[eaglerockdude]

First off, as a kid growing up in SoCal in the 60's, we had lots of canyons and hills around us. I had BB guns(daisy), a crosman benjamin pellet .22 cal rifle(which i still have), bow and arrow, boomerang, and several of the little 15 cent wire slingshots. At one point I had one of the first wrist rockets, but never really liked it. I used to shoot bees out of a tree with the 15 cent one.

A few months ago, I started getting this MASSIVE poopage on my car during the night. I am working on my carport so the roof covering is gone, exposing our cars to a large overhanging tree branch. This poop was incredible. I could barely scrap it off with a plastic chisel. I was trying to figure out the type...Possum, squirrel, rats? Using google images, it seemed to be some type of bird, but I never saw any birds in that branch. But I would check it each evening, and soon enough one after noon I saw this large dove /pidgeon looking bird fly in there. It seems he was just sleeping there at night.

I was thinking I need to scare him away... bought a $10 wooden slingshot from Amazon. The tube bands were so short I could not even draw back to my face, but it was pretty powerful. I have a large oak tree in the backyard, so I was using acorns for ammo. I practiced a bit and was ready. Right on cue, around 5 PM one day, the bird shows up. I get my slingshot, take aim, and shoot. The bird flies away pretty fast. I did not hit him.

Second day...same time...the bird comes back again. I was dark by then, but I could see his outline in the branches. I take aim..and BOOM...I think maybe i winged him. The bird flies off again.

And...I have not seen him since! I have since had that branch removed which was about $260. Big branch.

So thats it...it was so much fun...I started shopping for sling shots here and there and its a fun little hobby right now.

As far as shooting animals, well I have several squirrels, skunks, raccoons, feral cats and of course birds that hand around, and I DID shoot one of the feral cats with an acorn once(with the cheap slingshot) a few days after the bird hunt, hoping to drive them away from begging for food each morning, but he just came back, and I felt bad for the guy. As a kid I used to hunt a lot, but I just don't have it in me anymore. And having shot my scout/hammer/axiom the past few weeks, well...those hummers pack a load. I would not want to shoot anything with one of those even just to scare them as it would hurt them for sure. But thats just me. Only targets and cans for me.

Well thats about it. I hope to read some of your stories here.

Addendum: I think you need a certain kind of boomerang for hunting. When you throw it at a rabbit or something, it comes back and almost hits you.

 

[SJAaz]

Welcome from Arizona

PS.. The idea is for the rabbit to stop the boomerang.

 

[vince4242]

Great story and a great idea to share our beginnings mine is not quite so long ago. I started off while traveling in my Sprinter van around the country with my now ex-wife. We were in Florida for the winter and I was getting a little bored so I thought I'd make a slingshot see if I could shoot some garbanzo beans at some cans. Went online and look at all kinds of different slingshots this was back in 2016. Went to second hand store and found a cutting board, and used a jigsaw from a friend and cut out the pattern I thought look coolest ... it was the pocket Predator Boy Scout! The plans I had were ttf and having never shot a slingshot I didn't know there was anything else than what I saw there ended up cutting out 3 slingshots off The Cutting Board and got one of them all smooth out and got some Walmart exercise bands on it and went out and the back of the parking lot at Starbucks while my wife was reading indoors. The garbanzo beans shot okay except I had bands that were way too heavy for garbanzo beans and so they zipped all over the place but I was able to hit the can a little bit but it was very inconsistent. Looking back those bands could have easily pushed 3/8 steel as opposed to 3/8 garbanzo bean.

Since it wasn't very accurate and we were on the beach of Florida I didn't use it very much and it ended up in the bottom of a storage bin until 2018.

By 2018 I've been divorced for almost two years and had my midlife crisis working at a horse ranch in the middle of nowhere for 15 hours a day 6 days a week. Amazing experience, unbelievable to get to get to know horses and spend so much time in nature! But at the age of 46 and 8 months working so hard was taking a toll on me and I needed to move on and make some money since I was working almost for free at the ranch.

