# 1/2 inch steel balls for hunting?



## Nico

Hi everyone,

Ok I have seen 1/2 inch steel balls mentioned even in Jack Kohler's book as recommended for hunting? 
Does anyone have any in the field experience with 1/2 inch steel balls? They are supposed to be the same weight as 44 cal lead which many use for hunting.

Any feedback on the 1/2" steelies?

Nico


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## shot in the foot

I cant see the point, i use 8mm to 11mm steel balls and take rabbits, if you were to use thoughs heavy or large balls on birds or other game you would bruse all the meat, and you would have to use bands that would pull your arms out if you were hunting all day, jeff


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## Nico

Jeff

Thank for your response and I suppose what I really wanted to know is if the 1/2 inch steel balls are sufficient enough to kill.
Because so many people actually say they arent?

I believe the Chinese hunters use the same steel ball sizes that you use for hunting? My father said he took some rabbits in the past with 3/8 steel balls, of course he said those were head shots.

So what I get from this is that in your opinion there is enough weight in the 1/2 inch steel ball to cleanly kill small game kill with?

I know this sounds silly but you have to remember I mostly use pebbles to hunt with and steel balls and lead for hunting are new areas for me.

Nico


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## frogman

I have been using 5/8 inch steel rescently. It shoots very true and hits hard. I will say that the weight of the ammo should correspond with the thickness of the bands, for your best results. It doesn't mean you can't use 1/2inch if your bands don't correspond, but you effeciency will be decreased. Frogman


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## whipcrackdeadbunny

shot in the foot said:


> I cant see the point, i use 8mm to 11mm steel balls and take rabbits, if you were to use thoughs heavy or large balls on birds or other game you would bruse all the meat, and you would have to use bands that would pull your arms out if you were hunting all day, jeff


I agree.


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## Frodo

I used 10mm for dove's. I guess 1/2 is more that enough to kill small game.

I think 44. lead weight's more than 1/2 steel.

Friedrich


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## frogman

There is a proper size/weight (Ammo) for every band attachment. This is where each person must go into the RDTE....Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation....


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## darren

just find out what works for you! like for me it is square rubber and .44s and many people think square rubber wont kill but is has more than enough power.


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## Tex-Shooter

One half inch steel is a good hunting ammo, but lead because of its softness and its density works even better on game of all types. It does not tend to ricochet as bad as steel when an off center hit is made. It just delivers a better dead blow. Hit a steel plate with a steel hammer and a lead mallet and you will see what I mean by dead blow (no bounce with the lead). It works the same on game, but too a leaser degree. A 44 caliper lead ball and a 1/2 inch steel ball weighs to same for all practical purposes. I use a 1/2 inch steel ball for practice and a 44 caliper lead ball for hunting small game. A 000 buckshot will also take small game, but not quite as effective as the larger 44 caliper. If hunting something larger than rabbits or squirrels like a raccoon or heavier feather large birds you might want to use heavier pull bands and a larger lead shot size like 50 caliper. A lot of kills were made on the trap lines with an old Victor 20 slingshot 44 caliper lead shot and bands that only accelerated that shot to about 140 feet per second. A modern set of light pull flat bands (16 to 20 pound pull) can easily accelerate that shot to 200 fps (about 4.89 foot pounds of energy). That is plenty of power to kill small game and about any adult can shoot that weight pull bands with out any difficulty. – Tex-Shooter


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## shot in the foot

I wouldnt shoot out that i didnt think i could kill so most are head shots, i would rather miss, the only thing i hit any were is rats, this one was took with a 7mm lead ball, killed outright, jeff


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## jmplsnt

Jeff, you're a death machine!

Back when I did a lot of slingshot hunting I shot and killed a good many squirrels (which are very tough) with lead .31 lead round balls. That said I would rather the .44 or .50 lead round balls for normal ranges but the little .31 shoots so flat and fast you can get rid of feet of drop compared to the other two.


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## A+ Slingshots

Tex-Shooter said:


> One half inch steel is a good hunting ammo, but lead because of its softness and its density works even better on game of all types. It does not tend to ricochet as bad as steel when an off center hit is made. It just delivers a better dead blow. Hit a steel plate with a steel hammer and a lead mallet and you will see what I mean by dead blow (no bounce with the lead). It works the same on game, but too a leaser degree. A 44 caliper lead ball and a 1/2 inch steel ball weighs to same for all practical purposes. I use a 1/2 inch steel ball for practice and a 44 caliper lead ball for hunting small game. A 000 buckshot will also take small game, but not quite as effective as the larger 44 caliper. If hunting something larger than rabbits or squirrels like a raccoon or heavier feather large birds you might want to use heavier pull bands and a larger lead shot size like 50 caliper. A lot of kills were made on the trap lines with an old Victor 20 slingshot 44 caliper lead shot and bands that only accelerated that shot to about 140 feet per second. A modern set of light pull flat bands (16 to 20 pound pull) can easily accelerate that shot to 200 fps (about 4.89 foot pounds of energy). That is plenty of power to kill small game and about any adult can shoot that weight pull bands with out any difficulty. - Tex-Shooter


Absolutely Agree with you Bill. Madison and Jeff also know their hunting stuff, and I have in no way taken anything close to the amount of game as any of these gentlemen, but my experience and research agree with them.
It really comes down to matching the ammo and band to the quarry. I would also add that by practicing with 1/2" steel and then hunting with .44 cal. lead you get more penetration because of the smaller diameter to weight ratio.

