Kids ar heart... (?) FIRESTORM OF CONTROVERSY!

[Old Ironsights]

What is your favorite Round Ball diameter for your slingshot (I know you have one) and why?

http://www.guzer.com/videos/the-slingshot-man.php

I'm torn between .36 and .440... (I'm 2" accurate at 20ft with one layer of carpet penetration...)

.490 seems a bit heavy (bounces off the carpet...)

I'm liking this slingshot BTW...
http://www.slingshotsusa.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_215&products_id=1148

[Bret4207]

I used to be able to hit a red squirrel in the head and kill it with a 45 cal rb out of my Wrist Rocket. I think those days are long gone along with my vision. 54 cal was way to heavy, 36 too small.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
I do not have a Small RB mold here so I use fired 357446 (162 swc) cut in half. I mainly use my Wrist Rocket to move cats of our back wall when they decide to start a sing along at midnight.
Mike

[badgeredd]

OI,
Did you see the slingshot rifle? Too darn cool for words. Here's a link of it in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0hhF91mrsc

Edd

[Old Ironsights]

Shhh... I got mine from a couple of Mobsters from Bedrock who were looking for a Mr Flinstone...

[snaggdit]

Neat rifle! I immediately started thinking about how to build one...

[Old Ironsights]

I used to be able to hit a red squirrel in the head and kill it with a 45 cal rb out of my Wrist Rocket. I think those days are long gone along with my vision. 54 cal was way to heavy, 36 too small.

THat's what I find odd... (and why I need to get some .36 balls)

The most "standard" steel ammo is 3/8"... .375 ... and weighs less than Alloy .360 would.

I'd like a bit more velocity/range than I get out of a .440

[zampilot]

I knew I got into casting as a calling, the venerable WristRocket, ahh yes, about a .40 to .45 cal Taconite Pellet scrounged from the tracks kept me well supplied with ammo in the teen years. Glad you mentioned it, another worthy item to cast!:castmine:

[uncledeck]

At 11 long paces a 440 RB out of a wrist rocket will completely penetrate a Jack Wabbit (that was 35 or so years ago).

Just yesterday I caught my 10 year old looking through my RB molds trying to decide which would be best for his wrist rocket. That kid is showing some promise.

[Pepe Ray]

A great way to salvage the zinc contaminated alloy that occasionally crops up.

[FN in MT]

Way back when I was a kid....the late 1950's...my Uncles had a Shell gas station and garage. My cousin Eddie and I used to get our ammo by prying/breaking apart the old wheel bearings. This was our LONG RANGE ammo.

We also used what was called "pea gravel" readily available in south Jersey. Pea gravel was mostly quartz, and quite round, but fairly light. Useful only for our short range slingshots.

Our aunt was a Nurse and she brought us some surgical rubber tubing. We used the 1/4" tubing for our everyday slingshots. Our short range models made from a piece of Y shaped hardwood.

Once she brought us several feet of 1/2" tubing and an idea was born. We found some 1/2" rebar, and made ourselves a SUPER slingshot adapted to the 1/2" tubing. We would take the SUPER out to my backyard and stick the 2' long handle down into one of the 2" pipes used for a chain link fence. Then by simply walking backwards a skinny ten year old could pull the 1/2" tubing back to a magnum powered length....... launching even TRUCK wheel bearings a DANGEROUS distance.

We got pretty good at launching the big 5/8" and 3/4" diameter balls the 200 yds out to Route 1. We could hit semi trailers with alarming regularity. They would make a LOUD clang sending the two of us fleeing for fear that the trucker would stop along Rte 1 and somehow catch us. Never happened.

One day my Dad saw us in full offensive mode and he was amazed how easily we were hitting semi trailers. Needless to say THAT was the END of the Super slingshot.

FWIW... Both myself and my Cousin Eddie became career Police Officers, serving 32 years each before retiring! Amazing aint it??

FN in MT

[snaggdit]

I blew out a passing car's rear passenger window when I was 10 with an old Daisy BB gun. The car screeched to a halt, person got out to look, then finally went on. I was scared for a month they would find the BB in the back seat and come arrest me. That was my last time shooting at cars, or anything other than a target (or small game) from then on....

[Vly]

I used to be able to hit a red squirrel in the head and kill it with a 45 cal rb out of my Wrist Rocket. I think those days are long gone along with my vision. 54 cal was way to heavy, 36 too small.


I had many good times with my Wrist Rocket. I wonder whatever happened to that thing - likely my mother threw it out.

The kids in the neighborhood would have "wars" using acorns as ammo. I remember they raised a pretty good welt.

