Starter catapult for child?

[Garnett]

I'm wondering whether our boys would like to learn how to use a catapult.

What's the best bang-for-buck starter catapult I could get them?

Bear in mind they can break pretty much anything so durability is key.

 

[Pattree]

How old are they?

 

[Crac]

Most the 'performance' comes from the rubber. You are better to ask on a slingshot forum which is the best rubber since different brands and different products change a little bit. I saw no reason to keep up with American trends and I have a box of toys already.


Any serious rubber brand will sell bands in a range of thickness.

Some brands are sold as for hunting, these tend to be very 'hard' / 'heavy' meaning the draw force can quickly ramp up to very high levels. I didn't use any of these. My opinion: These are more for personal bests and 0m chronographs which I have very limited interest in.

There should be some all-rounder/s.

Lastly some brands for more for target shooting. These tend to be very 'soft' / 'stretchy' usually a lot less total draw weight, the draw doesn't suddenly build up quickly plus the rubber is usually very snappy to these should still shoot very fast. Or rather tiny ammo can be shot fast. These are all about getting as gentle a draw as possible. If the draw force changes A LOT with distance, precise aiming is very difficult.


Any yoga, pilates, or physiotherapy band should be excellent: IF the band is 100% latex. Certain big names aren't, but you might be able to find some local extremely cheap. My local ASDA had a set with fastest bands I've used.

So a cutting mat (ideally get A3 or even A2?) and a 45mm Olfa rotary cutter will be needed.

The key to performance is picking the right thickness and cutting a taper on a flatband.
Most flatband was sold in 2 meter length, so you cut maybe 10 or 11 block (20cm or 18.18cm long). Extreme tapers tend to have lower a lower average strain which is why I made a little calculator to do the sums.

Then split the block into bandsets often 4 or 5 sets... There was only so many ways to split a 150mm width band into 4 or 5 sets assuming a minimum tapering of 100%:90% and a maximum of 100%:70%? When you cut rubber, it can move and stretch so rounding to nearest mm and aiming for a 2mm+ difference of the real world solution.

I've made slingshots for children and lovely grannies. Scaling isn't really a problem. Once you know what works and why, designing a solution for less performance but increase lifespan is easy.


Buy a set of kangaroo leather pouches? A lot of what you do with the pouch is personal preference. I craft leather so I use off cuts. I have a preference but a set of die cut pouches is one less variable.

Any ties (The thin strips of rubber) can be made from the old bands, in terms of tying wrap and tuck is your friend. I find it a whole lot easier to tie flatbands (often to paracord tabs) or tie small tubular bands rather than anything else*. I've re-banded a slingshot in the field plenty of times.
(*except snapping in Chinese tubes but then you have wear problem...)


The frame is the least important part for performance. My main tip is that a simple flat Y-branch that fits in a pocket is again a WHOLE lot easier to manage, meaning you can get out for target practice. I built all my frames, I'd dump more ideas on this by private message. The problem is if I pick up a frame, or wrap my fingers around a fork in the wild I can say if it's right or wrong for me. But there are different holding styles.


You will also need safety glasses.

 

[TLM]

Bear in mind they can break pretty much anything so durability is key.

When in the army there was a saying that the only thing you can give a fresh conscript is a piece of railway track, anything else and they'll break it. There was some discussion about the length though, some thought 40 cm some 60 cm, anything shorter and they'll lose it, longer and they'll find a way to bend it.

 

[Kepis]

Why not get them to make their own traditional style catapult from a forked stick and some square section rubber that is easily obtainable from Ebay, baring that soft rubber and pouches can be purchased from every tackle shop in the country, as of course are cheap, low powered catapults used for loose feeding.

If you go down the traditional route they are invested in the project from locating and harvesting a simple stick to making something they can use, obviously Dad can do any knife work if you are uncomfortable with them doing it, but should they want to get hands on, then a vegetable peeler works wonders for removing bark.

The three catapults in the picture are some of the ones the boys and i made many years ago, the central one has rubber from the tackle shop and is very low powered, the two others have square section rubber, the pouches are bits of leather cut out with scissors, for these we used cable ties to secure the bands, but of you want to do it properly, then the bands and pouch can be secured with cordage and whipping knots.

All three of these forks are still going strong. albeit on multiple sets of bands, over time the the boys went through these to using more "modern" types with flat bands, right up to tapered double theraband gold, but to start with, these were cheap, robust and ideal to have a little bit of fun with.

 

[Nice65]

I’m assuming you mean off the shelf and not involving a rotary cutter, joining a catty forum and researching rubber, or even tying your own bands on?

Wasp get great reviews from the catty crowd. I bought an Enzo off the back of recommendations here. Nice thing for your youngsters is you can put easy to pull thin bands on them and start them off using mud balls as ammo. I bought the thin yellow bands and some thicker ones for launching steel balls, but I’ve never fitted the stronger bands as I have the most fun with the easy bands. Super easy to swap over and I’d challenge anyone to break the catapult itself. 17/11 yellow Snipersling was the one they recommended for clay balls. Allen key is provided and clamps are a lot easier and more trustworthy than ties.

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