When I was 10......

[Tom W.]

I remember reading gun magazines when I could afford one. I lived on a farm just up the hill from my grandfather's farm in Pennsylvania. Dad was in the Marines and was stationed in Camp LeJeune as far as I can remember, he'd come visit when he could. Mom's brothers lived in the area and I spent a lot of time with my cousin.

One day I saw an ad for a slingshot that was made of aluminum, was round, and had a peep sight on it. It also came with a big bag of "disintegrating pellets " that would leave a white or grey mark it you hit a piece of steel or cinder block.

I almost couldn't live until I had one. I saved my money that I made working in the barn until I had enough to buy the thing, gave it to Mom and she ordered it for me.

It came, and had two extra bands as a bonus! I was lucky to hit the broad side of the barn from the inside, but woo hoo! I had to get a bigger hat! I used that thing for years until it cracked at a seam and was no longer functional. Nothing was ever harmed by it, but it sure wasn't because I didn't try. Cheap marbles were my projectile of choice.

When we moved to Nicholson a while later I got a new .22 for Christmas, my first real firearm.
Life was pretty good when I was a kid!

[rl69]

[Thin Man]

My father was an occasional hunter. I always enjoyed the days when we would go out for casual plinking. A friend of mine had a single shot .410 with nickel receiver that I talked about frequently. My 10th birthday present from my father was a Stevens 94C in 20 gauge. I thought it was too big (caliber wise) for me but he explained how I would grow into it and appreciate the larger bore. As usual he was right.

[Rcmaveric]

Lol, when i was 16 i bought my first sling shot. My mom tookme right back to the store to return it. Probably a good thing. She had to confiscate my BB gun

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[redhawk0]

rl69....that's an awesome video. I was pretty fair as a kid with a wrist-rocket...but nothing like this guy.

redhawk

[Wheelguns 1961]

My parents wouldn’t let me get a slingshot or a bb gun. I used to try to make them in my dad’s woodshop. I would use scrap wood and bicycle inner tubes. Never had much success. My best friend’s dad was a hunter, and my friend was allowed to have all the cool stuff. He did share.

[RED BEAR]

I bought my first gun when i was 12 years old. Had to take a note from my mom saying it was ok. Got my first gun when i was 6. Used to make cannons in machine shop in high school until principle found out and made me cut the one i was working . Also had to bring in ones i had made and destroy them. I was crushed.

[xs11jack]

Thank you for the video, very skill-full. Most kids start with a slingshot and graduate to the .22 or a small shotgun and the slingshot is left behind. There would be a lot of kids skill-full with a slingshot if the gun ammo was more expensive growing up. our budget was pretty tight after my dad died when I was 11. Dad gave me a .22 four months before he died but money was tight and sling shots were cheap to make and shoot. Thanks again.
Ole Jack

[bedbugbilly]

Tom - enjoyed your story greatly! The video on the gentleman who is the slingshot "pro" was great as well.

when I was did, about the same age as you were, "Wrist Rockets" came out. IIRC, they were an aluminum frame that had an extension that went back and rested on top of your wrist after you slide you had through - they had really good rubber tubing to propel whatever you wanted - the Cadillac of slingshots! I had friends who had them and I wanted one as well but never got one. I had another style - IIRC it was made out of some sort of white plastic material and you could store BBs in the handle for projectiles. Never as good as the Wrist Rocket though. I worked to get money to buy a Wrist Rocket but other things got in the way that I had to use the money on and my Dad wouldn't help me out . . . his way of teaching e that we can't always have what we want . . a valuable lesson to learn that unfortunately kids aren't taught today. Instead, my Dad cut a couple of lengths of cotton clothesline rope that we had hanging up in the barn and he cut out a piece of inner tube and made me a "sling". I'm guessing he must have had one when he was a kid as as soon as she got it made, we walked out of the barn and he picked up a stone and showed me how to use it by swinging it around my head and then letting loose of one of the ropes and letting the stone fly. He had pointed to a railroad post in the barnyard and tole me to "watch" as he swung it around his head and then let the stone fly. Smack! He hit the railroad tie dead center.s I was so impressed . . . years later, when he was dying and I would sit all night with him, he was still able to talk and I brought the story of the "sling" up and we had a good chuckle over it. He told me it was "beginner's lucK". That homemade "sling" wasn't a Wrist Rocket, but I remember it and my Dad with great fondness as while it was "homemade", the lessons it taught e were "priceless". I never did master the sling . . . but I can't say that I couldn't "hit the broadside of a barn" with it either. I practiced with it for hours in the barnyard, trying to hit the railroad tie like my Dad did . . . instead, my accuracy was never great and usually the stones went where I wasn't even looking and more than once they bounced off the side of the old barn with a "whack".

Sure enjoyed this thread . . . . .

