# Why I'm keeping my 1/4" steel



## StringSlap (Mar 2, 2019)

They are just flat out fun to shoot, super accurate and hit above their weight class! I'm not saying this is the best group, but represents what I can do on a fairly consistent basis, using my fast shooting style (less than 2 seconds start to finish). Shooting my Island Made Thumper with 100% Slingshot .55, cut 13-15 mm, 5.5" active, 28" draw, I'm getting 285 fps. Seven of the 10 went into 1" x 1/2". The three strays opened it up to 1 5/8 x 1.5". Should have the chance next week to get into the woods and see how this setup works at extended and unknown distances.


----------



## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

That's excellent .


----------



## AKA Forgotten (Jan 26, 2019)

Good shooting ???? Been a while since I shot 1/4", but from memory as long as you have the speed, which is relatively easy, longer distance is no problem. Again from memory I think Matt use to shoot at crazy distances with it accurately


----------



## Alfred E.M. (Jul 5, 2014)

*Great shooting, especially that fast.. Always loved quarters too, particularly for the light draw weight.*

*Northerner got me going on 7mm which is also a gas, and only required a small, doable bump up to 1636.*


----------



## AKA Forgotten (Jan 26, 2019)

Alfred E.M. said:


> *Great shooting, especially that fast.. Always loved quarters too, particularly for the light draw weight.*
> 
> *Northerner got me going on 7mm which is also a gas, and only required a small, doable bump up to 1636.*


Sorry Alfred I forgot they are also your area as well my friend


----------



## hoggy (Apr 17, 2017)

that's some good shooting


----------



## SteveJ (Jun 24, 2020)

that some good shooting! , I agree , just got 3M the other day. I think they weigh about the same as the 1/2 clay I like to shoot in the yard. So its a good switch, w/o much weight difference


----------



## vince4242 (Jan 11, 2016)

Very nice grouping. Definitely got your setup dialed in for sure!

I love the quarter-inch steel myself a lot of fun and you can shoot all day with it.

Cheers


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

That’s awesome! I haven’t shot that size yet, I’ve been mostly using 5/16. I’m gonna give the 1/4 a go though now! Just picked up a little roo skin BB pouch because I thought that might be fun. I bet the 1/4 inch would fit right in there too.


----------



## SLING-N-SHOT (Jun 5, 2018)

Great grouping Steve

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Tag (Jun 11, 2014)

Fantastic shooting


----------



## Reed Lukens (Aug 16, 2020)

1/4" is fun and I really like changing up the ammo sizes on different days


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

StringSlap said:


> 100% Slingshot .55, cut 13-15 mm, 5.5" active, 28" draw, I'm getting 285 fps. distances.


15-13mm you say? I just got some 1/4" and I'm looking for a taper that just zings!! What do you use as far as a pouch goes if you don't mind me asking?


----------



## StringSlap (Mar 2, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> StringSlap said:
> 
> 
> > 100% Slingshot .55, cut 13-15 mm, 5.5" active, 28" draw, I'm getting 285 fps. distances.
> ...


For 1/4 and 5/16 I prefer the small HTH Dogbone superfiber pouches. If you like a thin but very strong pouch, they are in my opinion the best there is. The typical GZK type small micro fiber pouches are also great.


----------



## SteveJ (Jun 24, 2020)

StringSlap said:


> Sandstorm said:
> 
> 
> > StringSlap said:
> ...


 Is it the short active length that enables you to get such speed? Im still in the guessing game. I know Im running longer than that , and Im short draw , I think 30


----------



## vince4242 (Jan 11, 2016)

I'll throw an answer in there about the pouch, I use with my quarter inch steel I shoot the, 42mm double pit microfiber pouch. I get mine from slingshooting.com but the double pitted pouch can be found at gzk as well, The 42mm will shoot BBs up to 5/16" steel in its double pit and it's so nice never have to worry about centering your ball it just always stays dead center.. one less thing to think about. And they last forever I've been using the same pouch I use 9 months and it's still showing strong, no sign of wear.

