Lat night I was struck with inspiration... the idea of a slingshot which is based on the PFS, combined with the bareback style of shooting I've been enjoying recently. John's outward-sloped fork design was what tipped me over the edge though - the Tieshot was born:
I was really looking for something which can be cut out quickly with a hand saw, so it had to be all straight lines but still with some style. Starting with the idea that a coffin shape would make a decent handle which can easily be rounded off with a rasp, the end result just screamed out 'school tie'...
The angled top is about the same angle as the index finger knuckle in bareback shooting and serves to stop this becoming a stickshot. Next you can see Mk1 and Mk2 on the bench;
...and here they are, with a little bit of 'scallop' shaping to the top of Mk1. Unfortunately, I made the slots too big, so had to add notches at the outsides, to allow binding of the bands. Mk2 has narrower slots, so I was able to use the matchstick method (which is what I really wanted for this design);
I know it's still very rough and the bands won't last five minutes with all those sharp edges so next is a strip down, filling of the voids in my cheap plywood, smooth all the edges, paint and varnish and then over to my daughter for the 'Scooby Treatment'. I was just so excited at the result of the test shots that I had to let you all know !
Clearly it doesn't work at all well shot sideways, but held vertically and shot flipwise with the pouch twist and tweak it works incredibly well and I think the basic design can be adapted to suit everyone's favourite band attachment method, as well as being simple to make with very basic tools.
