Special ammo for slingshots

[Ropik]

I am sorry for two new threads by me in one week, but I need help with this:
I do not know any good special ammo for slingshot. I tried to found it via google, but I found only kewl stuff like "Hammer flat one piece of copper pipe. Prepare mixture of silver fulminate and nails, pour it in, compact it down with hammer and dowel and shut the other end of pipe". I meditate about cratermaker with fragmentation sleeve(nails and corrugated cardboard), but my biggest need is poisoned ammo. This can be rather difficult, because slingshot act via blunt trauma(I know, when you are hit in chest with nut the pain is sharp, but it doesn't matter)and do not penetrate into body of target. I think about something like nut with hole for bolt filled with ricin or aconitin, but I suppose (mentioned above) that nut can not penetrate enough.

Thanks for any ideas.

[Bert]

I suppose (mentioned above) that nut can not penetrate enough.

That's why South American indians poisoned their BLOW GUN DARTS and ARROWS, not the rocks for their slings. They did make slingshots as well as the traditional "David and Goliath" shepherd's sling- They had rubber. And nice poison arrow frogs (http://www.shoarns.com/Frogs.html) . And curare (http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:J02_dUZNBgMJ:www.blueplanetbiomes.o rg/curare.htm+curare%2Bsource&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)

[Jacks Complete]

You can make a rather neat ammo based on the baked clay ammo used by the ancients if you want to stop people firing the same rounds back at you.

Get some lead shot, and mix it with clay, or something similar. Let it dry. Any that hit a hard surface will crumble away or shatter, leaving useless bits.

As for poison delivery, I don't know. You could perhaps try something like the above, with a steel caltrop inside it. It would take some tuning, but you could have it break away on impact to expose the spikes, then delivering the poison. You can't have it break away after launch, as it won't fly straight, like a dodgy stone, and you obviously can't fire something pointed from the pouch.

The other option would be to fire some kind of heavy dart, but you will have fun getting it to be accurate. I found they always went a few yards at odd angles before stabilising, wrecking accuracy, at best.

On a related note, I spent the weekend weighing 5kg of ballbearings to 5 grains (77302 grains worth, 317 total, ranging from 415 grains down to 145 grains, plus two that were over 500 grains) for power testing of the two types of Barnett catapult I have.
I have the natural colour bands, and a set of black bands, that a web search has shown up as discontinued! Anyway, I am hoping to get some time over this weekend to shoot some ball bearings with them both over the chrono. I will post the results as soon as I have them sorted.

[Ropik]

Poisone ammo can be(maybe) made like spikeball smeared with poison paste. In this event is probably necessary to have some protection for the pouch(and for your fingers).
Weakness can be that you must have either excessively long spikes or you must hit some uncovered part of body like face or hands.

[Jacks Complete]

I thought of using a foam covered spiky projectile. The biggest problem I found was that you have to be able to really grip the ammo hard, and so a clever system using foam or something wouldn't work, since you would still spike yourself.

The chrono tests will have to wait - trust me to get food poisoning over the Easter holiday! :(

[akinrog]

Maybe this is a little bit noisy :eek: but it might be useful for quick results.

If SWIM wants to poison someone with relevantly high accuracy and precision dart fired by a blank firer (replica gun), s/he would use a syringe needle whose hollow space is filled with a nasty stuff.

Since, in SWIM's country replica guns (blank firer) (which fires blank ammo) is also used for launching signal flares, SWIM thought the same principle may be used for firing poison doped syringe needles :cool:.

[Evan007]

A Foam, paste etc covered projectile, or an otherwise fragile one can still be fired from a slingshot, but the pouch obviously has to be modified.
A solid pouch could maybe be made from metal from something like a coke can (Being light weight, thin, and easily obtained) bent, cut etc into a shallow cup. Size and shape would be depending on the projectile to be fired. However, the rigid "cup pouch" might fly a touch awkwardly through the air from wind resistance (slowing it down at the least). The actual rigid "pouch" would have to be small too, to help it stop from bending and warping in the pull.

A better alternative would be a basket-like pouch made from wire, with a strong "O" shaped sort of frame for the mouth, to stop it bending in the pull.

Both have there good/bad points. The cup has added air resistance, but spikes wouldnt catch on it. The Basket is lighter, plyable for adjustments, and much less wind resistant, but is harder to make, and bullets may get cought in it, particularly spiky ones (this can be reduced with tighter, smaller gaps in baskets weaving, in exchange for weight and difficulty).

These "pouches" wouldnt be grasped and pulled in the usual way, if bending, crushing etc proved a problem. A loop of leather, string, cord, wire etc attatched to the bottom of the basket (when held mouth upward) or pouch could be used as a handle pull back the "pouch", reducing inward forces on the pouch, therefore grip of your hand wouldnt crush the projectile and warping would be reduced too.

