slingshot

[Pheonix]

so I tried to make my first slingshot today and failed miserably. I used pecan wood for the handle witch is a very hard wood. I used a mountain bike inner tube and cut it in half and tied it to the wood. well the rock didn't go very far and I couldn't get very much pullback the tube wasn't very stretchy but it was very old. the SAS survival book says a bike inner tube works very well so why didn't it work for me. I'm thinking either the tube was to short and I should use the whole tube or maybe the tube is to old and maybe I should boil it in some water (don't know if that will help) any ideas you can give will help. I have lots of old inner tubes to experiment with.

 

[Pedal]

The shorter the tube, the more tension. The more tension, the harder and farther the projective will go.

But hey, you have alot of inner tubes.

Boil one to see if it gets some elasticity.

Fit the handle with one long tube.

Fit the handle with a short tube.

See which works.

If all else fails, make a crustpunk bicycle tube thong and sell it.

 

[farmer john]

cut strips from the inner tubes man thats what i do it works good and if u wanta get fancy cut the tongue from aan old leather boot and use that for a pouch

 

[wildboy860]

buy a slingshot band from walmart and tie it to a stick. I carry just the sling shot band in my survival kit for just that purpose.

 

[Dishka8643]

latex exercise resistance bands work really well. It's essentially the same material that is used for commercial slingshots. You can get packs of them dirt cheap on ebay.

This guy has some crazy slingshots that are made with resistance bands.

 

[bcob]

If you don't have any luck with the inner tubes, try to get your hands on some surgical tubing. Most big-box hardware stores will carry it. It's very cheap, but with a sharp enough blade you could probably just cut some off the roll, and it is super springy. I have a pretty good slingshot that uses surgical tubing, and spearfishers use it to make polespears.

 

[nuckfumbertheory]

if you keep having trouble you should try the old style rock and sling. it is fun to learn and easy to make with a little piece of leather and some string. David V Goliath... we've got our own giants to slay.

 

[farmer john]

old skewl slings take some practice then again most things worth doing do
make sure your strips or strings coming off the pouch are long enuff so that you can rack up some energy