I never mornally respond to ads that pop up on YouTube, but yesterday I did just that. It was for $50 for what they call a new type of slingshot. It looks more like a sort of pistol with a heavy rubber band to fire a steel ball. I don't believe the outrageous claims of it being more accurate than a handgun, nor that it can be used to hit a target 200 meters away, but it did seem like an interesting toy. And maybe it will be just the thing to use to get rid of pesky squirrels that keep attacking my bird feeders. I wonder if anyone else here has one of these gadgets. When, and if it arrives, I'll post again to either say it was worth it, or to admit that I was suckered.
Maybe I just wasted $50
- Thread starter vito
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protoolman
Service-Sixer
Hey we've all took a chance on some new gee whiz that's cool item. Let us know how it works out.
Was just cleaning up the basement, and came across my two old "wrist rockets" (one folding, other one not). It's been several years since I used either one, so the surgical tubing was shot. I remember (when I was young & foolish ;^) wrapping wire around bundles of stick matches, so they would land on the heads when launched & light up if they struck a hard object (like an asphalt parking lot)!
Need to find replacement tubing, because those things always struck me as a great 'emergency' tool to have around...
:)
Need to find replacement tubing, because those things always struck me as a great 'emergency' tool to have around...
:)
Hertervillian
Saluki
I’ve bought a couple things directly through the face book links. 100% shipped direct from China, one claimed Finland maybe, but shipping revealed a seriously Chinese shipper name so…
Anyway after a shipped from China length of time the stuff arrived as advertised.
I kinda expect the crap to not arrive, if that makes sense? But, worth the few $s if it does? My personal math, no different than a handful of scratchers at Maverick.
Anyway after a shipped from China length of time the stuff arrived as advertised.
I kinda expect the crap to not arrive, if that makes sense? But, worth the few $s if it does? My personal math, no different than a handful of scratchers at Maverick.
LDB
Blackhawk
I've got a really nice, lightly used bridge for sale... :rolleyes: :whistle:
Is this the one?
Justice B. Swift
Single-Sixer
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- N.W. Oregon, The Big Valley & Now S.W. Idaho also.
I have had some good fun with the Bug-A-Salt weapon. My father bought himself one and then subsequently bought them for me and my son. Money wasted on a foolish toy, you ask? Oh heck no... life is short! play a little and enjoy. $50 ain't the end of the world.
We always made them out of the crotch of a hickory sapling. If you let it dry for a couple months before use they would last for at least a year of abuse. It took a bus ride to town to get a couple rubber bands (they were about 5/8” X 6”) from the stationery store and a patch from an old baseball glove to finish the build. Our preferred ammo consisted of smooth stones from the banks of a couple local streams, wild grapes while still green and hard, cherry stones, and every acorn we could get our hands on in the fall. No one from my neighborhood ever had a commercial slingshot but we were aware of their existence.
bigbillyboy
Hunter
Made lots of slingshots as a kid . I remember using old car inner tubes for the rubber band part . These tubes were red in color and very elastic . .....
warren5421
Single-Sixer
Back in the 80's I lived in Toulon, Illinois where one of teachers was competave. He got the championship that year to come to Toulon, Wide world of Sports showed up but didn't run the tournament. You wouldn't believe what the contestants could do with 3/8" steel balls.
GasGuzzler
Hawkeye
My wife and two youngest constantly make fun of the Asian-written AI dialog in that commercial. Can't decide whether to shun the purchase or celebrate it.
Seems like I might have a a sling shot at some point in time... I do think in my mid teens I had one of the wrist supported ones because I remember launching lit real M-80s with it... when those babies went off in the air they were Loud.... but then I took some 3/4" steel piping and made a shoulder fired rocket launcher for bottle rockets.... that was fun to shoot out of the bed of a pickup at the other gangs.
Great emergency tool. robb white, death watch. From scholastic, iirc, early 70s.
It will be interesting to see. You could let the birds earn their living by eating the insects.
Only wasted $50. What a piker.
I remember my Grandfather in North West Arkansas having a fit when I acquired a slingshot - perhaps early 50's or thereabouts. He was relieved when he saw it and commented "That ain't a slingshot, it is a bean shooter." A sling shot is two long cords or leather strips attached to a pocket in the middle for a small stone. Whirl it around a few times and let go of one end of one of the cords. Ala David of Goliath fame. The slingshot is notoriously wild for beginners. I had a lot of fun breaking bottles at the dump and whacking frogs in the cow ponds with my bean shooter back before I graduated to my dad's .22 Winchester!
Yaworski
Hawkeye
What you're talking about is a "sling", "shepherd's sling", or sometimes "David's sling."
If those are what I'm thinking of, you can probably get replacement surgical tubes at a medical supply store.
GasGuzzler
Hawkeye
My grandmother called them something different. There's also "wrist rocket".
Hunting sports stores often have them, and the rubber and some selections of ammo
Hankus
Buckeye
As a kid I experimented with arrows shot from my wrist rocket …
Cholo was into slingshots as I recall.
They are quite effective on small game and pests.
They also bring out the little boy in us... :) ;)
They are quite effective on small game and pests.
They also bring out the little boy in us... :) ;)
In modern language, they were called Afro-American shooters. Originally made from hickory forks and innertubes. Later upgraded to metal and tubing with more power. I worked for a veterinarian for a while and he gave me a whole roll of 'expired' surgical tubing. Really good stuff that made the old wrist rocket into a real tool. I carried it to move cattle out of thick brush where a horse couldn't go. Gathered ball bearings (for rabbits not cows) from a local repair shop and picked through railroad 'ballast' for mostly round stones (real bummer when RxR started using cinders and shale for fill material).
Yaworski
Hawkeye
Maybe that was a mid-western thing. We always called them "slingshots."
My brother had a friend who made a David Sling. Everything but the target was in danger.
I still shoot it on occasion. Great fun! In the summer my two youngest grandkids and I were shooting hickory nuts out of a tree in the backyard. It's been a very high yield year so almost every shot brought some down. We kept score :)
OP
My conclusion to my original post is that I wasted my $50. The item arrived with no instructions and it certainly is not intuitive to me how to put it together to work. It also came without some of what was promised in the offer. I thought I would just wait to see the ads again and maybe that would give me a good enough image of the assembled device so that I could figure out how to put it together, but I should not be surprised that those ads which had been popping up everywhere, are now gone completely. I guess they made their money from people like me and then disappeared.
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Yaworski
Hawkeye
Instructions? We don't need no stinkin' instructions!