I moved back to my hometown where my adult daughter lives and built myself a tiny house on someone's farm and helped with their animals and livestock and their Garden in exchange for electricity a place to park tiny house. At this point I pulled out the slingshot again and set up a catch box and use lead sinkers from the fishing store with the same band size that I used for the garbanzo beans and lo and behold I was shooting pretty good. And that lead ammo was doing some serious damage on the steel cans, Shooting it was fun and I did enjoy it but it kind of hurt my wrist little bit because the bands were heavy and I had my bow and arrow, my shepherd sling and all the animals and gardening work to do and a full time job so it kind of took a back seat again.
Fast forward to March of 2020 ... coronavirus just hit and I knew I would need something to do in my backyard for all these hours of lockdown. Since the farm I had met a wonderful woman and moved into town with her park my tiny house in her backyard and I'm sharing a wonderful life with her. Pulled out the slingshot again and by now I've been watching Zachary Fowler and catapult Carnage and knew they were others types of slingshots and realize that I needed a new slingshot for my wrist and so cut out some plywood and start making them.

Started with 3/8 and steel and a nice homemade slingshot and have been shooting ever since I am now to my D1 with the Dragon Emperor 2 handle and shooting 8 mm steel and ¼" mostly on tubes. Switching to Ott and getting a slingshot that is right grip for me for my bad wrist. I made a bad mistake while working with a horse and almost got my arm ripped off and my wrist hasn't never been the same since.
This last time with the right slingshot and ammo and the right situation, slinging took hold and is locked into my brain like a vice!? I shoot at least a hundred shots a day on the days I go to work and during my chemo week I try and shoot at least 50 shots even though I'm kind of shaky and weak but I still figure I get to work on my release and my technique I just shoot at a 50 mm spinner instead of going for my 30 mm spinner.

And may I add this group of people I've found on the Forum has been a god-sent to me with all that I'm going through. I look forward just seeing what's going on with you all around the world and getting to share and interact with a great group of guys.

Little did I know what 2020 was going to have in store for me when I chopped off that boy scout to make an Ott and started shooting slingshots for the rest of my life. Thank you again for all the support and encouragement. It is a blessing to have a group of people to connect with and share with.

Cheers

 

[eaglerockdude]

Very cool story. Sprinter van? Can u post a pic of your tiny house if possible...it would be fun to see. U definitely have led a sling-shot life(no disrespect intended btw)

 

[SJAaz]

Vince, that was a really good post. Thanks for sharing.

PS: Those horses can dish out some rough lessons. I have had a broken wrist and some creaky hips to prove it. Been watching a series on amazon prime on tiny houses. I could live in one, the problem I'd have is all my tools would be in the house and i'd have to live in the truck!

 

[vince4242]

Yes living for 6 years in the Sprinter van at 76 square feet and then another year in the tiny house at 165 square feet definitely teaches you how to Pare down your life. I have just the right amount of tools to build a tiny house and when I gave up the big life in 2012 I got rid of all of my big fun table saws and drill presses and such it was very hard to adjust to having just a skill saw a cordless drill and a circular saw to do all my work. You can find all of my tiny house living build videos from the Sprinter van to the Honda Odyssey and then now my tiny house on my YouTube channel just do a search for vince Amendola and you can see all my stuff.

Cheers

 

[DragonEyeShooter1]

That is an amazing story Vince I'm glad we can all be here for you and help add some more light in this dull world! This forum is like a safe space to most of us i can imagine, dragon emperor Brothers!! Tho mine is a ttf lol i love that thing i call it my laser beam

 

[Soske]

I started when I was getting into primitive weaponry/hunting tools. Tried spears, crossbow, atlatl and whatnot really liked the sling. It was easy to make out of just about any string. Super easy to carry it around in the pocket. I enjoyed finding just the right rocks among the creeks and river banks. But even after alot of practice I found it was next to impossible to get accurate enough with one to hunt with. That's when I started considering the slingshot. It's not a primitive tool by any means but I love the pocketability and potential accuracy you can achieve. I built my first one out of bamboo plywood at the shop at work. found some exorcise band, made a pouch and I was hooked.

