# Super simple, super accurate slingshot "rifle"



## Bill Hays

Here's a decent picture to see how it looks... and making it is very intuitive from the pic.
Also a video showing it in use and a few particulars that aren't obvious on the picture;


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## e~shot

Thanks for sharing Bill


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## Jtilley

Impressive!!!! I like it







What size bands , and what size ammo are you using in the video???


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## Bill Hays

7/16" steel ball bearings and 1" X 9" straight cut theraband with about a 7" active length. I didn't chrony it... but it does make a nice hole in the Coke can's bottom.


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## Jtilley

It appears to be very accurate ( dead center on the can bottom! ) but I wonder, is it consistent enough for a red dot scope??? With a little sprucing up it would make an awesome christmas gift for someone on my list...........


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## Bill Hays

Ummm, yeah.... a slingrifle is capable of being LOT more consistent and accurate than any regular slingshot. That's why they're not allowed in most slingshot tournaments.
But for this month's Pocket Predator slingshot tournament we're allowing slingrifles, hold back devices and many other things... Me and a few others want to push the limits of a regular slingshot and see if it's actually possible to compete against an open field successfully. That's why I released this design, in response to a couple of requests to make available slingrifle plans the "everyman" can easily make and shoot effectively.


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## melvin

Bill,
Been looking for some toggle clamps to make a pouch tying jig. Most of the places I've looked are charging $9 to $12 for a single clamp. Where are you buying your clamps to be able to build your whole assembly for about $12?
Thanks Melvin


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## Papa G

Hi Bill love the slingrifle looks great fun to shoot


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## Bill Hays

I picked up the toggle clamps a long time ago at Harbor Freight... don't know if they still carry them or not. Ebay has many sellers who handle them as well, for example the clamp used for the trigger: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220774303859
The two clamps on the fork aren't even necessary (tying on bands still works) but I have them there for super fast bandset changes, and the ability to use pretty much any kind of elastic band or tube.
Looking on ebay I see a lot of different types and sizes of toggle clamps that would probably even be better for the purpose than what I used... and for about the same prices I originally paid as well.


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## Rapier

Well it sure aint pretty but the hole in the can tells the story. POP! Toast...


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## keef

melvin said:


> Bill,
> Been looking for some toggle clamps to make a pouch tying jig. Most of the places I've looked are charging $9 to $12 for a single clamp. Where are you buying your clamps to be able to build your whole assembly for about $12?
> Thanks Melvin


 Just bought two of these off ebay for £7.38 stirling..Good deal eh !..Cant wait to start making

Thanks Bill for putting up this design...It's really got my mind working on how I'll build mine

Keep up the good work, I always enjoy your videos

Keith


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## Aras

Bad thing I can't find clamp like those in my place


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## rubberpower

Thanks for posting this design. I hope this will get some interest in slingshot rifles. I am in the process of trying to make one. I can see where this could be a great survival tool. Light and easy to make a breakdown, super accurate and quiet.


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## shawnr5

Harbor Freight still carries the toggle clamps. They are about $4 each. Much better than the $12-16 I've seen them for at other places.


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## steveh6883

Just had a quick look on ebay & elsewhere. Not sure if it is the same worldwide but in the UK you need to look for toggle clamp type A for the trigger mechanism (handle in vertical position when locked) as the more common (in UK anyway) type B has the handle in the horizontal position when locked. Both would obviously work but the type A when locked then becomes more 'trigger' like

There are a few on ebay UK,, the cheapest ones being ordered from China, but have also found a UK business that supplies for a reasonable price:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-toggle-clamp-type-a-prod22181/

This is definitely on my 'to do' list


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## JUSTJOB

Cool idea! This looks like a project for someday, maybe even a wooden stock with thumb hole too.


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## Bill Hays

Pic URL updated


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## Topfmine

I have been looking at this type of slingshot and I am very impressed with the simple design. I am not sure how the toggle interacts with the pouch and how the ball is held. Is there some kind of para cord that the toggle hold onto that is attached to the pouch. Any chance of a picture photo or drawing of this part of the design, as for the toggle clamp acting as a trigger what an excellent idea.


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## lunasling

A PVC version would also do well in this design.