[osteodoc08]

I’m almost 40, but times have changed even since I was 10. I remember going to the local true value store owned by Mr Dobson. He knew my folks and could buy pretty much whatever but was usually a bottle or can of coke and a small pack of copperhead BBs for my one pump BB gun. I’m sure it was a daisy or some other main stream commercial BB gun. I can’t remember how many times we would take the trip up there, my friend and I. Probably 1-2x a week. If we had enough change we would also get a moon pie and split it. On the way home we would shoot at objects of opportunity. Sticks, pine cones, whatever we saw. Nobody ever said anything to us. We didn’t get into drugs or alcohol. We didn’t break in to anything and steal. Gosh how times have changed in 30 years.

[blackthorn]

When I was growing up we made our sling-shots from a forked tree branch and for power we used strips cut from an old tire innertube, with a piece of leather between to hold the projectile. We got pretty good at hitting gophers and bush rabbits, even a few grouse. We also made arrow guns, using the same kind of forked tree branch (only with a wider fork) with a length of stove-pipe wire that was attached to either side (tip) of the fork and then twisted so as to give a "hole" as close to the exact center as possible. Arrows were made from willow shoots (or any other straight stick). The arrow was placed with the tip through the hole and fired as though it was a rock from a regular sling-shot. One of my friends could hit a flying crow 2 out of 10 times. Me?---not so much!

[RED BEAR]

As a kid i never could hit anything with a sling shot. I made guns as a kid. They were crude and looking back dangerous. Used pipe with cap on end for the barrel ground match heads for powder and kinda a match lock with a smoldering wick to set it off. Shot everything from rocks and bb's to my brothers lead balls for his cap and ball. Converted every little toy cannon that i could get to shoot.i have been fascinated with fire arms all my life.

[OldBearHair]

During WW2 nothing was available to buy, so a 10 year old boy living in the country had to "make do" with what was available. I did own a 3 blade knife and with it made whatever kind of "weapon" that I could devise. Things like bamboo spears, bows and arrows, slingshots and slings. Then little airplanes with a rubber band from propeller to the tail. wind up the propeller and launch it in the air. It would fly about ten feet if you had done it right. After I was about 40 years old a kid told me how to use the sling correctly. you do a wind-up as a baseball pitcher does and let the sling go in the direction you wanted. Sometimes you got lucky... Made a slingshot similar to a wrist . rocket and shot .500 inch lead balls. The ball had close to the same trajectory of my Browning Cobra 47# Bow. I killed several critters with it. last time I shot is was at an Armadillo coming toward me standing at the entrance to it's den. As I was ready to take the shot at ten feet, the left surgical rubber broke and hit the right side of my mouth causing excrusiating pain and swelling 'til the lips were wrong side out. I made myself a promise that if ever again I attemped to shoot another slingshot it would have to be shot from the hip. LOL
Recently , Read an article about long ago the shepherds used a staff sling. One side of the sling was tied in a groove near the end of the staff. The other end of the sling had a small loop that fitted over the end of the staff that had a carved nipple like point. As you swung the staff straight over your head the loop would slide off the point and the rock was launched.. This makes the projectile travel much faster, causing the rock to make loud noise. Also uses much bigger rocks. Some sources say this is what David used to slay Goliath. All that I can find is in the Bible , it says David picked up five smooth stones from the creek and put in his pouch and with his staff and sling approached Goliath. One source talked about why five stones and said the
other four stones were for Goliath's four brothers. Maybe someone knows more about this and can post it.

[Traffer]

I made my first firearm when I was 11. I read that a car antenna was the right size for the barrel of a 22. So I cut me off a piece of barrel and cut a vee into a piece of wood ending about 3/4 the way down it with a wood screw into the back of where the vee stopped. I filed off the top of the screw so when I placed the barrel into the vee and held it down with a couple of bent nails, I could put a 22 short in the barrel and slide it up against the screw. The firing pin rode on top behind made from a piece of narrow bolt with a spring around it, I filed the end of the bolt to a firing pin shape. Pull the spring back...bang. One of the weapons I made as a child. Some were when I was younger that were just as lethal.

[RED BEAR]

Could you imagine a kid doing that today they would have swat batfe national guard and social services out.

