black widow slingshot

[longshot]

I think one of the problems with a slingshot, is that even if you practice loads, your chances of getting a flyer (an unexpected shot that goes off target) are too high to make the weapons suitable for hunting under normal circumstances. Too many things can go wrong.

Try this, if you can get 995 shots out of 1000 inside a 50p target from 15 yards, then the weapon is probably good enough to use to kill an animal. But I think anyones chances of ever achieveing that level of reliability from a slingshot are extremely remote.

People do hunt with them, of course, and if you are starving, then all the rules and ethics go out the window. But if you dont have to, then maybe consider more humane alternatives.

It's not pleasant to watch an animal die an ugly and prolonged death, though I doubt you'd actually get to see it. A rabbit for example, would go underground and die an agonising death out of site and away from your ability to put it out of it's misery.

Bow hunting is illegal in the UK for similar reasons, though ironically, you probably stand a better chance of achieveing a reliable kill with a bow than you would with a slingshot.

If I were you, I'd practice with a slingshot against non-living targets and wait till you are old enough to buy an air rifle before you go hunting ...or find an older person willing to go hunting with you, teach you and take responsibility for the gun.

Just something to consider.

trust me on this, learn to hunt with your weapon now not when your in a survival situation. at that point, you have too much on the line to miss or what ever. earn your experience now, when the pressure is off not when the difference between a full belly and hunger is a missed rabbit or small game of some such.

always obey the game laws in your area. they are there for a reason. even if its to keep a beaurocrat in a job.


dean

 

[leon-b]

yes i plan to practice alot, i went out today with my mate and his slingshot and we found a few old rusted coke cans so we put them on the ground and fired away, i hit it and the stone went through one side and through the other it was pretty smart

leon

 

[Martyn]

trust me on this, learn to hunt with your weapon now not when your in a survival situation.

I take your point, but it should be noted that in Britain, we dont have any real wilderness. We are never more than 7 miles from a road and in most cases, 7 minutes from a bus stop. Unless you are in the highlands of Scottland, we have almost total coverage of mobile networks. The chances of getting stranded, to the point of hungar, are for all intents and purposes, non-existant. Unless people travel abroad to somewhere they have real wilderness (newfoundland for example), survival situations only really exist as fantasies.

But I take your point.

 

[Toddy]

Before you start practising with your slingshot, and I too have a Black Widow , see how good you can get at regularly, reliably, getting close to the animals you eventually want to hunt. There is absolutely no point practising at a standard10, 15, 20m or whatever, if you can't get that close to the beast in the first place.
Your elastics will last well with use if you oil them very gently with something like olive oil and store them in a dark glass jar. Light destroys the rubber.
Oh, and aniseed balls make good ammunition confuses the h3ll out of the local dog walkers though

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[CLEM]

If I remember correctly from what I read,the blackwidow catapult produces over 40ftlbs with the correct steel shot!

 

[leon-b]

yes down our local woods we have loads of muntjak which i could stalk just to practice im obviosly not going to hunt deer with a slingshot, i will also tryand get close to pidgeons and rabbits. actually te other day i saw a groupe of about 10 rabbits over the field and i managed to get very close to them.

leon

 

[Longstrider]

Hi Leon, I am a little worried by your insistence that you will be able to hunt live game both effectively and humanely with a catapult. Trust me when I say that it is very, very unlikely that you will achieve either. The Black Widow produces enough power (especially with the "Magnum" bands they sell for it) to despatch small prey but the accuracy that you are likely to achive, even with a whole load of practice, will not be good enough to ensure clean kills. I had a similar catapult, ( a "Wrist Rocket" ) for many years, and a mould to make my own .38" lead balls with to use as ammo. This ammo was far more consistant than any stones could ever be, and I practiced with the thing a lot but would never have considered it a good weapon for hunting humanely.

You would do far better to stick to using the catapult to shoot targets like cans and rocks and to use this excercise to learn from. The catapult will teach you more about the trajectory of a projectile than just about any other weapon. Try shooting at targets at varying distances and you will soon see what I mean. This knowledge will stand you in good stead once your parents decide that you are old enough to have an airgun to hunt with. You will be able to very quickly learn the trajectory curve of your pellet and therefore be better able to judge elevation (also called hold-over or hold-under) for shots at distances other than that at which your sights are set. This in turn will make you a better shot and a better hunter with your airgun in less time than if you had not used the catapult first.

I started out with a "normal" catapult, upgraded to the Wrist Rocket, then, only later did I get permission from my parents to own an airgun. I practiced with the airgun nearly every day for about 3 months before I took a shot at anything living. The lessons I learned with the catapult were ones that helped me a lot with my airgunning, and still help me today when I shoot rabbits with .22" rimfire rifles and larger calibres for foxes and deer.

 

[leon-b]

ok thanks i will bear this in mind
leon

 

[bambodoggy]

I don't see a problem hunting small game with a catapult, I've done it for many years now. I use little metal ballbearings as ammo and I either hit the bunnie and kill it dead regardless of where on it's body it hits due to the shear power of the blunt trauma or I miss....either way it's still a fairly humane way to kill imo.

What's more important to me is that you are killing for a reason and not just for the sake of it (whether that reason be food, pest control or anything else you can validate to yourself).....but even that is a path you have to choose or find for yourself.

Happy hunting,

Bam.