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## Topfmine

I would like to try a wood and aluminium version. Would a stop to the side of the toggle clamp help the loaded pouch be kept in the same place for even better consistency. It seems the pouch could be place to the left or right differently from the last shot causing the ball to move about on target. While waiting for my toggle clamps to turn up I was thinking of making a cocking model so the 30" forked tube would slide inside the stock tube like a trombone so you can load the band without tension and cock it by pushing the protruding tube at the back to the butt stock the lock it in place with a button catch, seen on tent poles etc.


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## Lacumo

I love it when people start yakking about improving Bill Hays designs, although I don't remember anybody actually achieving that rather ambitious objective.

Too bad "Crutchboy" Shocklay isn't still here. He could tell us all how to make a superior one of these out of discarded pieces of broken aluminum crutches.

Well... On that note, it's now back to the drafting board for me. I'm designing a new and improved crutch made out of discarded pieces of broken slingshots!


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## Topfmine

I have just made a slingshot rifle of Bills design but made in square tubing using the same type of clamps but also it takes down in three parts, the stock and trigger, the long tube in the middle and the fork clamps and band set, all slots together with nice fitting tubing that fits inside the outer tube and held in place with two wing nuts for quick release. Made with 30" draw and with the forks forward and flat as per bills design. I will post a picture of it soon but there is one question I would like to ask, is there any difference in velocity in projectile (ie I use a 44 cal lead ball like Bill does) with the forks laying forward and flat or upright at 90. When I first tried it with some tubes I robbed of a barnet slingshot I had laying around I found there was hardly any power from it even though the band in question were quite strong and elasticated, by using the forks detached and up right like a normal slingshot i got more oomph out of it, is there a reason? I did try some thera band black tubing the other day a little better but not what I was expecting. Will try some flat thera band gold band set I made to see if there is a big improvement. Can anyone explain why I may be not getting the power from it.


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## Chuck Daehler

Post pics of your sling rifle.

Here are a few pics of my Bill Hays knock of stock using Joerg's style of lock mechanism, mine is machined steel with PVC rollers. Just some ideas.

Click here for more detail. I use a peep sight made of steel strap with a number of holes for different ranges. The trigger pull is adjustable. I machined a ball nock from aluminum to use the sling rifle as an arrow launcher and ball launcher with no pouch change.

The tubes I used for balls were highly inadequate for arrows, a joke actually. I had to make (not pictured) some very stout TBG 1 inch double bands to get any meaningful velocity from arrows and then it was a farce in my opinion (when my compound bow delivers arrows quite well). I found the rifle very very accurate and fun to shoot. Keeping the bands stretched iin the cocked position did reduce their zin somewhat but still it was pretty good at 10 to 20 meters. A rifle involves almost no learning curve...the pouch release is same each time, the draw is the same each time, the pouch position/anchor is the same each time and the peep sight makes the sight picture the same each time. So the rifle can eliminate most variables...that's why they are so accurate for no learning curve.

http://slingshotforum.com/gallery/image/20237-carbine-full-length/ for full details


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## Bill Hays

This sling-rifle is really a demonstration of rethinking a problem and coming up with as simple a solution as possible.... everything on this device can be found and purchased by most people who have an internet connection and know how to use ebay... a toggle clamp or three probably being the items you'd have to buy.

In reality, I can think of probably 50 unique design types for slingshot rifles very easily.... but I limited myself to 3 distinct types, each progressively more difficult to make on the videos because slingshot rifles don't really interest me that much... they are far to easy to use and be accurate with.... and for that matter, most wrist braced slingshots don't interest me that much either, for the same reason.

But just because they don't really interest me, doesn't mean they don't interest others.... so I've dabbled a little in that area as a favor to the slingshot community.

There's three types of slingshot "guns" I've made each a little more complex but still makeable by pretty much anybody:


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## Bill Hays

Applied Genius is realized when a person takes a problem and breaks it down into it's simplest solution that takes care of the problem... Check out Chuck's arrow nock and tail stabilizers for an example of pure genius!