Cheers


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

vince4242 said:


> I'll throw an answer in there about the pouch, I use with my quarter inch steel I shoot the, 42mm double pit microfiber pouch. I get mine from slingshooting.com but the double pitted pouch can be found at gzk as well, The 42mm will shoot BBs up to 5/16" steel in its double pit and it's so nice never have to worry about centering your ball it just always stays dead center.. one less thing to think about. And they last forever I've been using the same pouch I use 9 months and it's still showing strong, no sign of wear.
> 
> Cheers


Sweet! I have some of those!


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

SteveJ said:


> StringSlap said:
> 
> 
> > Sandstorm said:
> ...


Hey SteveJ, let me see if a newb can answer another newb on that one. From the best of my knowledge, the short answer is yes. For a short shooter it's going to be the taper of the bands from the point where they attach to the forks to the point where they attach to the pouch. Latex brand, wind speed, pouch release, what you had for breakfast, your dog's middle name, all seem to play into the speed variables though. In theory the wider to the narrower you go on your taper where it meets the pouch, the faster the latex retraction, but the less life you get out of your band set. If you can find a guy that shoots a LOT of the ammo you like though, sometimes you can find a good jumping off point for where to start your own experimentation. So, I too have a 30" total draw length, so my active band length would be 6", although I like to give it just a hair more for... I don't know why. So it would 13mm at the pouch connection and 15mm where it meets the forks. Let's see if I got that right based on the more experienced guys knowledge?


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

SteveJ said:


> Is it the short active length that enables you to get such speed? Im still in the guessing game. I know Im running longer than that , and Im short draw , I think 30


Oops, I might have just misinterpreted your whole question there and then long-winded an answer


----------



## KawKan (May 11, 2013)

Almost all latex will stretch 5 times it's relaxed length, and some 6.5 times. As a rule of thumb, a fork tie to pouch tie length of 1/5 your draw length delivers great performance and acceptable life. A fork tie to pouch tie length 1/4 your draw length gives good performance and much better life. Going shorter - up to the point the latex stops stretching (stacks) gives even more performance, going longer gives even longer life.

Choices, choices, choices!



SteveJ said:


> StringSlap said:
> 
> 
> > Sandstorm said:
> ...


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

KawKan said:


> going longer gives even longer life.
> Choices, choices, choices!


Hey! There's my reason for "a little more but I don't know why"


----------



## SteveJ (Jun 24, 2020)

KawKan said:


> Almost all latex will stretch 5 times it's relaxed length, and some 6.5 times. As a rule of thumb, a fork tie to pouch tie length of 1/5 your draw length delivers great performance and acceptable life. A fork tie to pouch tie length 1/4 your draw length gives good performance and much better life. Going shorter - up to the point the latex stops stretching (stacks) gives even more performance, going longer gives even longer life.
> 
> Choices, choices, choices!
> 
> ...


 Thanks Ray part of where Im in the dark, is people say dont shoot bbs heavy, Is that because the moment of release too much energy is imparted to the light ammo and makes it go wacky or what . I see people shoot larger stuff w/ big bands that dont seem near maxed out. Seems like that would be wated energy on all the band weight existing. Im thinking /wondering , why a almost max stretch in a lighter band would not give better speed w/ o the pull weight , I apologize if this makes no sense


----------



## StringSlap (Mar 2, 2019)

All the above contains all the bits and pieces of the answer. The really simple answer is that it doesn't take much to get 1/4 steel going super fast. I don't like to get bogged down in extensive testing and tweaking, but without taking extreme tapers and such into account, here's what I've found to be true. Using heavy bands (.6 and up) to move light ammo (5/16 and smaller) is a complete waste, whether shooting short or long draw. You can make it work, but it's like buying a Ferrari but you never plan to drive faster than 55 so you de-tune and govern it way down. All that potential sitting there being wasted. I messed around a bit with elastic from .4 to .7 and shooting 3/8 steel. Again not using extreme tapers or anything, I found that they all shot within about 25 fps of each other. So why would I use thicker bands with heavier draw weight, more noise and slap, when I can achieve almost the same performance with better behaved and more efficient thinner bands? The story changes when you use heavier ammo like lead, or 7/16 and up. Those make much better use of the thicker bands potential, and the thinner stuff starts to struggle to push them effectively.