 

[vince4242]

Wow dragon eye that is cool there's another one out there who knows the accuracy of the D1. Yes very glad to have this safe place to chat with good people. Let's see a picture of your laser slingshot when you get a chance.

Cheers

 

[THWACK!]

First off, as a kid growing up in SoCal in the 60's, we had lots of canyons and hills around us. I had BB guns(daisy), a crosman benjamin pellet .22 cal rifle(which i still have), bow and arrow, boomerang, and several of the little 15 cent wire slingshots. At one point I had one of the first wrist rockets, but never really liked it. I used to shoot bees out of a tree with the 15 cent one.

A few months ago, I started getting this MASSIVE poopage on my car during the night. I am working on my carport so the roof covering is gone, exposing our cars to a large overhanging tree branch. This poop was incredible. I could barely scrap it off with a plastic chisel. I was trying to figure out the type...Possum, squirrel, rats? Using google images, it seemed to be some type of bird, but I never saw any birds in that branch. But I would check it each evening, and soon enough one after noon I saw this large dove /pidgeon looking bird fly in there. It seems he was just sleeping there at night.

I was thinking I need to scare him away... bought a $10 wooden slingshot from Amazon. The tube bands were so short I could not even draw back to my face, but it was pretty powerful. I have a large oak tree in the backyard, so I was using acorns for ammo. I practiced a bit and was ready. Right on cue, around 5 PM one day, the bird shows up. I get my slingshot, take aim, and shoot. The bird flies away pretty fast. I did not hit him.

Second day...same time...the bird comes back again. I was dark by then, but I could see his outline in the branches. I take aim..and BOOM...I think maybe i winged him. The bird flies off again.

And...I have not seen him since! I have since had that branch removed which was about $260. Big branch.

So thats it...it was so much fun...I started shopping for sling shots here and there and its a fun little hobby right now.

As far as shooting animals, well I have several squirrels, skunks, raccoons, feral cats and of course birds that hand around, and I DID shoot one of the feral cats with an acorn once(with the cheap slingshot) a few days after the bird hunt, hoping to drive them away from begging for food each morning, but he just came back, and I felt bad for the guy. As a kid I used to hunt a lot, but I just don't have it in me anymore. And having shot my scout/hammer/axiom the past few weeks, well...those hummers pack a load. I would not want to shoot anything with one of those even just to scare them as it would hurt them for sure. But thats just me. Only targets and cans for me.

Well thats about it. I hope to read some of your stories here.

Addendum: I think you need a certain kind of boomerang for hunting. When you throw it at a rabbit or something, it comes back and almost hits you.r

They have "safety" boomerangs, they don't come back and hit the thrower. I don't know what they used to call them, but nowadays they're known as "sticks".

About bird poop: Don't even think of scraping it off, you'll just scratch the vehicle's paint, bad enough that in the poop there's uric acid, which eats paint. Dried bird poop just needs to be rehydrated, to turn it back into liquid form, which you can then wipe away. So dampen a soft cloth rag, let it sit on the bird poop, and after your coffee, you can probably just wipe it away. You may need to add more water to the rag and wait awhile longer, depending on the volume of poop (excreta).

THWACK!

 

[THWACK!]

My adult re-entry into archery somehow became a lead to slingshooting - maybe because they are "first cousins", maybe because searching for lost arrows in the heat and humidity of south Florida is taxing, maybe one gets tired of swinging a metal detector in a field to find lost arrows, maybe one doesn't like the cost and inconvenience of replacing lost/damaged arrows, maybe...

Slingshooting: Portable, inexpensive, quiet, concealable, light weight. Can take small game with it before big game has you for lunch. Works for me...

THWACK!

 

[THWACK!]

I started when I was getting into primitive weaponry/hunting tools. Tried spears, crossbow, atlatl and whatnot really liked the sling. It was easy to make out of just about any string. Super easy to carry it around in the pocket. I enjoyed finding just the right rocks among the creeks and river banks. But even after alot of practice I found it was next to impossible to get accurate enough with one to hunt with. That's when I started considering the slingshot. It's not a primitive tool by any means but I love the pocketability and potential accuracy you can achieve. I built my first one out of bamboo plywood at the shop at work. found some exorcise band, made a pouch and I was hooked.