 

[leon-b]

ok thanks for your opinion
leon

 

[longshot]

I take your point, but it should be noted that in Britain, we dont have any real wilderness. We are never more than 7 miles from a road and in most cases, 7 minutes from a bus stop. Unless you are in the highlands of Scottland, we have almost total coverage of mobile networks. The chances of getting stranded, to the point of hungar, are for all intents and purposes, non-existant. Unless people travel abroad to somewhere they have real wilderness (newfoundland for example), survival situations only really exist as fantasies.

But I take your point.

not to beat a dead horse but i have seen folks lost a mile from home and not be ale to find the way out and not everyone has a cell/mobile phone.

dean

 

[Singeblister]

A little bit off topic here , but ,,,,,,, has anyone ever hit the knuckle of their thumb with one of those black widow catapults ? A friend of mine had one years ago when we were kids and I tried to fire a ball bearing , don't know how it happened but it hit the knuckle bone closest to my hand ,,,,,,, dam it didn't half hurt I didn't go to hospital or anything with it but it was painful for about a month afterwards, needless to say I never had another go.
Air guns are much better imo although i never hunt with them anymore I used to be a crack shot with my BSA mercury .

 

[sam_acw]

If you are hunting surely there are 2 most important considerations
- What happens if I miss?
-What happens if I hit?
for missing make sure you're not going to hit something you don't want too. Rifle hunters always aim for a solid background (like a hillside) behind their target.
For hitting it you need to be sure that 99.9% of hits will either kill or completely incapacitate your target.
I remember reading an article on wildfowling where the writer said that he aimed to get as close as possible and use the biggest ammunition to make sure of a quick kill. It's not always seen as sporting but neither is wounding your quarry.

 

[pierre girard]

dont get hares mate,they are too nice to kill i think,they are magical creatures.i have been holding my gun with a hare 20 feet away and haven't shot it because they are too beautiful to shoot.stick to rabbits.

wiggles

Just the opposite here. Cotton tails (rabbit) are the preferred game, while snowshoes (hare) are disease ridden, stringy, and don't taste very good. Cotton tails are easy to hunt in winter - as they don't turn white - like the snowshoe hare.

Cotton tails are generally in towns - snowshoes are in the woods. When I was young, people generally wouldn't admit they ate rabbit (or hare) as "only poor people eat rabbit."

http://khshawks.org/devilmammals.htm#TAIL

http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/lepus_americanus.html

Jack rabbit, which I believe is another type of hare, is considered a varmint in the western part of our state. They are enormous. The first time I saw one - I thought it was a dog.

http://www.geolit.org/ffhs/rabbit.htm

As to slings - when I was growing up - I had a friend who was very practised with a sling. He was so good with one he could hit a soda can every time - up to about 25 yards. This was a sling, not a slingshot or wrist rocket.

 

[Lithril]

I've got a Barnett Diablo catapult and with magnum bands (or even just surgical tubing from a hospital) the power is incredible,and the accuracy even with weights and sights set up isn't excellent, be very careful Leon, I've fired ball bearings through 50gal steel oil drums and the bearings exited the other side, thats going to kill somebody if you miss.

Matt

 

[leon-b]

this is some good info you lot are posting
leon

 

[Woods Wanderer]

i love my caterpult it kills with chest shots on rabbits squirrels and close range pidgeons its made from a forked stick with really thick bands cut down to 5 half inchs long a very light and strong leather pouch uses 50 cal lead balls or large nuts (nuts and bolts) i only try for 10 meters (sittin rabbits or phesant range)
to give you an idea of the power i shot a sqirrel in the chest the ribs on both sides were smashed the lungs were in pieces the diaphram burst and heart split it dyed instantly and was thrown back a foot from were i hit it. i also shot an already dead fox in the head and the ball went through its brain box and hit the atlas bone on its spine so get good and practice until you are comfortable then up the power by shortening the bands
and look at this www.primitivesupply.com

 

[leon-b]

what bands did you put on your slingshot to make it so powerfull woods wanderer
leon

 

[leon-b]

on that website it says that the maxi slingshot can kill deer how would you make the bands that powerful
leon

 

[Colin McGlade]

leon.
I have not seen it said in the posts how you are using the Black Widow.
So to get the best accuracy out of the BW is to use it like a bow. That is if you are right handed, hold the BW in your left hand with forks pointing to the right. That is when the folding wrist support comes into it's own. Nipping the leather part of the sling with the ammo between the thumb and the side of first finger. When pulling the bands back, put your thumb into the right side of your lips at the side of your face. That will give a fixed point to aim from.
You only have to move your left arm up/down left/right as a sight.
You can make a simple sight by putting a strip of sticky tape on the top fork (when they are pointing right) Then put a pin (the ones with a plastic ball on the end ) into the the sticky tape , sticking up. Then get a large cardboard box and a old blanket. Put the blanket into the box to stop the ammo from being lost by going through. The best ammo will be all the same shape, weight and size. Put the box obout 10 feet away,this may seem close but it is best to start close than for the ammo to be lost because it is too fare away.
Mark a target about the size of a two pound piece in the centre of one of the sides of the box (open end up) Now with your left arm fully exstended and your right hand at the right hand side of your mouth. Move your left hand until the top of the pin head is on the target. Let loose the sling. Do not worry about hitting the target as long as you hit the box. Just go for the group. just practice untill you can get a group the size of the two pound piece. That is when you start to move the pin up/down left/right until you are hitting the target. Then and only then do you move the boxe back to 15 feet. Hours of fun. With regard to hunting. Only with the confidence of knowing you can hit what you are aiming at. Can you decide if the BW has enugh power to cleanly kill small game.

Hope this is of help
Colin