My Slingshot

NOT my slingshot
feeling like a fraud here

Several months ago, I came across a slingshot I made for students in a play. One student had written a play based on the short story, The Ransom of Red Chief.  Those were a trying few weeks in the classroom. I tried to help with the props. I made a slingshot without instruction. It worked. And, I cannot locate my slingshot!

I knew I could find a slingshot cut from  piece of wood with probably a jigsaw. But, Red Chief would not have had one of those. I found my own forked branch and used my bow saw on it.

All the students were amazed and gave me a new respect. The boys questioned me extensively about where I learned to make a slingshot. The girls were impressed that the old lady could do this. Well, first of all, I had used a slingshot before, probably begged my little brother to let me use his. My son may have had one. Since there are too many windows in close proximity in the neighborhood, it was probably confiscated and secured until we could get him to an open space. Have you ever made a slingshot?

At a festival last fall, there was a "booth" where cans were erected on a fence towards the woods with slingshots and rocks for all to try. I had to elbow a few kids and give some others the evil eye to get a turn. I suddenly went deaf when they whined to their mothers about wanting a turn "noooow." Next year, I will carry my own slingshot. That will show them. And, I won't have to share. Maybe I will practice and get a little respect. Shooting a rock three feet from the can repeatedly and missing did nothing for my street cred.  Maybe I could carry my own can--a #10 can, an easier target.

Reading a prepper site gave me new thoughts. The slingshot can be a stealth weapon. Do you plant to kill rabbits or hit people with your slingshot? Hmmm, and when I don't come near the mark with my stealth weapon, what then? I am not a prepper and cannot shoot straight with this thing.  Soooo.... Maybe a little practice is in order, you know, prepping for knocking cans off a post. Have you ever used a slingshot? Successfully?

Today, I came across an article on a blog about how to make a slingshot. Getting rubber tubing from the hardware store and using dental floss to secure the tubing is not exactly helpful. If you are a prepper, you will wonder what to do when the tubing store closes or you run out of dental floss. No, I am not going to reference the blog after I have roundly criticized materials and technique.

What materials did you use for your slingshot? Rubber tubing is okay, but I expected more ingenuity.

However, when I went to the shelf where my slingshot lived, it was not there. And, I had written this post! The unfit forked branch was on the shelf, still. It is very strong, not likely to break, but I used a more aesthetically pleasing branch for my first and only slingshot.

All the high school students in my class begged me to make a slingshot for them. It did not seem like a good idea to bring weapons to school for kids to fling rocks into each other and glass windows. My career would have been short-lived due to a lack of common sense.

For the slingshot-not-found, I used a piece of leather for the rock pocket and used some sort of band for the stretchy part. Maybe I used twine to lash it all together. When I find my slingshot, I will post a picture. Kids long ago used inner tubes from tires for the stretchy band.

Yes, I am a girly girl who can make a slingshot!

Your turn
Have you ever owned or do you now own a slingshot? Have you made a slingshot? Of what did you make it? If you are or are not a prepper, is this part of your weaponry? Are you accurate enough to hit a rabbit or the noggin of a person?