My little brother is 15. He shot the slingshot I bought him the first night he got it and hasn’t picked it up since. That was last year, I think slingshot shooting poses to much of a challenge. these kids don’t want to put in the time to get good at something that’s not super easy.

 

I agree with both of you. Todays youngsters are all into games and socializing on their Smartphones. I'll say this though, with all the Slingshot interest that we see at this time, if that doesn't get their attention and interest nothing will. I hope I'm wrong.

 

I’m 15 almost 16 and I shoot all the time, I’ve tried to get my brothers into it but they don’t seem interested.

 

Keep trying brother! Props to you! [emoji109]


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I have been shooting in the same spot for 10 years. I have 8 grown men and 3 young boys in close proximity, never had one ask to look at, shoot or watch.

 

I've gifted dozens of slingshots to kids and while most seem tickled to get one, I don't think any of them "got into it". I would love to have a little friend to shoot with.

I don't think it's limited to slingshots though, when was the last time you saw a group of kids playing a pick-up game of football or baseball in an empty lot? They'll play if it's an organized game put together by school or their parents but they don't do it themselves, it's sad.

 

I've gifted dozens of slingshots to kids and while most seem tickled to get one, I don't think any of them "got into it". I would love to have a little friend to shoot with.

I don't think it's limited to slingshots though, when was the last time you saw a group of kids playing a pick-up game of football or baseball in an empty lot? They'll play if it's an organized game put together by school or their parents but they don't do it themselves, it's sad.

They are giving those kids cell phones at age 8....nuf said.

 

Same I have gifted quite a few slingshots and they all just collect dust. I think the only kids that I'll ever witness shooting slingshots will be my own once they get big enough just because they see me do it so much.

 

Around here most of the kids do not even know what a slingshot is,,the few that’d do, just say cool, and continue with whatever computer generator thing they were messing with, I have gifted, instructed, all the above stuff, very little satasfaction other than my own, so mebbe there will be a few,,,(like us),,,, that will take up the hobby and continue the catapultry======Maybe=====Hopefully

 

Until something major happens to change the way slingshots are used, I don't see anyone flockiing to them in droves. It's not even a generational issue, either. I know the "boomerism" is that kids are lazy and glued to their smartphones 24/7, and yet many outdoor sports are thriving. Did you know that one of the fastest growing sports in North America is women's wrestling? Go figure.

There's a lot holding slingshots back from being "popular".

First of all, it's not the most social sport. Yes you can get tournaments going or can chases or whatever you can think of, but the nature and culture of the sport, as it is now, is that it's something you do in isolation. What could change? Maybe someone could devise some interesting slingshot based team sport with more competitive aspects than "who can hit a target better". Not only that, but they are still in this categorical limbo between "children's toy" (compared to other more devastating firearms), and "crude instrument of vandals, rioters, and IRA terrorists" depending on who you talk to. Basically though, until slingshots develop more inherent socially interactive trends than how it stands now, people of all generations are going to tend to flock to the more social sports (or E-sports).

Second of all, compared to sports like archery slingshots have very little cultural iconography and figural role models behind them. Archery, for example, has Robin Hoods and Green Arrows and Hawkeyes and Katnises and Legolases in droves. Slingshots have...dennis the menace? For people to want to pick up slingshots more, there needs to be more of these sorts of figures. I started singing as a kid because I wanted to be like Michael Jackson. I started karate and combat sports because I wanted to be like Goku. Millions of kids stuck with basketball because they wanted to be like Michael Jordan. There's an important pattern here. Hell, one of the key reasons I picked up slingshots was because I wanted to be like Rufus. It wasn't just his skill, but something about his character, his free-spirited demeanor, deeply resonated with me. There needs to be more cultural iconography behind them.

 

Pickle Ball is the fastest growing participation sport in North America . Hands down .

 

The people at my local pickleball courts are there from 6am until dark, even in the New England winter. A dedicated bunch they are, or as I like to call them "sickos" hahaha

 

I don't mind it being an obscure sport.
I think the hunting aspect and youtube videos/personalities will provide the best positive reinforcement for the sport. I discovered/rediscovered slingshots when I saw a fowler vid in my suggested viewing.

 

I don't mind it being an obscure sport.
I think the hunting aspect and youtube videos/personalities will provide the best positive reinforcement for the sport. I discovered/rediscovered slingshots when I saw a fowler vid in my suggested viewing.

Fowler was a big influence on me too. Perfect Youtube personality

 

Nature vs. Nurture. You can’t expect to drop a slingshot in a kids lap and see em take to it if all they’ve ever done is play vidya games and surf the net. You’ll always have exceptions.. Humans are the same as they’ve always been. Sure, the kinds of “entertainment” we have nowadays is a lot to compete with, but if a brain develops with a good balance of both worlds that balance will continue through. Easier said than done I suppose. Living in a densely populated region without the luxury of time to nurture what a parent wants to see is a major hurdle.

 

I'm 37 BTW, so technically a 'millenial' on the old end of the millenial spectrum.

 

First thing I want to do is define "young"! If you look at JC or S28 I would say there's evidence that youth isn't a deterrent!! What are deterrents is the ancient image , the fact that it is a shooting sport which isn't "woke" and that today there are a million other ways to occupy your time not to mention the social media. Being a grumpy old cur I kind of like it that way.

 

I'm already full on Clint get off my lawn mode. In the mid 90s we still played outside and did all that stuff, late 90s gaming consoles were really taking off like Nintendo 64 and Xbox. My parents didn't let me have them so I was never really interested when friends played and when I did play them my skill set was so bad compared to others it wasn't even fun. I would put the timeline around 2006-2010 when kids really shifted indoors and online.

