My Slingshot and Accessories

Its about time I do a post on my slingshot, as I have had it for about a year now.  I also recently refined my ammo carry system for the slingshot, and I felt like sharing it.

Here is a picture of my slingshot:

It is a modified "Pocket Poacher" made by John Webb of Game Keeper Catapults of the UK.  It is made of 18mm birch plywood, has a home made  bandset (more on that later) and one of John's standard pouches (no centre hole).

When I got the slingshot, I found that certain parts of the fork were uncomfortable in my hand.  I used a sanding block and 80 grit sandpaper to reshape it in some areas, particularly around the points on the arms of the forks.  I did not re-varnish the areas I worked on, as I get a better grip on the fork by leaving it unfinished there.

Now on to the bandset.  I use double Theraband Gold, cut from 30mm to 17.5mm.  I find this amount of taper gives me a good balance between speed, draw weight, and band life.  To attach the bands to the fork and pouch I use strips of Theraband, cut from my broken bandsets.  To secure the strips I use a simple half hitch.  This gives the rubber great holding power, but also allows me to remove it without hacking up the strip.

When I attach my bands, I purposely leave a tag end at the fork.

See how the bands stick way down on the fork?  There's a reason for that.

This allows me to get better band life.  Because the bands are tapered, they tend to break at the pouch where they are thinnest.  When this type of break happens, I can simply undo the wraps and slide everything down.  This lets me maintain the same active band length (15cm for my 73cm draw) and lets me use the same bandset several times longer than if they were trimmed neatly.  Enough about the bands though, on to the ammo!

I have shot a variety of ammo with my slingshot, here is a quick list:
Grapes
Paintballs
Rocks
9.5mm Steel Balls (50 grains)
14.3mm Steel Balls (184 grains)
Hex Nuts (70 grains)
Hex Nuts (245 grains)
3/4 Ounce Egg Sinker (330 grains)
1/2 Ounce Egg Sinker (220 grains)
1/4 Ounce Egg Sinker (110 grains)

I currently prefer the 14.3mm Steel Balls, as they are heavy enough to hunt with, easier to grip than the smaller balls and nuts, and relatively inexpensive.  The slingshot is slightly quieter with the large hex nuts, but the trajectory and ballistics seem to favour the steel balls.

The 1/2 ounce lead sinkers are quite nice as well, and I would happily hunt with them.  I don't have the equipment to cast them though, and can't buy them cheaply enough.  Lead is also less re usable for target shooting because it deforms easily and needs to be re cast.  I suspect I will eventually transition to lead ammo because its better for hunting (greater density) but for now I will use the steel balls I have.

Now on to the carry systems, where I will show off a variety of pouches:

My field pouch

This hand knit camo pouch is made from synthetic fibres, and is secured shut with a cord lock.  I carry it in my pack usually, but it can fit in a pocket fairly easily (its a little heavy for pocket carry).  When I put this pouch together, I had field repairs and emergency food gathering use in mind.  As such I have stuffed it with:

30 14.3mm Steel Balls for hunting with.
5 Bands, enough to fully replace the 4 currently on my slingshot, as well as an extra.
Spare pouch, in case I break the current one
Theraband strips, for repairing the bandset.
Dacron cordage loop, for making a half hitch with the rubber strips.

Here is what that all looks like:

3 of the 14.3mm Steel Balls and the pouch.

Rubber strips for tying bandsets together.

A spare pouch and a loop of dacron cordage.

The all important spare bands.  Note the taper to them.

Here is my orange pouch, which I use for Every Day Carry.  It is a nylon fabric bag with a cord lock and shock cord to secure it shut.

As you can see, the shock cord keeps the pouch rolled up nice and tight, making for a very compact package.  Rolling up the pouch also serves to silence the noise created by steel balls bouncing against each other.

Inside this pouch I have:

10 14.3mm Steel Balls
2 245 grain Hex Nuts

This orange pouch can hold the slingshot along with field pouch and its supplies. Having this capability is very nice if you want to pack away all your shooting stuff in one bag.

Overall I have been very happy with my slingshot, I carry it almost everywhere with me.  I was even allowed to use it in class for a game once!  The teacher obviously didn't know how powerful modern slingshots set up for hunting could be.  In my time with the slingshot I have only shot at two animals.

The first was a bird that had hit our window and couldn't fly, I put it out of its misery with a 14.3mm Steel ball.  The shot almost took it head clean off.  The bird was by far the best fowl I have ever eaten, it had beautiful dark breast meat.

The second animal I took a shot at was a groundhog.    I know, this is a big animal for a slingshot.  In my defence, I was about 10 feet away and going for a head shot.  Unfortunately I was quite nervous at the time of the shot and held my slingshot drawn for too long, (one of my favourite shooting mistakes).  This error caused me to hit it a little back from where I wanted to.  The groundhog ran off with what I assume was a sore shoulder.  The next day I saw it back in the exact same spot where I took the shot the day before, just munching away like nothing had happened to it.  Groundhogs are tough.  Not too long after this my neighbour asked me dispose of the groundhog, as it was destroying his garden.  I did this promptly, but used a 50# longbow with a 2 blade zwickey broadhead on a 550 grain arrow this time around.  When I was cleaning it I checked for signs of damage from the slingshot.  I found none.

From these experiences I took away several things:  First, do not shoot groundhogs or other large and tough critters with a slingshot, (slingbows are okay though).  Stick too smaller game like rabbits, squirrels, grouse, and maybe waterfowl if you can get a clean head shot.  Second, learn what your shooting mistakes are and avoid them like death.  I shoot instinctively which means that I need to be in the correct mindset before I even raise my arm, it also means that I need to shoot fairly quickly or I will miss.  Lastly, I learned that wild fowl tastes a million times better than mass produced domestic chicken.