Some bands were left over from an exorcist??????????? Oh, my!! You wore gloves, didn't you?????

THWACK!

 

[THWACK!]

Vince, that was a really good post. Thanks for sharing.

PS: Those horses can dish out some rough lessons. I have had a broken wrist and some creaky hips to prove it. Been watching a series on amazon prime on tiny houses. I could live in one, the problem I'd have is all my tools would be in the house and i'd have to live in the truck!

It would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to live in a tiny house.

Seriously though (THWACK! seriously, for real?) where would I put hundreds of books, 5 guitars, five ukes, 2 violins, 14 tinwhistles, 2 keyboards, one Peruvian Quena, a dozen or so harmonicas (blues harps), 2 dozen slingshots, 5 archery bows, plus all my tools and stuff associated with way too many hobbies?

All that means is that I don't commit crimes because jail cells don't fit my lifestyle...

THWACK!

 

[THWACK!]

Great story and a great idea to share our beginnings mine is not quite so long ago. I started off while traveling in my Sprinter van around the country with my now ex-wife. We were in Florida for the winter and I was getting a little bored so I thought I'd make a slingshot see if I could shoot some garbanzo beans at some cans. Went online and look at all kinds of different slingshots this was back in 2016. Went to second hand store and found a cutting board, and used a jigsaw from a friend and cut out the pattern I thought look coolest ... it was the pocket Predator Boy Scout! The plans I had were ttf and having never shot a slingshot I didn't know there was anything else than what I saw there ended up cutting out 3 slingshots off The Cutting Board and got one of them all smooth out and got some Walmart exercise bands on it and went out and the back of the parking lot at Starbucks while my wife was reading indoors. The garbanzo beans shot okay except I had bands that were way too heavy for garbanzo beans and so they zipped all over the place but I was able to hit the can a little bit but it was very inconsistent. Looking back those bands could have easily pushed 3/8 steel as opposed to 3/8 garbanzo bean.

Since it wasn't very accurate and we were on the beach of Florida I didn't use it very much and it ended up in the bottom of a storage bin until 2018.

By 2018 I've been divorced for almost two years and had my midlife crisis working at a horse ranch in the middle of nowhere for 15 hours a day 6 days a week. Amazing experience, unbelievable to get to get to know horses and spend so much time in nature! But at the age of 46 and 8 months working so hard was taking a toll on me and I needed to move on and make some money since I was working almost for free at the ranch.

I moved back to my hometown where my adult daughter lives and built myself a tiny house on someone's farm and helped with their animals and livestock and their Garden in exchange for electricity a place to park tiny house. At this point I pulled out the slingshot again and set up a catch box and use lead sinkers from the fishing store with the same band size that I used for the garbanzo beans and lo and behold I was shooting pretty good. And that lead ammo was doing some serious damage on the steel cans, Shooting it was fun and I did enjoy it but it kind of hurt my wrist little bit because the bands were heavy and I had my bow and arrow, my shepherd sling and all the animals and gardening work to do and a full time job so it kind of took a back seat again.
Fast forward to March of 2020 ... coronavirus just hit and I knew I would need something to do in my backyard for all these hours of lockdown. Since the farm I had met a wonderful woman and moved into town with her park my tiny house in her backyard and I'm sharing a wonderful life with her. Pulled out the slingshot again and by now I've been watching Zachary Fowler and catapult Carnage and knew they were others types of slingshots and realize that I needed a new slingshot for my wrist and so cut out some plywood and start making them.