The spikes, foam, paste etc on the projectile should stop it from simply rolling out of one of these "pouches".

If you didnt want to go through that trouble, you could also experiment with just putting things with the projectile in the conventional pouch, so that you would be gripping it, instead of the actuall bullet to be fired. Said thing to be in pouch would have to be fixed to the pouch, and behind it to stop interferering with the bullet in the release, and in flight.

Just a couple of Brainfarts I thought I'd share.

[Plinker]

I tried expirimenting with slingshot shotshells and it worked....ok. I took a piece of paper and put a pile of shotgun pellets, bb's, pebbles ,etc, in the middle then folded the corners up and twisted em up. It opens pretty fast but carries a suprising amount of force if you use heavy lead shot. I even took out a starling from about 12' with one.

[Ropik]

It can be good mainly for dispirit your attacker/chaser, but you can aim less accurate and it's definite advantage... Good idea, Plinker!

[Harpoon]

You can get slingshots with a huge pouch for fishing. While they don't have the same power as a wrist rocket, they will reliably throw anything up to orange size a great distance. I remember slinging eggs (I was drunk at the time) at a pedestrian crossing over a friends house, with him looking out the front window and spotting for me using an intercom system to communicate.
It's more of an indirect fire weapon though (and a low powered one at that)...

The pouch was made of a stiff plastic mesh with a loop for your finger at the back.

[Ropik]

Hey, it is great silent weapon! How heavy can be this projectile? If at least 150-180 g, you can launch small grenades, fire bottles etc. What is "great range" for launching orange from this weapon?
Sadly I doubt that this slingshot can be obtained in post-communists countries - where I live :mad: .
Maybe you can manufacture one pouch from some stiff metal window screening and attach it to the regular slingshot.
Can you obtain some screenshot, picture etc.? I would be grateful because I have many small objects(like rats ;) ) that can be disposed with good slingshot with big pouch.

[aikon]

You can get slingshots with a huge pouch for fishing...

Those fishing slingshots are of poor quality and the rubber band tends to rupture very easily when loaded with heavier ammo. I'd suggest to buy the strongest slingshot and use ordinary ball bearings. That's still the best.

[Plinker]

You can also buy those huge water balloon slingshots that take 3 people to hold and fire. They sell them here http://www.slingking.com/
You could easily make one from some surgical tubing and rope though. I've been planning on trying that but never have gotten around to it.

[Bigfoot]

I knew a kid who got hit with a water balloon from one of those giant slingshots. The firer had been practicing from an apartment window, and tried for a human target. Hit him in the forehead, knocked him down. He got up, opened his eyes, and from one eye pulled out a piece of rubber! Had a goosegg on his forehead for 3 weeks.
The first and only person I ever heard of getting hit by one of those things.

[aikon]

Maybe this is interesting for some of you. Shooting arrows with a slingshot.
http://www.oddwing.com/arrow_shooting_slingshots.htm

[Jacks Complete]

Just a note, the three man slingshots are now available as a one man feet braced version.

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/SOLWATVAR.htm

[Jacks Complete]

Just a note, the three man slingshots are now available as a one man feet braced version.

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/SOLWATVAR.htm

[Jacks Complete]

Just a note, the three man slingshots are now available as a one man feet braced version.

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/SOLWATVAR.htm

[malzraa]

For the poison idea, why not make a composite material of broken glass or other sharp material, mixed with the chosen posion, (glass, posion, and a brittle glue) which could be wrapped around a small, impact detonated explosive, flinging poisoned broken glass shrapnel into the target?

[malzraa]

For the poison idea, why not make a composite material of broken glass or other sharp material, mixed with the chosen posion, (glass, posion, and a brittle glue) which could be wrapped around a small, impact detonated explosive, flinging poisoned broken glass shrapnel into the target?

[malzraa]

For the poison idea, why not make a composite material of broken glass or other sharp material, mixed with the chosen posion, (glass, posion, and a brittle glue) which could be wrapped around a small, impact detonated explosive, flinging poisoned broken glass shrapnel into the target?

[krimmie]

I used to use toy Jacks as ammo. I would file the tips to sharpen. You could coat them with anything you want and let dry. They can be bought at any toy store, are very aerodynamical, and are cheap. In case younger members never seen them before..............
http://classroomclipart.com/images/gallery/Clipart/Toys/jacks.jpg

http://www.gagworks.com/browseproducts/JACKS-SET.HTML

[krimmie]

I used to use toy Jacks as ammo. I would file the tips to sharpen. You could coat them with anything you want and let dry. They can be bought at any toy store, are very aerodynamical, and are cheap. In case younger members never seen them before..............
http://classroomclipart.com/images/gallery/Clipart/Toys/jacks.jpg

http://www.gagworks.com/browseproducts/JACKS-SET.HTML