Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa PIFF--PHUTHOTTTT!

A once familiar sound is re-erupting from memory’s caldera. That’s not some crazy new expression from the “urban” dictionary titled above. Rather, it’s my onomatopoeic rendering of the sound a homemade slingshot makes, and I’ve just re-experienced it.
A safari hunter today, all grown up after an East African childhood and for decades “returned” to my passport country, I am reflecting on how I got my start. Having no resources, I like many classmates, was limited to making my own “catty” from local materials. We cobbled together sticks, twine, leather from American blue jean trouser patches identifying the brand, and surgical tubing procured from discarded mission hospital supplies to create the slingshots yielding that unique sound. Piff—phuthottt!
I learned to hunt with slingshots I made, developing my growing love for wildlife and hunting by chasing Ethiopia’s spectacular and varied bird populations around the country. Whether at our mission vacation spot, on camping trips to Lake Langano, just making our way to Awash National Park, or around Leimo Hospital mission station where Dad worked and Mom kept house, hunting birds consumed my extra time. Even today I find myself using a unique set of skills. Instead of more useful trainings in tracking, studying prey species habits and how they relate to the land, etc. needed to hunt with a firearm, I learned to key on motion and sound, being limited to bird hunting. My PH (professional hunter) says, “Look for something that doesn’t belong,” scanning through binoculars. Not knowing the territory like he does, it all looks foreign to me. Yet, a flash of wing, tail, horn and I see things he might miss! (I am adept at locating many a “cactus beast” very well, if you just have to know. Sunshine on the ears of cactus catches my eye, whether the prickly pear grows in Texas or as an unwanted introduction to South Africa.)
Store-bought slingshots just don’t have the same feel or ring to them. Uniform ammunition in the form of marbles or ball bearings work well with Daisy or Pocket Rocket offerings, but a bagful of stones is more suited to the homemade variety, custom made to draw all the way back to your ear before release. Bowhunting, particularly with recurve bows, uses the same instinctive type of shooting as my “catty”. Compound bows, like a good custom rifle, ought to be tuned or fit to the shooter’s physique by contrast. And, you get to craft your slingshot to suit your own taste.
Lease hunting in Lufkin, Texas, was my first exposure to whitetail deer hunting. There I began collecting forked sticks that would just last week be ready for new slingshots. After twenty years in my garage, the wood was truly seasoned. Similarly, I’ve saved Lee brand leather patches from blue jeans worn out over time. A trip to LOWE’s yielded latex tubing in a size I didn’t have to carefully split in halves, like the surgical variety my dad supplied, starting the final process. Whittling the grooves with my Winchester clasp knife was easy, and I used our kitchen pliers to quickly deepen them to fit the tubing purchased. (Interestingly enough, the knife is made using something called pakkawood. When I asked online where it comes from, a wag said pakka trees grow right next to the Arctic banana and the spaghetti bush. In other words, it is actually manmade, a urethane impregnated laminate/composite. )
After assembling two slingshots -- I guess you know “catty” is short for catapult -- trial shots in my backyard using stone gave a truly nostalgic, satisfying result. Any roving tomcat trying to get at our kitty is looking for trouble now! I guess the “professional small boy” Peter Hathaway Capstick refers to never does leave the grown man. Now I have rifles from .22 LR to .416 Rigby, taking a few small safaris learning to use them in Africa. Instead of being limited to “catty” and rocks, the pleasure is back. Piff—phuthottt!

Barry