Started with 3/8 and steel and a nice homemade slingshot and have been shooting ever since I am now to my D1 with the Dragon Emperor 2 handle and shooting 8 mm steel and ¼" mostly on tubes. Switching to Ott and getting a slingshot that is right grip for me for my bad wrist. I made a bad mistake while working with a horse and almost got my arm ripped off and my wrist hasn't never been the same since.
This last time with the right slingshot and ammo and the right situation, slinging took hold and is locked into my brain like a vice!? I shoot at least a hundred shots a day on the days I go to work and during my chemo week I try and shoot at least 50 shots even though I'm kind of shaky and weak but I still figure I get to work on my release and my technique I just shoot at a 50 mm spinner instead of going for my 30 mm spinner.

And may I add this group of people I've found on the Forum has been a god-sent to me with all that I'm going through. I look forward just seeing what's going on with you all around the world and getting to share and interact with a great group of guys.

Little did I know what 2020 was going to have in store for me when I chopped off that boy scout to make an Ott and started shooting slingshots for the rest of my life. Thank you again for all the support and encouragement. It is a blessing to have a group of people to connect with and share with.

Cheers

Don't hold back, bro' - please tell us the whole story. ; ) ; )

THWACK!

 

[eaglerockdude]

First off, as a kid growing up in SoCal in the 60's, we had lots of canyons and hills around us. I had BB guns(daisy), a crosman benjamin pellet .22 cal rifle(which i still have), bow and arrow, boomerang, and several of the little 15 cent wire slingshots. At one point I had one of the first wrist rockets, but never really liked it. I used to shoot bees out of a tree with the 15 cent one.

A few months ago, I started getting this MASSIVE poopage on my car during the night. I am working on my carport so the roof covering is gone, exposing our cars to a large overhanging tree branch. This poop was incredible. I could barely scrap it off with a plastic chisel. I was trying to figure out the type...Possum, squirrel, rats? Using google images, it seemed to be some type of bird, but I never saw any birds in that branch. But I would check it each evening, and soon enough one after noon I saw this large dove /pidgeon looking bird fly in there. It seems he was just sleeping there at night.

I was thinking I need to scare him away... bought a $10 wooden slingshot from Amazon. The tube bands were so short I could not even draw back to my face, but it was pretty powerful. I have a large oak tree in the backyard, so I was using acorns for ammo. I practiced a bit and was ready. Right on cue, around 5 PM one day, the bird shows up. I get my slingshot, take aim, and shoot. The bird flies away pretty fast. I did not hit him.

Second day...same time...the bird comes back again. I was dark by then, but I could see his outline in the branches. I take aim..and BOOM...I think maybe i winged him. The bird flies off again.

And...I have not seen him since! I have since had that branch removed which was about $260. Big branch.

So thats it...it was so much fun...I started shopping for sling shots here and there and its a fun little hobby right now.

As far as shooting animals, well I have several squirrels, skunks, raccoons, feral cats and of course birds that hand around, and I DID shoot one of the feral cats with an acorn once(with the cheap slingshot) a few days after the bird hunt, hoping to drive them away from begging for food each morning, but he just came back, and I felt bad for the guy. As a kid I used to hunt a lot, but I just don't have it in me anymore. And having shot my scout/hammer/axiom the past few weeks, well...those hummers pack a load. I would not want to shoot anything with one of those even just to scare them as it would hurt them for sure. But thats just me. Only targets and cans for me.

Well thats about it. I hope to read some of your stories here.

Addendum: I think you need a certain kind of boomerang for hunting. When you throw it at a rabbit or something, it comes back and almost hits you.r

They have "safety" boomerangs, they don't come back and hit the thrower. I don't know what they used to call them, but nowadays they're known as "sticks".

About bird poop: Don't even think of scraping it off, you'll just scratch the vehicle's paint, bad enough that in the poop there's uric acid, which eats paint. Dried bird poop just needs to be rehydrated, to turn it back into liquid form, which you can then wipe away. So dampen a soft cloth rag, let it sit on the bird poop, and after your coffee, you can probably just wipe it away. You may need to add more water to the rag and wait awhile longer, depending on the volume of poop (excreta).

THWACK!

My bird problem is solved via an acorn and slingshot. Yeah..I was basically having to wash 1/4 of the car each day, and then scrap with a plastic scraper..which is why I decided to do something about it.

