Looking for a Super Slingshot

Hankins said:
Looking for a Super Slingshot...
Well that may be a bit of an overstatement.
Some years ago there was a company who made a Compound Slingshot. It was made like a Compound Bow but it was a slingshot. Had a standard pouch which was removable and coud be replaced with a straight piece capable of launching small arrows. The arrows had a notch todards the tip that was hooked on the band and was drawn back by holding the end of the arrow.
Looked way cool and seemed to be very usable.
Could never afford one back then and now that I finally can I can't find one anywhere.
Click to expand...

I recall some wristbrace slingshots that could fire hooked bolts. They did not have anything in common with a compound bow.

One thing I've always wanted was a crossbow style "hunting catapult." It was briefly discussed in the first edition of Exotic Weapons by John Minnery. Actually had a wooden rifle stock and a trigger. :thumbup:

Wrist brace adds a lot of power and stability. You can shoot all sorts of nasty things from slingshots.
 
When I was a kid, and even a little older, "Barnett" were the go to guys for catapults and crossbows.

http://www.barnettcrossbows.com/

There seems to be a lot more and better stuff out there now a days, still worth a look though.......

:):thumbup:
 
"Wrist Rocket"-type wrist-brace slingshots have two big advantages... The stress is taken from the holding hand and they also eliminate the danger of whacking your thumb.... Downside is they are bulky... I have a folding model.

The limiting factor for power with all slingshots is the limitations of the "pinch" grip, which is why North American Indians were rather limited in their archery.... They never developed the "three fingered" grip.
One could, I imagine, develop a "release" device for the slingshot...
We got some solicitations on another forum from a Chinese gentleman who was selling Chinese-made pistol slingshots. I suppose these might be better labeled catapults. The projectile is held between two roller "jaws".
Here's the thread from Slinging.org:
http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1274582464/0

I read a very detailed book on such "human-powered" weapons a couple of years ago, the guy went into much greater detail than most would care to read....
He found by testing that a slingshot was best drawn and released immediately. If held back for more than a couple of seconds, the hysteresis in the rubber actually made the velocity drop. Essentially, the rubber "got used" to being stretched.
Also, he found there was absolutely no industry standards for latex bands or tubing; even in the same lot there would be wild variations in strength, thickness, etc.
I notice many slingshot makers are now using proprietary tubing which is custom made for them.
 
Neat thread. I don't think I've read a slingshot thread in a long time.

I used to have one of the wrist rocket types with tubing. I never hunted with it but accuracy was pretty remarkable if you practiced enough. Accuracy definately was better if you didn't spend too much time aiming so you had to develop a knack for bringing it up, pulling and releasing all in one smooth motion.
 
mwerner said:
The limiting factor for power with all slingshots is the limitations of the "pinch" grip, which is why North American Indians were rather limited in their archery.... They never developed the "three fingered" grip.
Click to expand...

That's still a common misunderstanding. American Indians mostly used a grip with thumb and forefinger pinching the arrow to hold it in place and drawing back the string with the other three fingers. (Sometimes the little finger is not used.) It takes practice to achieve a clean release but you can draw just as heavy a bow with that draw as with the English three-finger draw or the Asian thumb draw.

The different nations in America used bows of greatly varying power and quality, at least by the time people started collecting them and writing written descriptions. Some were weak and crude, but some used by the Plains Indians were better than any bows the Old World ever produced (full working recurve composite bows using a waterproof fish glue. The Old World never developed a waterproof glue for composite bows.)
 
I've read all five volumes of The Traditional Bowyer's Bible as well. As noted, lots of difference in the many nations of Amerind peoples.
Eastern woodland tribes had a variety of good bow woods, and made bows not dissimilar to European longbows.
Plains tribes did not, and compensated with extensive use of sinew. Their bows tended to be short as well, for shooting from horseback.
Difficult to use the three-fingered grip on a very short bow due to string angle...
Which is why Eastern folks almost invariably used thumb-rings.

I must say in all the illustrations of Indian archery equipment in the "bible" series and other books, I've never seen any use of highly-advanced bows by plains Indians.
Nothing to rival the horn-sinew-wood composites of various Eastern peoples. (Turks, Mongols, etc.)
Most were fairly simple sinew-backed items made from whatever woods were available.
Likewise arrows were relatively crude by most standards.
 
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