You know the Wrist Rocket was a good time when our political masters in Albany declared them illegal. :mad:

[clodhopper]

The .375 round ball is my favorite. My FIL gave me a lyman DC mould about 25 years ago and neither of us has wanted for wrist rocket ammo since.
Tried .570, it was slow, short range and when one rolled out of the patch and hit the web of my hand on release I quit useing them.
The .375 snuggles in the patch, hit's with athority and has good range.

[Boerrancher]

I remember the days of my youth when my cousin and I would cruse our small town at night with the Moon roof open wrist rockets at the ready launching cherry bombs into the open windows of unsuspecting spring time sleepers.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[Gee_Wizz01]

In the late 50's we used china berries, and they could leave a real nasty welt. We also used pea gravel, marbles, ball bearings, buck shot, and my all time favorite high explosive round, Cherry bombs! With cherry bombs the sling shot was a crew served weapon. You needed the shooter, a loader/lighter and a good lookout man. We lived in the country and we used to try to shoot down buzzards. We never hit one, but we scared a few, I guess we watched too much 12 O'clock High. We also used to shoot them at the sides of box cars as the trains went by. The last time we did that our look out was not paying attention and Dad caught us! He confiscated our slingshots, cherry bombs, matches and beat our butts. My first encounter with arms control and confiscation.

G

[waksupi]

In the late 50's we used china berries, and they could leave a real nasty welt. We also used pea gravel, marbles, ball bearings, buck shot, and my all time favorite high explosive round, Cherry bombs! With cherry bombs the sling shot was a crew served weapon. You needed the shooter, a loader/lighter and a good lookout man. We lived in the country and we used to try to shoot down buzzards. We never hit one, but we scared a few, I guess we watched too much 12 O'clock High. We also used to shoot them at the sides of box cars as the trains went by. The last time we did that our look out was not paying attention and Dad caught us! He confiscated our slingshots, cherry bombs, matches and beat our butts. My first encounter with arms control and confiscation.

G



Brahahahahaaaaaaaa!

[ghh3rd]

When I was 13 we moved to Japan for a few years (Air Force brat). They had something similar to the little poppers you can get here that make a little pop when you throw down on a sidewalk. The ones we got in Japan were supersized, about the size of a gum ball and like a loud firecracker. They flew a great distance and depending on where they landed, often caused quite a commotion. I had lots of fun lobbing them, ducking, and waiting for the results.

Randy

[Mumblypeg]

Ah, teenaged terroist. I used to get a green stick, sharpen one end, stick an apple on it and sling it. The apple would launch off with good speed. With practice you can throw those things a ways. We would bombard everything around. Come morning, all the apple trees in the neighborhood would be bare. Another thing I did was get bottle rockets, the good ones that they used to make, and take a piece of half inch pipe. Load from the rear end, light the fuse, shove it into the pipe and those things would shoot like a rifle. A bunch of us would get together around Christmas and have sky rocket wars. The other guys were using bottles and would try to aim them with so so luck. I showed up one night with my new invention down at Marion Lathan's cow pasture. We chose sides and I was down in the valley. Now I know that you would rather have the high ground. But fear not I had a secret weapon! I told one guy to come with me and bring his rockets, we're gona kick butt! We set up the pipe which was mounted on a carriage that would allow for elevation. I told him to just adjust the fire and I would do the loading and firing. One right after another we shot the heck out of those guys! One of my good friends was on the opposing team up on the hill and was trying to light his rockets and everytime he did we would drop one in on him. His bag of rockets was beside him and I dropped a round right in it. I heard him say" Oh sh##! " and his whole bag of rockets went off, about 144 of them. It was a night to remember and we wore those guys out. But you know the next time we had a war everybody should up with their own pipe. Such is with technology. You have to stay one step ahead of your advasary. It's a wonder we didn't get seriously hurt but it sure was fun!

[keebo52]

When I was a kid, I shot acorns and marbles out of a 6 inch long piece of half inch galvanized pipe using black cat fire crackers as propellant. Glad I didn't have boolit molds back then. I would have blown my hand off or worse.

[Echo]

We used to make 'guns' out of gas pipe (water pipe was too thick-walled). two foot length of gas pipe, an ell, then a 4-5" piece with a cap. Light a 2" Salute, AKA 'Baby Giant', drop it down the long pipe, and chase the other guy, who was trying to light his - generally got him in the back with a blast of residue, but then turn and run because he had finally got his lit. Carrumba...

Then, speaking of Wrist Rockets, my friend Tank used them to lob M-80 air bursts over the Marine cantonement area @ Camp Perry. Friendly rivalry between the Marines & Air Force. I think it was friendly...

[Hang Fire]

For small game I like the .36. I also know that a 9/16" steel ball bearing to the kneecap will drop a big belligerent drunk in his tracks.