Let's take hunting and the power/speed junkies out of the equation. If you are primarily a target shooter, like me, then you can do everything you need to do with elastic from .4 to .55. In MY opinion, for BB I would say you don't want to go over .4. For 1/4 - 5/16 (6 - 8mm) you can use .4 - .5. And for 3/8 (my current favorite) use .45 - .55. Without any trouble or too much experimenting, those will give you velocities over 230 fps. If you need more than that for any reasonable target shooting, then you're on your own! My current favorite setups all shoot 3/8 steel right around 240 fps. They all have very light draw weights and are extremely accurate. They shoot flat enough to easily hit targets at 30 yards and obviously farther as long as I do my part right. Shooting 3/4 butterfly my favorite is Precise (gen 2) .5 cut 1/2 - 3/4 with a 10.5" active length. Same cut with Precise .45 is excellent and only about 10 fps slower. Before the Precise my favorite was 100% Slingshot .55 with a 9.5" active (very stretchy stuff). Can't give an accurate draw length because it varies depending on the elastic and how it feels when I stretch it.

I'm not saying this info is law or set in stone, just what I've found to be true and what works for me. Hopefully it can be useful info for others!

PS The 285 fps with 1/4 that SteveJ was asking about was done with a 28" short draw.


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

StringSlap said:


> All the above contains all the bits and pieces of the answer. The really simple answer is that it doesn't take much to get 1/4 steel going super fast. I don't like to get bogged down in extensive testing and tweaking, but without taking extreme tapers and such into account, here's what I've found to be true. Using heavy bands (.6 and up) to move light ammo (5/16 and smaller) is a complete waste, whether shooting short or long draw. You can make it work, but it's like buying a Ferrari but you never plan to drive faster than 55 so you de-tune and govern it way down. All that potential sitting there being wasted. I messed around a bit with elastic from .4 to .7 and shooting 3/8 steel. Again not using extreme tapers or anything, I found that they all shot within about 25 fps of each other. So why would I use thicker bands with heavier draw weight, more noise and slap, when I can achieve almost the same performance with better behaved and more efficient thinner bands? The story changes when you use heavier ammo like lead, or 7/16 and up. Those make much better use of the thicker bands potential, and the thinner stuff starts to struggle to push them effectively.
> 
> Let's take hunting and the power/speed junkies out of the equation. If you are primarily a target shooter, like me, then you can do everything you need to do with elastic from .4 to .55. In MY opinion, for BB I would say you don't want to go over .4. For 1/4 - 5/16 (6 - 8mm) you can use .4 - .5. And for 3/8 (my current favorite) use .45 - .55. Without any trouble or too much experimenting, those will give you velocities over 230 fps. If you need more than that for any reasonable target shooting, then you're on your own! My current favorite setups all shoot 3/8 steel right around 240 fps. They all have very light draw weights and are extremely accurate. They shoot flat enough to easily hit targets at 30 yards and obviously farther as long as I do my part right. Shooting 3/4 butterfly my favorite is Precise (gen 2) .5 cut 1/2 - 3/4 with a 10.5" active length. Same cut with Precise .45 is excellent and only about 10 fps slower. Before the Precise my favorite was 100% Slingshot .55 with a 9.5" active (very stretchy stuff). Can't give an accurate draw length because it varies depending on the elastic and how it feels when I stretch it.
> 
> ...


Right on, thanks kindly Stringslap. Apologies for spamming up your great 1/4" topic thread! . All excellent info though!


