VE6AB Technical
Bark-Left-On Stick
I have had a life long interest in primitive weapons that include stick bows and slingshots amongst others types of primitive weapons.
My interest in slingshots goes way back to my youth when we made them with a fork of a tree, rubber bands cut from bicycle inner tubes, and a piece of leather from the tongue of a shoe for the pouch sized to accept the small stones selected for ammo.
Over the years I got away from homemade slingshots, and today my collection of slingshots are all factory built models, some running to the exotic with sights and other accessories.
For the most part the ammo I shoot with my slingshots are steel balls in 3/8" and 1/2" diameter as well as 1/2" glass balls. Recently I became aware of guys making up latex flat bands with a matching pouch to shoot BB's.
After making a set of BB bands for one of my slingshots that has the capability to change out bands in the field, and discovering how much fun it was to shoot BB's. I decided to make up a slingshot especially sized for BB's, and although I could have made it from more exotic material, I went back to my roots and sourced a fork from a tree that would be perfect.
I did not have to look far, as I found the perfect fork in one of the trees located in my yard that needed pruning.
After cutting the fork out of the branch with my trusty taskmate pocket-knife that incudes a saw blade for sawing wood, I then trimmed the fork ends to the length I wanted.
I then cut a groove in each fork arm about 3/8" down from the ends
to allow thin pieces of latex used to fasten the latex flat bands in place, to take their place in these grooves while stretching the fastening latex being wound around the flat bands.
After spending less than an hour working on the slingshot, I finished it to my satisfaction. Minutes late I was shooting BB's at my indoor target range and loving how my latest slingshot turned out.
In fact I've re-discovered how much satisfaction one gets from building a simple slingshot with a fork harvested from a tree, and with the latex bands available today, it more than holds its own when matched against my factory made slingshots.
I plan on shooting it over my chronograph to check the speeds being achieved by the BB’s.
Expand the photo for a closer look.....