[Hang Fire]

OI,
Did you see the slingshot rifle? Too darn cool for words. Here's a link of it in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0hhF91mrsc

Edd

Still in the crude stage, (I started making initially in a similar manner) will try to find pics (worth a thousand words) of one I used to make. Was a very compact little unit, which in a sliding motion brought it to full extension and locked in place.

[waksupi]

We had a bit different thing to do in the fall, in small town Iowa. When the soybean harvest was going on, the farmers would haul the beans to the local grain elevator.
No one had a truck to haul in back then, so it was all in the slant sided bunker wagons, pulled by tractors.

These old wagons leaked a lot of beans, and it just so happened, the local five and dime had bean shooters for sale for about a nickle. Us kids always looked forward to going to town on Saturday night, as we knew there would be bushels of spilled beans along the roads.

We weren't worried about dirt back then, and you would scoop up a handful of beans from the side of the road, fill your mouth up, and have a machine gun pea shooter.

One of the better memories of being a kid.
We were always sorry when the harvest was over, and the teachers were, oh, so glad!

[Hang Fire]

Green apples on stick. LOL, reminds me when we used to take wet soggy corn cobs out of the feed lot and a length of willow to impale them on, sling them at each other and have fights, Man those things could zing at high velocity and smart like Hades when you got busted by one.

[Old Ironsights]

A great way to salvage the zinc contaminated alloy that occasionally crops up.

Also what I was thinking. I have accumulated about 20# ... :oops:

[Old Ironsights]

The .375 round ball is my favorite. My FIL gave me a lyman DC mould about 25 years ago and neither of us has wanted for wrist rocket ammo since.
Tried .570, it was slow, short range and when one rolled out of the patch and hit the web of my hand on release I quit useing them.
The .375 snuggles in the patch, hit's with athority and has good range.

I just mic'd out a slug swaged to my .36 smoothbore dueling pistol(s).

.374

So, I figure a .375 mould will be perfect for both purposes...

[Bret4207]

I had many good times with my Wrist Rocket. I wonder whatever happened to that thing - likely my mother threw it out.

The kids in the neighborhood would have "wars" using acorns as ammo. I remember they raised a pretty good welt.

You know the Wrist Rocket was a good time when our political masters in Albany declared them illegal. :mad:

And yet just today I was in 3 stores selling them and other wrist brace slingshots! Must be rebels.....:mrgreen:

[tommag]

I use 000 buck, .350 diameter, and they hit pretty hard.

[DLCTEX]

I made some .380 RB's for a local cowboy to use in a wrist rocket to roust bulls out of brush and take the fight out of angry bulls and cows.
I went with the National Guard to Lubbock, Texas in 1969 after it was hit with a gigantic tornado. We were housed at Texas Tech in the dorms for a week. Someone found a large amount of sergical rubber from a medical supply that had been destroyed and we made a super slingshot using two trees, took several guys to pull it back. Water baloons were lobbed over the dorm onto the campus cops guard house by using an FO and walkie-talkies.

[Old Ironsights]

Just ordered a .375 RB dual cav from Lee. Should work well. I hope. Will give me the choice of Pistol Balls (for the dueling pistols) or Rifle Balls (for the Flinter)

Time to dig up the Zincified Pigs and melt them down into somthing useful...

[Cap'n Morgan]

When I was a kid, my dad made me a mean-looking slingshot from brazed copper tubing and straps cut from red inner tube (ordinary black butyl rubber is not elastic enough) My favorite ammo was was 1/2" x 3/8" scrap steel plugs which could be collected in large numbers at the local machine shop.

I became pretty good with the slingshot, but nothing like this guy:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=398_1232483548

[Old Ironsights]

I've gotten inordinately (re) interested in Slingshots of late.

I really think that their use is virtually a lost art.

Making a Bullet Trap to catch cast Round Balls from a Slingshot is not a big deal and you can practice all year long since slingshot range is generally around 20ft or less anyway.

And lest people think that these are toys...

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/IMG_5810.jpghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/IMG_5811.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/IMG_5812.jpg

That .490 roundball hit the scrap oak frame around my target box at 20ft from the "Chief AJ Quick-Point"

[7of7]

I remember back when I was a kid, a friend had a BB gun, and I had a really cheap slingshot... We were going to shoot at each other,.... He got about 25 yards away, and started shooting,... I picked up a flat triangular rock, and let it fly,... It sounded rally funny, and I watched it fly to the right, and then back to the left, and hit him in the side,.. Left a nice triangular welt. Must of hurt really bad cause he screamed really loud...
My older sister took my slingshot away,... Dad gave it back,... Needless to say, we didn't do that any more...