Being that I want whatever I shoot to absolutely not run off or even travel very far. I have like many, settled on the 1/2" steel for practice / .44 cal. lead to hunt combo with bands ranging from 16 to 30lb draw wight because it gives such good results on a variety of sized game. That combo may be a little "over kill" for somethings, but you will rarely find your self in a small game situation where you feel you should pass up a shot because you are "under gunned" so to speak with your ammo.

Perry (A+) Adkisson


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## Nico

frogman said:


> I have been using 5/8 inch steel rescently. It shoots very true and hits hard. I will say that the weight of the ammo should correspond with the thickness of the bands, for your best results. It doesn't mean you can't use 1/2inch if your bands don't correspond, but you effeciency will be decreased. Frogman


This makes complete sense to me as my slingshots were designed for stone shooting and having weighed many of the stones I use, their weight varies between 12-21 gram range shooting more optimal within 14-16 gram weight.

This is why the 1/2 inch steel balls dont seem to have quite the punch that my heavier projectiles do have, so far with 14mm steel balls my slingshot excells. I dont know how close that is to 5/8

Thank you 
Nico


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## Nico

shot in the foot said:


> I wouldnt shoot out that i didnt think i could kill so most are head shots, i would rather miss, the only thing i hit any were is rats, this one was took with a 7mm lead ball, killed outright, jeff


Nice shot Jeff,

Couldnt agree more.. I have missed on many jackrabbits that were 30 + yards out simply because I only go for head shots. Annoying to see the stone whizz just over its head for it to fun even further








I dont like the idea of injured prey going down some hole to die.


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## Nico

Tex-Shooter said:


> One half inch steel is a good hunting ammo, but lead because of its softness and its density works even better on game of all types. It does not tend to ricochet as bad as steel when an off center hit is made. It just delivers a better dead blow. Hit a steel plate with a steel hammer and a lead mallet and you will see what I mean by dead blow (no bounce with the lead). It works the same on game, but too a leaser degree. A 44 caliper lead ball and a 1/2 inch steel ball weighs to same for all practical purposes. I use a 1/2 inch steel ball for practice and a 44 caliper lead ball for hunting small game. A 000 buckshot will also take small game, but not quite as effective as the larger 44 caliper. If hunting something larger than rabbits or squirrels like a raccoon or heavier feather large birds you might want to use heavier pull bands and a larger lead shot size like 50 caliper. A lot of kills were made on the trap lines with an old Victor 20 slingshot 44 caliper lead shot and bands that only accelerated that shot to about 140 feet per second. A modern set of light pull flat bands (16 to 20 pound pull) can easily accelerate that shot to 200 fps (about 4.89 foot pounds of energy). That is plenty of power to kill small game and about any adult can shoot that weight pull bands with out any difficulty. - Tex-Shooter


Tex,

I do thank you for this straight forward answer that 1/2" steel can and has been used to hunt, this completely satisfies my curiosity.
Also with the lead and steel comparisson very good analogy with the lead mallet and steel hammer yeah they always bounce.
I have an old Victor20 which I set up with some bands Gary/Flatband gave me which came from an electrical worker's glove and I fill Old Vic20's ammo chamber with .31 lead balls jmp gave me.

I shot a rat that was only caught by the arm in the basement and was running with the trap, used the Victor20 with those small lead balls and thin bands. The lead penetrated the rat no problem, but had to hit vitals for it to die as the first shot was above its vitals and it still moved a bit.

Again thanks for the info
Nico
p.s. what were the Old Victor20s original bandsets?


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## Tex-Shooter

So far as I know, Victor made two, gum rubber and later latex. When I was using mine as a kill weapon all that was available was the gum rubber. With any slow shooting bands it is imperative to use a heavy shot, because with a slower speed a heavier shot is needed for the power to make a clean kill. -- Tex-Shooter


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## crazyslingshot

in my opinion, any bigger than 11mm steel ball is the power-waste for hunting.

11mm enough for any slingshot hunting. bigger than 11mm steelball just waste power,also bring more danger to hunting. Unlike the target practice,you are not very sure nobody behind the preys when hunting .

I take those bigger than 11mm for target practice and plinking only.


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## whipcrackdeadbunny

Very good, thanks especially to Tex and Jeff.


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## Tex-Shooter

Energy (power) is wasted by using too small of shot with a slingshot. Of course you can use too big of shot but that is very seldom the case of shooters that are hunting. You can plug in actual stats on the link below and prove this statement. For instance a 3/8 inch steel shot (55 grain) traveling at 213 FPS = 5.54 foot pounds of energy and a 1/2 inch steel shot (130grain) traveling at 189 FPS (both with the same set of bands) = 10.34 Foot pounds. A slingshot is a somewhat under powered hunting weapon to start with so one needs all of the advantage that one can get with most common sets of bands. The minimum speed that I would shoot a slingshot while hunting would be about 140 FPS. So you can see that it would take a pretty large shot with the above bands to shoot that slowly. -- Tex-Shooter
http://www.airhog.com/convert.htm


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## Nicholson

I"m happy with the .50 cal steel. the knockdown of the half inch ball is very good as long as you hit high. I aim low. I just caught a big ground squirrel. go for low head shots and should be a kill every time


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## Nicholson

right behind the ear


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## ghost0311/8541

good shooting also good to see you back.


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## Nicholson

I've been fishing ghost.thanx for the pouch you sent me, it is a dandy!


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## ghost0311/8541

glad you like it catch any thing good.


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## Nicholson

just small birds for my dog Franklin, thanks for asking


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## ghost0311/8541

What about fish?


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## Nicholson

A lot! just need a good price. I use the pouch you gave me almost daily, thanx again!


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