[woodbutcher]

Hi Traffer.That was called a"Zip Gun".A lot of them were made and used by the street gangs in the 50`s.And the Gentleman with the slingshot was great.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Traffer]

Hi Traffer.That was called a"Zip Gun".A lot of them were made and used by the street gangs in the 50`s.And the Gentleman with the slingshot was great.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

Yup that's where I got the idea. Not in a street gang but reading about it in "The Cross and the Switchblade" ...My older brother was reading the book. It was not recommended to me but I somehow managed to read a section about how the gangs had zip guns. Don't know how much was explained in the book but all I needed to hear was that a car ariel could be used for a barrel. When I was a kid you could find car ariels laying in the street of the small town where I lived. They would break off easily especially in the winter. For a poor kid like me, you saved all that stuff to make things with.
I had already made some very lethal things (that I got into plenty of trouble with) and the idea of making a zip gun had me captivated.
The first one I made I shot off in the garage having it tied to a saw horse, pulling a string. It sent the 22 short slug promptly through the wooden door keyholing to a very nice outline of a bullet. Hah! I went in the house right away and told my dad I was sorry. When I showed him what I was up to he just shook his head and "boy, YOU need to be careful".
When I was 5 my sister was born and there were complications so my mom had to stay in the hospital for a week or two. I stayed with my grandparents out in the country. I took my BB gun (my dad gave me a BB gun when I was 4) By the time I was 5 I was allowed to use it unsupervised. But my grandmother would have nothing of THAT. She allowed me to have the BB gun but no BB's. (It was a plain old lever cock type daisy.) Little did my grandmother know that without ammo I would have to resort to improvising something. And improvise I did! (I have never shared this before because it is so very dangerous and lethal. Read it quick cuz I will be deleting it so nobody decides to do it)
I grew up under the tutilage of a WIZ kid who was 5 years my senior. I was 5 he was 10. (we are talking the mid 50's here) John had a radio station in HIS BEDROOM. He could broadcast about a block and a half. To me he was just short of God himself. John was into the popular doit yourself magazines etc that were popular back then. Always making things and trying new projects. I had a hunger for weaponry. (hey didn't we all want to be the hero cowboys?) John taught me how to make things that no 5 year old kid should know.
Rockets out of match heads. Some were made with tinfoil and 2 match heads that would fly 20 feet. Some were made from empty C02 capsules that would go off like a firecracker and fly hundreds of feet. (I would imagine some here know exactly what I am talking about). But the most lethal was the BLOW GUN, the secret was in the dart.
A cone was formed around a sharpened nail. Formed with paper and tape like a funnel. Then it was cut with a scissors so that it fit tightly into a piece of electrical conduit. If you had the lungs, a 3/4" conduit would make you a blow gun that would be pretty accurate at 20 to 30 feet.
When shot into a pine board it would take some wrestling with a pliers to pull it out. Driving the nail in an inch or so. (It wasn't until I was a little older that I could use a big one like that)
Now back to the BB gun. When grandma would not allow any BB's I went to work making miniature darts that would fit into the barrel of the Daisy. I had good eyes and grandma had a good supply of needles and pins. I would use a normal dress pin and fashion a little funnel end on it and unscrew the barrel placing it in the breech. At 10 feet It would bury the pin in pine! As I recall perhaps an inch and a half penetration into wood. Many of them could not be pulled out with pliers but would just break off. At very close range it could have penetrated a skull I figure.
My grandma caught me shooting it and went wild. She called my dad right there and he made the trip out there right away.
He was good about it. Giving me the benefit of the doubt. Thinking my grandma (his mother in law) was just hysterical, he asked me to show him what I was up to. When I showed him by shooting it into the casing of the garage door he turned white. He said "boy, you could kill someone with that!." I never made another dart for a BB gun after that. Now my sister is still 5 years younger than me so I know I was 5 years old when I did that. There are more of these stories. Perhaps something will prompt me to tell some more someday.

[Tom W.]

When we moved back to Camp LeJeune dad came home one day with some 5 feet long pieces of conduit with a collar on one end that had a screw in it. As he was an instructor in land mine warfare and a demolition expert as well as teaching Marines about improvised weapons that they would encounter in Vietnam, he had what appeared to be stainless steel pins about six inches long with some sort of plastic on the end. I just guessed that they were something to stick into C-4 to help detonate it.
Anyway, dad had some cotton balls that he impaled in the pins and stuck them into the conduit and said those famous words " Watch this!" He proceeded to pin a little bird that was in the yard to the ground. I got to play with the pins for a while and then Dad hid them from me. I did, however, know how to split and sharpen bamboo, so I promptly went across the highway and harvested a few stalks. I split, sharpened, and notched the end so it would retain the cotton. A good hard puff would stick that piece of bamboo into a pine quite well......

[woodbutcher]

"Cross and the switchblade".Yep,read that one when I was in the 7th grade.
By the way.A small block Chevy push rod makes a good zip gun bbl too.Have also seen them used to repair a messed up .22rf chamber.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[RED BEAR]

I had a cousin that lived way out in the woods. When we were kids we could come up with some pretty dangerous stuff. Took old 8 mm film cans and fuses for fake cherry bombs from dime store. Filled the cans with match heads hole in top of can glued fuse. Compressed can together in a vice taped it shut with electrical tape coated whole thing in glue and bb's let dry and repeat until you had something resembling a base ball . Blew the roof clean off an old abandoned car in the woods. It's probably a miracle we made it to adulthood. Back then even if caught nothing would happen police wise now what happened when you got home was a nother matter.