[LancsNinja]

Hi Guys,

I have been a slingshot enthusiast since I was about 12 years old, and being now a healthy 50 odd - I still get great pleasure out of making new ones and using my collection.

I have a number of different slingshots, from traditional wooden forks with varous grades of square elastic, to those that use Theraband gold. I have also made them out of deer antler and mild steel.

I love experimenting with new designs, and materials, and I run my slingshos over a chronograph to see what they are doing in terms of velocity and energy. I find it particluarly interesting how using tapered Theraband improves the recovery rate and velocity.

I practice in my back garden using a safe backstop, and to recover the ammo and re-use it, I have built a target holder that will take an A4 target (I print my own), and when the ball passes through the paper, it hits a moving absorbing surface inside a plywood box, and drops into a collection channel for recovery and re-use. It is very handy and portable. If anyone is inerested let me know and I will post a picture of it.

I cast my own .45 cabre lead ball for hunting and practice, and I also use 8mm - 12mm steel ball bearings for practice. The lead ball takes no prisoners in the field!

I am amazed and impressed by the number of videos and research Joel has done on slingshots and posted on youtube.

Thanks for reading this, and I look forward to particpating on this forum.

All the best,

LancsNinja

 

[LancsNinja]

Apologies meant Joerg not Joel.

 

[NaturalFork]

Sounds like you found the right place! Welcome!

 

[NoSugarRob]

hello english person

I would like to see pics of your target holder / trap .... please

 

[LancsNinja]

hello english person

I would like to see pics of your target holder / trap .... please

Hi - I am attempting to upload two photos - hope it works ok. One photo shows it without target so you can see the opening and the swinging carpet backstop inside the catcher. The other photo shows it with a target on the front. Obviously you can use any target so long as it is A4 size. I have a few prints of ducks/rabbits to make it more interesting.

Mine is made from 8mm plywood bottom sides, top and back, and 18mm plywood front. It started off at 12mm plywood on front, but one slingshot put a .45 calibre lead ball through it as I missed the opening from about 20 yards :-(. So I screwed over the top the 18mm thick plywood. The overall depth front to back is 130 mm outside dimension. It is 380mm x 380mm square on the front. The sides, back, bottom & top are fixed to softwood approx 50mm x 25mm, but 25mm x 25mm would do the job - it is whatever you have available.

The opening I made is to suit A4 paer size, so my opening is 250mm x 170mm. I lined the front face around the opening with gaffa tape so that the tape I use to hold the target in place sticks well to the gafa tape. The inside of the back is lined with thick carpet glued in place. To absorb the energy, I use two pieces of thick carpet, both hanging from a cross wire (made from an old coat hanger) These two pieces of carpet need to be hanging and able to swing to absorb the energy, otherwise you will punch holes in both thicknesses. So that you can release the captured balls, I have made the bottom inside floor the same level as the bottom of the hole you cab see on the right hand side. The hole is 20mm diameter, and is plugged with a cork from a port/sherry bottle. When you want to remove the balls inside - you just remove the cork and tip the catcher towards the hole and out they come ready for re-use. I put a carry handle on the top, and two pieces of batten underneath as short legs.

I find it a very useful target holder/catcher, and being fairly small - it can easily be transported.

Hope the above helps.

LancsNinja.

 

[NoSugarRob]

thanks for sharing