 

Great replies, many with the sad reality that the interest does not appear to be there.

Looking back at the early 1970's, we would make tree houses, basic bows, and slingshots: it was very much an outdoors life after homework and chores had been completed. Of course there were also some days when we would watch our favorite series on TV...in black & white. In a sense, we were free to do what we enjoyed, as long as it did not harm anyone or damage something. Good old telephones meant that if you were outside somewhere, those trying to reach you simply had to try later.

None of that "telephone slavery" like now, where half the population seems to walk around totally immersed in the digital world of I-Phones while being permanently tracked by GPS. "telephonitis" is possibly a more appropriate term for this questionable trend, given the constant flow of spoon-fed information in the form of sound and images under the seemingly harmless label of "apps", which increasingly lead to short attention spans. The new "shorts" videos in YouTube also reflect this development.

It therefore comes as no surprise that present day youngsters do not want to make a sustained effort to learn something that takes active long term dedication, like shooting slingshots, or getting involved in demanding sports. Not all, but many are like that. There is the old saying "nature always tends to the less energetic". That's pretty well the prevailing attitude in society these days, under the leitmotiv of "easy" and "immediate".

Maybe a well conducted slingshot shooting scene with one of the pseudo-role models in the movies or in a video game might yield the "cool" factor in slingshots to attract the youngsters in greater numbers, who knows.

 

I’m somewhere around Karl’s age. They called us The Lost Generation but we were all fairly decent kids. The generations after that seemed to take a downward turn but then again that’s generalizing I’m sure.
I think unless a major pop icon suddenly whips out a Natty, slingshots will always remain a niche sport. Like others have stated, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I feel like the people that do find slingshots are a bit of a niche breed anyway, and I mean that in the best way. There will always be a certain percentage of us that’ll come across slingshots, probably by some semi-synchronistic fashion, and the magic will continue.
As for the younger generations on a whole (not you @Slingshot28), I’m not exactly optimistic about where we’re headed as a civilization and it’ll be interesting to see how the younger generations handle and adapt to this and where their interests will lie. I pray for the best..
Those are my current thoughts on it anyway. Sling on, my dudes, sling on.

 

Haha glad I can be an exception in this case

 

Someone's gotta make a live twitch stream for slingshots where viewers call the shots and other fun challenges are made up.

Honestly there's plenty of ways to appeal to the younger folks and get them interested.

 

The way I see it, if anyone sees a slingshot in use, be it in person or on youtube and takes an interest like the rest of us, they will go and dig it up.
I'm another who stumbled on the Fowler hype and immediately fell down the rabbit hooooooooole.

 

Nothing at all. I'm the only person I know who shoots a slingshot. And that I am from Spain, where there is something more of this hobby than in other countries near.
But the people who shoot slingshots are very few compared to other shooting sports such as airsoft, pellet airguns, bows...
The young people of today (and the not so young) are very busy with Tiktok and Instagram.
Actually it is almost better, that only a few of us enjoy this😎🎯.
I dont want all the ratboys of fortnite with a slingshot in their hands.

 

I was a teenager in the 70's and the only person I remember having a slingshot was me. None of my friends bought one because I had one. I don't think kids of today are much different. As in the seventies there are too many other things to do.

 

Yep. I knew a couple more than that, but I was the only one who carried one and shot it regularly. I was a legend because I could hit a coffee can three times in a row from 15 feet away with a Wham-O! Slingshots have always been a sport/hobby that has appealed to many, but really taken up by few. Everything else said here regarding pre-internet/cellphone life, and how kids just don't play outside due to being entertained indoors and snowflake parents bubble wrapping them, is true.

 

Go to the pickle ball courts with your slingshot, take their pickle balls, and shoot them out of the park to assert your dominance.

Honestly it makes me wonder how slingshots could function in sports positions. A baseball pitching slingshot? Lacross, but instead of flinging a stick, design them to be pocket shot style slingshots?

The idea of a slingshot based team sport has my creative side running. Frames and latex are already cheap as hell compared to baseball mitts, hockey sticks, and tennis rackets.

 

What’s is pickleball, something like handball but with racquets?
edit: never mind. I always forget Google exists.

 

i have had a couple youngsters who took to slingshots,for awhile the kid down the street would come over and cut cans with my grandaughter and i,until he turned 16 and got a car/found a GF,lol,and my grandaughter is now in college but we still shoot when she comes home on acation/holidays,and i have seen a couple older kids[?] with actual slingsshots but i kind of like the fact that we are as a whole,loner/individuals and like others i believe that if it calls to you,you will find it and probably are already one of us

 

I do not see the younger generation taking interest BUT when it happens I am willing to pay the cost to foster it. Tonight my 16 year old shot one of my frames Acacia coffin tail gapper he was shooting 1/2" terracotta clay short draw at a can from 15 feet 1 hit in 7 shots 2 fork hits the second did this to the frame.

Needles to say he was a little spooked and very disappointed about the frame. My words to him "There's not a frame in my collection that I wouldn't give for the time spent with him" the gapper can be replaced easily. And I set him up with a different frame that I made specifically for him when I tried to get him shooting the last time the frame is a strong UHMW plastic in his color "green"

 

I hang out at an archery range. I see folks of all ages shooting. There is no interest in slingshots whatsoever.

 

Came home today to find my 16 year old shooting indoor range today so there is hope