietly stalking through the woods dragging a large trebuchet:D

On a more serious note, Golok-- I used to play around with slingshots all the time as a kid. I never hunted with one, but I'd imagine your stalking skills would have to be pretty good to get close enough shoot anything. Many of the Hmong children in my area make slingshots, and they hunt pretty much anything that moves. Not as many squirrels around Chico as there used to be.
--Josh
 
As kids, we used to make our own slingshots from plywood & if I remember correctly, for 0.35 bought the rubber straps with leather pouch attached manufactured by Wham-O at our local sport shop! Started out making our own ammo from clay we dug up from a sream bed & 'rolled' into nice round balls. Let it harden & started shooting! When they 'hit', you saw a little 'puff of smoke'. As we got older, we'd 'steal' some rejected ball bearings from a manufacturer in town & use them. Everything was fun until my friend shot at a sparrow & darn near decapitated the poor thing! We never thought we'd hit anything but after that incident, we 'hung up' the slingshots. Besides that, they stopped selling the rubber straps & pouches & to tell you the truth, I haven't seen a slingshot (except in magazine ads) in the last 30 years! :)
 
I just remembered "borrowing" some of Pa's arrows to shoot from my slingshot. Seemed to work ok. Any one else try this?

Scott
 
I mostly used my several slingshots to shot a everything that would stand still including the garbage can, large rocks, pine cones, etc. Every once in a while I would let loose on an unsuspecting grackle (large blackbird) and acutally hit him. I picked him up and was carrying him home when all of a sudden, and to my utter surprise the grackle woke up and started to try to fly away. I was carrying him by his tail feathers and I think he got away with one maybe two but he did make a hasty escape.
 
I must say "catapult" had me going too!

Slingshots, now that's something man portable. Tomorrow morning I will be taking the Pictlet (11 year old daughter)out for four days/three nights in the wilderness. We will be hunting small game with a modern slingshot like the one pictured. The most abundant game are lizards and small birds. We will also be taking a pellet pistol.

I'll let you know how we did.

Mac
 
I have some trapper friends in Northern Canada who use them very effectively on grouse. Up there grouse will often spook, fly up on a branch, then sit there looking at you. I guess that's enough to get clear of fox, lynx, coyote, etc., but my friends say it's not too difficult to hit them with a slingshot.
 
I guess it would be pretty cool to rig up catapults that would hurl the little critters right into camp, but it would be rather dependant on the exact mass and surface area of the specific participant.
 
As a kid, I had something called a "wrist rocket" that looked exactly like the picture you posted.

I got pretty accurate with it, but found that at any distance over abuot 10 feet the shape of the pebble I was using made a big difference in accuracy (sometimes I could actually see the pebble arc to one side or the other).

So I would suggest either using marbles or ball bearings, or choosing your pebbles carefully.
 
Originally posted by Joel Stave
something called a "wrist rocket" that looked exactly like the picture you posted.
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"Wrist rocket" is the more proper terminology - though it comes from a name-brand (much like "kleenex") - for the picture above.

A sling shot is typically without the wrist brace.

My favorite was a folding version of the wrist-rocket.

By the way, if you are ever out of pebbles, marbles, steel balls, etc. you can always use dog food (provided the pieces are round). I'm not sure how successful a "kill" you could get, but we had plenty fun knocking over bottles, busting light bulbs, and were able to hit with decent accuracy on homemade paper targets from 25 ft.

I once got hit by a dog food pellete from about 75 ft. away (courtesy my younger brother). Boy did that hurt. Right on the knuckle of my left hand - ouch!

The coolest part of the dog food ammo was that if the target was hard enough, the pellet would explode in a cloud of brownish dust. :D

Dan


[edited to add]

Oops! forgot to add that I once carved a slingshot out of a crook in a tree while down in Guatemala. It was a nice hard wood and I carved finger notches into to fit my hand perfectly. I made straps from scrap rubber cords (real rubber - nasty stuff). Then lashed it to the ends with some leather strips. The strips as well as the pouch came from an old boot. The toe lent itself nicely as the pouch and I found that I could shoot just about any shape rock at least 50 yds. I mostly used it to hassle squirrels (who were also hassling me) and for target practice. I never scored a "kill", but then again I wasn't "hunting" either.
 
Originally posted by pendentive
By the way, if you are ever out of pebbles, marbles, steel balls, etc. you can always use dog food (provided the pieces are round).
Click to expand...

That's brilliant! Where was that idea 30 years ago when I could have used it? I wish it had occurred to me -- I probably spent more time looking for good rocks to use than I did actually shooting.
 
Ive had a Barnett Diablo for years now that Ive used for general plinking using marbles and ball bearings. A few years ago a farm hand on a neighbouring farm borrowed it cos they were having problems with intruders trying to break into the barns and he wanted something to 'reach out' as he put it. Anyway he came face to face with one of these guys and shot him in the chest from about thirtyish yards using what he said were truck axle bearings. :eek: He said this guy dropped like a sack of spuds and got carted off in an ambulance. I saw one of these things and it was a huge steel ball bearing about half inch across.
 
I got a Wrist Rocket mail order when I was in the Navy. I think it cost $2.98 back in '68. I used to "hunt" seagulls from the portside catwalk near the #4 wire on the USS Constellation. I never hit one, but it was something to do.
 
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