Hi All,
Just thought I would finally say hi after looking through the forum for about 3 weeks now and watching lots of videos on youtube. I got into the slingshots recently and am not even sure what drove me at this point, but so far it has definitely been fun for the whole family. I knew there was no way the kids were going to let me go out and try it without them trying it as well, so I started out by contacting Gary "Flatband" and asking for his help in setting me and my 2 little ones (10 and 9) up with some slingshots. I contacted Gary because I liked the look of his slingshots and after watching his videos on youtube knew he had the experience to help out a newbie. Gary set us up with an ergo for me and 2 plinkers for the kids (along with a spare band set for each, a bunch more bands and about 5 spare pouches). As soon as I knew they were on the way I picked us up 3 pairs of safety glasses and10lbs of air-dry clay (figured it was safer than steel to start with). It has been a blast! We have all been shooting a bunch everyday, as a matter of fact we made balls out of the last of the clay today, I can say we probably got somewhere around 1500 balls from that 10lbs of clay (I stopped counting after 500 and that was about 1/3 gone at that point, we may have gotten 2000, not sure). They make for interesting shots as well, since the kids didn't always make them very round and you could watch them curve in mid air.
The one thing I didn't account for was the fact that I thought my teenage daughter wouldn't be interested. Quite the opposite! She thought they were cool and loves shooting. so needless to say, Gary is going to be hooking me up with a smaller version of my ergo for her.
I definitely enjoy looking at all the other slingshots people are making and definitely will be getting more in the future. I can't list all of the great ones I've seen, but I do want to get the Performance Catapults EPS someday (I like the metal, carbon, wood, should be strong, durable and nice looking), and also want to get a King Cat someday. Have to figure out how to get the King Cat though since Jack states he doesn't sell to NY because the slingshots with wrist supports are illegal here. I do think that since the wrist support can be removed, it would seem to me he could ship to NY if he just didn't attach the wrist support (looks like two screws and nuts). So if I later attached the support it would be "me" making it 'illegal' here, not him.
I definitely enjoy the forum and all of those who share their knowledge on it. I take a little bit from everyone, Joerg's awesome videos and slingshots are a blast to watch, to Perry's how to shoot, to Flatband's history and terminology of slingshots, rubber, and attachments, and Smitty's shooting video. Most recently in the thread Perry started about shooting, Tex wrote some tips, but also just looking at his shooting stance and how he held the slingshot helped a lot. I noticed he shoots with forks/fingers lined up right over one another, until then I was shooting with them at about a 45% angle. Or as Flatband might put it, half-gangsta style. Once I put the forks and fingers straight up and down like Tex has them and then put my target just above the notch where the band attachment latex is, I started shooting a lot more accurate at about 10 yards. Then shooting off my deck at a target about 150 feet away I just had to aim about 2 feet higher than the target (not saying I it it a lot, but was 'in the area') and did hit it a few times.
So .... nice to meet you all! There are definitely people out there reading your very helpful information and enjoying learning and shooting.
C Ya,
Casey
Just thought I would finally say hi after looking through the forum for about 3 weeks now and watching lots of videos on youtube. I got into the slingshots recently and am not even sure what drove me at this point, but so far it has definitely been fun for the whole family. I knew there was no way the kids were going to let me go out and try it without them trying it as well, so I started out by contacting Gary "Flatband" and asking for his help in setting me and my 2 little ones (10 and 9) up with some slingshots. I contacted Gary because I liked the look of his slingshots and after watching his videos on youtube knew he had the experience to help out a newbie. Gary set us up with an ergo for me and 2 plinkers for the kids (along with a spare band set for each, a bunch more bands and about 5 spare pouches). As soon as I knew they were on the way I picked us up 3 pairs of safety glasses and10lbs of air-dry clay (figured it was safer than steel to start with). It has been a blast! We have all been shooting a bunch everyday, as a matter of fact we made balls out of the last of the clay today, I can say we probably got somewhere around 1500 balls from that 10lbs of clay (I stopped counting after 500 and that was about 1/3 gone at that point, we may have gotten 2000, not sure). They make for interesting shots as well, since the kids didn't always make them very round and you could watch them curve in mid air.
The one thing I didn't account for was the fact that I thought my teenage daughter wouldn't be interested. Quite the opposite! She thought they were cool and loves shooting. so needless to say, Gary is going to be hooking me up with a smaller version of my ergo for her.
I definitely enjoy looking at all the other slingshots people are making and definitely will be getting more in the future. I can't list all of the great ones I've seen, but I do want to get the Performance Catapults EPS someday (I like the metal, carbon, wood, should be strong, durable and nice looking), and also want to get a King Cat someday. Have to figure out how to get the King Cat though since Jack states he doesn't sell to NY because the slingshots with wrist supports are illegal here. I do think that since the wrist support can be removed, it would seem to me he could ship to NY if he just didn't attach the wrist support (looks like two screws and nuts). So if I later attached the support it would be "me" making it 'illegal' here, not him.
I definitely enjoy the forum and all of those who share their knowledge on it. I take a little bit from everyone, Joerg's awesome videos and slingshots are a blast to watch, to Perry's how to shoot, to Flatband's history and terminology of slingshots, rubber, and attachments, and Smitty's shooting video. Most recently in the thread Perry started about shooting, Tex wrote some tips, but also just looking at his shooting stance and how he held the slingshot helped a lot. I noticed he shoots with forks/fingers lined up right over one another, until then I was shooting with them at about a 45% angle. Or as Flatband might put it, half-gangsta style. Once I put the forks and fingers straight up and down like Tex has them and then put my target just above the notch where the band attachment latex is, I started shooting a lot more accurate at about 10 yards. Then shooting off my deck at a target about 150 feet away I just had to aim about 2 feet higher than the target (not saying I it it a lot, but was 'in the area') and did hit it a few times.
So .... nice to meet you all! There are definitely people out there reading your very helpful information and enjoying learning and shooting.
C Ya,
Casey
