East meets West - slingshot sootoff! with pics and a dog! :)

[3bears]

well, I still haven't seen any of this nice weather we have been promised in the UK yet,
but not being deterred by the lack of sunshine, I still elected to head out into a local
bit of woodland with the dog for the afternoon.

I'd very luckily won myself a DanKung Cougar from Joerg Sprave himself in a forum comp,
so while waiting for it to arrive, I had a bit of a rummage around and dug out my old Fish hunter
a slingshots, as luck would have it I had *just* enough elastic left to knock up a single bandset for
it....so, grabbing a handfull of 9.5mm BBs and the dog it was time to head off to the woods

I keep a small Chinese style slingshot in my belt pouch, a Palm Thunder, I just normally use it to
nail the rats that prey on the birds at the Quarry Park along the shore line, so I know it's 'capable'


so with getting out into the woods a fair bit I decided to see how each fared shooting alongside each other...

to the bend in the path to the post (my target) pictured is a good 53 paces, I had to offset my
aim high with the DanKung, but the Fish Hunter, even on single bands was hitting dead on
nearly every shot! not the result I was expecting- the single bands on the hunter have a MUCH
lighter draw than the tubular bands, so I'd written them off as not being as powerful initially

you can see the flatbands are a good 20% longer, something that I'd done intentionally, I'd reasoned that
the doubled tubular bands were more powerful, so to give the Fish Hunter a fighting chance I'd left them
a bit longer

wandering on a bit further, the dog decides to stop and have a sniff...

... no, I couldn't see her in that lot either lol!

getting around to one of the smaller lakes in the woodland I was able to open up and try a bit of
distance shooting- ol' faithfull Thunder did well, but to be able to hit trees (picked targets, not just
random shots...) on the far side of the lake you needed to apply a fair bit o' vertical Kentucky
Windage, not so much so with the flatbanded up Fish 'pult

so when it arrives, I shall be flatbanding up my Cougar, as after today's little experiments, next time
I go out Ratting it will be a whole new game

the dog wasn't amused that there were no Ducks for her to chase....poor Llian, maybe next time
you'll get to go swimming after all girl!

 

[udamiano]

good review

 

[21st century pict]

Oh no flatbands the dark side!
Ps you better start working out Bro, the cougar weighs a ton .
But what a lovely slingshot to shoot..congratulations......... Joerg Rocks.

 

[Welshwizard]

I,ve got a few catapaults one of which ,an old Milbro i,ve had for over 30 years , I also have a few others but the bands have perished ,just ordered some new square pattern rubber but might give that flat band a try ,Is It available on line ?
I,ve also got a selection of steel shot from 6mm upto the 9.5mm you are using but hav,nt done a lot of testing with them ,I have found that the 6mm are a bit too light and 9.5mm were bit too heavy , lead would I think be a better ammo but other than casting my own I hav,nt been able to buy 8mm or perhaps .38 cal .
Have you used lead shot ,If so how did you find it ?

 

[3bears]

I,ve got a few catapaults one of which ,an old Milbro i,ve had for over 30 years , I also have a few others but the bands have perished ,just ordered some new square pattern rubber but might give that flat band a try ,Is It available on line ?
I,ve also got a selection of steel shot from 6mm upto the 9.5mm you are using but hav,nt done a lot of testing with them ,I have found that the 6mm are a bit too light and 9.5mm were bit too heavy , lead would I think be a better ammo but other than casting my own I hav,nt been able to buy 8mm or perhaps .38 cal .
Have you used lead shot ,If so how did you find it ?

you can pick up flatbands on ebay easily enough, try looking for 'teraband gold'

square rubber isnt the best stuff in my opinion, it's a very heavy draw for a relativity small power output, but it does last a long time.

flatbands seem to be the slingshooter's choice these days. get yourself some flatbands, then you'll be calling 9.5mm steels too light lol

 

[Welshwizard]

Thanks 3bears will check it out on the bay now .