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## Topfmine

I made a few adjustments to my slingshot rifle by making the forks adjustable so rather than face flat like Bill's design I made them so they could be upright as well. I also made an extension piece so the draw is longer and used two types of banding, flats theraband gold and theraband black tubing. I used recovered 9mm bullet heads as cheap testing ammo. The sights were just lining up the top of the forks and using the top of the stock end where the trigger sits under and a bit of Kentucky windage dead reckoning. The results at 10mtrs using the forks flat seem to fly very high and with a grouping of about 3 feet apart from shot to shot even missing the target, this was using the two types of elastic. I noticed the difference in the speed of the elastic types in that the tubes were much slower, seem to lob the ball over than hit hard. With the extension piece added for longer draw length there was a great improvement but accuracy was nil.
Changing the forks so they were upright things greatly improved, I was getting a much higher velocity and even more with the extension which was 30" to 39"inches draw, the groupings were in most cases reduce down to 2"inches to holed shots but even better at a 30" draw than the 39", there was no difference in accuracy with either tube or band.
A flip up sight would greatly improve the groupings rather than dead reckoning. Bit miffed about why the flat forks not working as well as I would have liked, it's a great design and I thank you Bill for inspiring me with you design. Get them pictures posted as soon as I can.
I think the toggle clamp trigger is perfect but I do like the other trigger release mechanism which I may have a go at making just to try. The toggle clamps holding the band's and tubing are ideal making change over much simpler.


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## FixItDuck

Lacumo said:


> Too bad "Crutchboy" Shocklay isn't still here. He could tell us all how to make a superior one of these out of discarded pieces of broken aluminum crutches.


Where is the crutch master gone?

I want his crutchtastic expertise.


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## FixItDuck

Lacumo said:


> Too bad "Crutchboy" Shocklay isn't still here. He could tell us all how to make a superior one of these out of discarded pieces of broken aluminum crutches.


Where is the crutch master gone?

I want his crutchtastic expertise.


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## Viper010

FixItDuck said:


> Lacumo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Too bad "Crutchboy" Shocklay isn't still here. He could tell us all how to make a superior one of these out of discarded pieces of broken aluminum crutches.
> 
> 
> 
> Where is the crutch master gone?
> 
> I want his crutchtastic expertise.
Click to expand...

Trust me my friend, you really really reeeeeaaaaallly don't.... I think you might actually be better off walking over to the nearest jungle gym or sand box and asking any random 3 year old for advice.


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## Imperial

i miss crutchboy, he was my comedic relief


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## Chuck Daehler

Thanks Bill! Coming from you, a Leonardo Da Cinci of slingshots that's quite a complement.

I got the ball nock idea from A+ Slingshots (applied to their sling bow) however. They sell plastic ones, I lathed one out just for kicks out of aluminum. I had some hemp rope and frayed it to fiber and used that as a wind resistant "fletching". Real fletching would offer less air resistance...but for this trial I use a primitive method and it slides through the arrow rest better I think than would real fletching...no hang up on the wire rest.

...the aluminum arrow (I made 2) was made of just plain aluminum tubing, not a light weight Easton type arrow shaft. This was purely a proof of concept, otherwise known as an old phardt putzing in his shop.

But like Bill, I much prefer a regular slingshot than the sling rifle...but it's fun and I do get it out occasioinally when I have a really rotten day of shooting, not for any other reason than, well, it's fun! The rifle project was fun to make, the all steel PVC roller adjustable lock mechanism took some days of fooling around to make out of steel, Bill's stock was of course super simple and works nicely. Almost no learning curve is a boon to Joe Sixpacks who want a launcher that works with little practice.

WALKING STICK APPLICATION..

I can see the stick shot applied to a walking stick actually...a benign looking thing you could walk around a police station five times with and no questions (except, "Why the blazes are you walking around our police station so much for?". The bands would appear as a hand lanyard loop thing and no one would know it's a launcher. I can imagine the fun to be had with this at a nude beach but it's against forum rules to mention such mischievous things, so I won't.

I would have used toggle clamp trigger but they don't sell them here...besides I wanted to putz in the shop a bit for the Joerg Sprave version of a lock.


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## Chuck Daehler

I think the three examples of a "sling rifle" are super kewl. Agreeing with Bill however a normal slingshot is a lot more practical for it's portability, size and faster shooting/target acquisition. When I SCUBA dived I had a Hawaiian sling and a double elastic spear gun with a 40 inch spear, both brought home nice suppers. This sling rifle thing reminds me of that. I still have the double band spear gun, it resides in my bedroom as a silent effective home defense tool. A 40 inch steel spear doesn't stop for much, in or out of the water. It's a dandy one shot complement for my Barnett self cocking cross bow for silent dispatches.


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## grappo73

Accurate and simply!!! Well done!!!


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## Topfmine

Thought it's about time to show off my sling shot rifle. Made with take down in mind. Secured with easy to use wing nuts and quick release release clamps. Bit over engineered but fun to make and use.


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