As far as the boomerang, while yes I did try and hunt with one, that was more of a joke. But yeah, it comes back.

 

[vince4242]

Thwack those were just the highlights, not trying to write a novel even though it was long.

I had all that stuff too I had two storage sheds full and a whole house and do you know the saying goes "less stuff means more freedom". Now I'm down to 1 breakdown bow, 5 slingshots, and to Shepherd slings. All of which can fit and a very small space but it did take years to pair my life down. Got rid of all my books all my photograph everything digitized I now have hundreds of books that fit under the thumb drive. But that's just me we all have different paths I like to know I have one slingshot I can count on and that's the only one I need.

 

[eaglerockdude]

Vince:

I think as we get older in life we get the gnawing feeling that we wasted a lot of life energy/money on extra stuff when we really had "enough"...I am sort of paraphrasing a book I was recently reading called "Your Money or your life" which is fascinating in some places, boring in others. But to quote "enough...anything more than what your definition of enough is is clutter..it takes up space in your world yet doesn't serve you. To let go of clutter is not lack but opening up space for new things to happen...enough is a place of alertness, freedom and creativity."...I think there is a lot of truth to that.

But within the context of this forum I will say that I have an uneasiness with all of the sling shots I have acquired in a short time(another on the way from china)...and I found myself falling into the same trap again. ...my goal is to settle on one..and I will get rid of the rest ideally. Before they take on a life of their own. I used to have 3 or 4 guitars at all times...always searching for "the one"...now I just have my cream strat...thats all i need...and it feels great every time I pick it up.

So I could be wrong but it kinda sounds like you have been in and around there from your post...I did not catch it the first time but u said something about chemo..bummer...I never had it but my sister did and I have lost a few friends...awful thing. Here's wishing you good health for the New Year!

but hey...FIVE sling shots? jezus christ...

 

[Facewizard13]

My story - I moved in town about 6 years ago. I used to live outside city limits so I'm used to being able to step out of my front door and be able to shoot almost anything. I had neighbors so I wasn't able to shoot firearms. Mostly airsoft and pellet guns. Even before that I lived at my parents house which was on 20 acres, so I could shoot anything I wanted to.

Back to now a few days ago I started looking at slingshots again because that night be something I can shoot inside. After seeing that a decent slingshot from SS is relatively inexpensive, I had to give it a shot

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[vince4242]

Very cool quotes from the book eagle. Definitely like the way he puts it, it has been a several-year journey to get me down to what little I have. And yes having less stuff means having more money or resources to do other things like travel and have a reassurance of my future without having to have life sucking, all consuming job just for money.

Yes if you can believe it I only shoot one slingshot 99% of the time now that it's winter. My pocket Predator Boy Scout is really only used when I go out on Hikes and want to shoot leaves and my travel silicone targets. Where I do have a problem with is buying tubes, bands and ammo. Can't seem to get enough of any of those things but I can still fit all my ammo in one large tote even though I can't pick it up anymore. So there you go that's my dirty Secret I am a ammo hoarder?! And I really want the new Evo Pro but I am resisting because it is not my style and will just hurting my wrist, but it is a daily struggle not to buy it.

Cheers

 

[SLING-N-SHOT]

I guess my slingshot journey just came about from a YouTube suggested video, and I was more or less at the perfect crossroads for a new hobby so perfect timing there.

I am one that loves the craftsmanship part of hand making stuff, and after making Native American style flutes for almost 14 years, gave that up and learned to flint knap arrowheads....did that for a few years so was primed and ready for a new hobby that brought me full circe back to wood, which is my favorite medium.

I decided to start with natural forks as I love the surprise of different grains that multiple tree species offers, and it's always a plus to find naturally spalted forks that have been seasoning out in the weather naturally......I am hooked to put it mildly, lol....everywhere I go now, I see Y forks just begging to be mooched.

I eventually want to make some laminated frames with aluminum or multiplex cores, but that's later.
I want to throw out a huge thanks to all my brothers and sisters on these forums, for just putting up with me, having me around, and the friendships garnered from a simple, wooden Y branch.

Slingshot LYfe !

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