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agazain Offline OP
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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

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Well done!
Brings back memories in all of us "young" boys.

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You goof!


Apparently you never saw Dennis the Menace..


The slingshot goes in your back pocket, not around your neck! grin


Had one made like that when I was a kid, but the rubber was from an inner tube. Your high tech surge tubing approach not doubt is easier and better!


"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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By the time I was 8 or so, I was a pro at making slingshots. Inner tube for rubber, ball bearings for ammo- got good enough to kill pigeons in the barn. Then, 9 YO came around, with a Daisy BB gun for a present, and the slingshots were forgotten.


I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave....
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I too began with he lowly Goliath slayer.

I used pre-bent heavy duty pipe hanger brackets. We made the final bends in a vise with a hammer.

One of my buddies acquired a wrist rocket. It was all the rage. I eventually got one of those for shoveling snow or mowing lawns? I recall it was some work. Unlike today where there is simply an expectation of entitlement.

My grandfather gave me an "older " Sheridan air rifle. That rifle was made in 1960 ish

Still have that and the wrist rocket frame. The bands broke don't know where to get the replacements. The rubber cushion pieces are gone too where the tubes slid over the frame.


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JJ: replacement tubes and rubber thingies are easily available at sporting goods stores or on the net.

BTW: don't just google "Rubber Thingies"...you'll have to trust me on this..... whistle


"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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agazain Offline OP
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The best I ever did was the Harrier Hawk (top) alias Gymnogene, a pure luck shot that punched his skull. Had to get creative to get him down from the acacia tree. Sadly, I let him sit on my taxidermy table too long so, "Bad boy!" The Bruce's green pigeon was mine, the paradise flycatcher[Ethiopian race has those spectacular white trailers] and little bee-eater not. We had a kid at school who was a real artist and had eyes, borax, excelsior, etc. his dad bought for his little business. I was a wannabe, but it was fun trying, and bought a few of his. He did a Namaqua dove for me, too. We ate a few doves that we killed, although I am a white not dark meat guy. Sadly, all bird mounts stayed behind when my folks had to leave the Marxists behind.

It's around the neck, ingwe.

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agazain Offline OP
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Y'all do know the difference in

A Bean Flip----
and

A Sling Shot ?

A sling shot is made with 2 pieces of thong, 1 longer than the other. They are tied to a piece of flat leather (pad). You place a rock, marble, etc in the pad and SWING the SLING SHOT around your head releasing the shorter
Thong thereby SLINGING the rock, marble (bullet ).

I assume y'all got the idea or have used one.

A bean flip is not a sling shot.

Don't mean to be critical nor sarcastic.


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agazain Offline OP
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Goliath was dispatched with a sling (1 Samuel 17:40,50). The Benjamites were experts with slings (Judges 20:16). 2 Chronicles 26:14 says slingstones (implying something large to be thrown rather than shot); also see Proverbs 26:8 for more about the effects of tying a stone in a sling -- small rocks tied to the pouch of a slingshot would hurt, but not enough to fit the proverb. Bible reference to slingshots don't appear.

I'll give you peashooter -- any other kind of shooter, you are on your own -- even bean flip. But a sling isn't a slingshot. "Slingshot" in that context is what you either use in or do with a sling.

Bean flip must be a Razorback thing. Never heard the term before. I need to get out more? Now let's fight about the word and fish meant by "perch". Smile already!

Last edited by agazain; 08/03/15.
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agazain -

I'm familiar with the story of David & Goliath. You must not be familiar with a real sling shot.

I played with more than 1 when I was a kid and teen. You can get proficient with the 'sling shot'. I can also tell you that you CAN put a hole THRU tin from a rock thrown from a sling shot.

It would be VERY EASY to KILL someone with a sling shot IF you were accurate enuff to hit them in the head.


Bean Flip OR Bean Shooter is all I've heard the other one called. It also does NOT have the power of a Sling Shot.

edit to add:

No intention of fighting nor arguing. If I have time I'll put together a 'sling shot' and post a pic. With the speed and centrifugal force of a sling around your body/head, the rock or whatever can travel at a fast pace.

smile

Last edited by jwall; 08/04/15.

jwall- *** 3100 guy***

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agazain Offline OP
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Very familiar with a sling, having made several. Just not practical for bird hunting, unless you want smashed bird. That's what David used, not an Arkansas pea shooter. And, you are actually arguing, which I gave up after growing up in a dorm with the same 18 guys over ten years in mission boarding school.


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