----------



## SteveJ (Jun 24, 2020)

Im starting to want a chroney , just for fun, saw one of amazon about 80 bucks


----------



## Tag (Jun 11, 2014)

1/4 is a lot of fun


----------



## vince4242 (Jan 11, 2016)

My general advice is if your target shooting you only need enough speed to get a flat trajectory at the distance you're shooting. If you mainly shoot at 10 m because you're learning or you are trying to get your technique down than anything more than 10 m is only going to make it harder for you to learn. I recommend 7 or 8 meters for beginners so you can get everything down and light bands or tubes so you can focus on your release, anchor point, hold, reference point and everything else. I like to use 1632 tubes for my quarter inch ammo works awesome definitely fast enough for 10 m and last over 1200 shots. For hunting I go with the .6 simple shot black at 30x15 taper and that is a good hunting setup for me at 14 lb of draw weight. But for target shooting I prefer 4 to 7 lb of draw weight and you can shoot much longer and really focus on precision.

Cheers


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

vince4242 said:


> My general advice is if your target shooting you only need enough speed to get a flat trajectory at the distance you're shooting. If you mainly shoot at 10 m because you're learning or you are trying to get your technique down than anything more than 10 m is only going to make it harder for you to learn. I recommend 7 or 8 meters for beginners so you can get everything down and light bands or tubes so you can focus on your release, anchor point, hold, reference point and everything else. I like to use 1632 tubes for my quarter inch ammo works awesome definitely fast enough for 10 m and last over 1200 shots. For hunting I go with the .6 simple shot black at 30x15 taper and that is a good hunting setup for me at 14 lb of draw weight. But for target shooting I prefer 4 to 7 lb of draw weight and you can shoot much longer and really focus on precision.
> 
> Cheers


Thanks Vince. Very humbly, because I know luck was involved, I nailed a soda can at a hundred feet today. I feel like a boss  Thanks for the info. I'll put it into practice, and thanks for the heads up on the pit pouches. I just got some in but hadn't banded them up yet. Put one on some Snipersling .5 black. I like them. A lot! Got a little hand slap with the 1/4" but I think it was my release. They're a bit of a bitch to get banded though. Had to employ some hemostats to help.


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

SteveJ said:


> Im starting to want a chroney , just for fun, saw one of amazon about 80 bucks


Yeah it's only a matter of time for me. Although, I don't want to get too "Bill Nye" about it all either as I enjoy just the basic nature of the beast, so to speak.


----------



## vince4242 (Jan 11, 2016)

Yes sandstorm I understand about the hand slap, ¼" steel you have to do a very precise release. That's one good thing about it is it helps you when you go to a bigger size the release is easier. Try shooting BBs.... you got to have that release dead on because you can't feel the BBs at all. Glad you liked the double pitted pouches I love them.

We all shoot different stuff, I like really small, a lot of people like big there's no right answer, we just find what works best for what we do. Not feeling well lately so I need a very light release because my muscles aren't able to do anything heavier than a 4 to 7 lb draw weight.

Cheers


----------



## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

vince4242 said:


> Yes sandstorm I understand about the hand slap, ¼" steel you have to do a very precise release. That's one good thing about it is it helps you when you go to a bigger size the release is easier. Try shooting BBs.... you got to have that release dead on because you can't feel the BBs at all. Glad you liked the double pitted pouches I love them.
> 
> We all shoot different stuff, I like really small, a lot of people like big there's no right answer, we just find what works best for what we do. Not feeling well lately so I need a very light release because my muscles aren't able to do anything heavier than a 4 to 7 lb draw weight.
> 
> Cheers


I'm so sorry to hear that you haven't been well. I'm glad you're still able to shoot though for sure.


----------



## Alfred E.M. (Jul 5, 2014)

StringSlap said:


> All the above contains all the bits and pieces of the answer. The really simple answer is that it doesn't take much to get 1/4 steel going super fast. I don't like to get bogged down in extensive testing and tweaking, but without taking extreme tapers and such into account, here's what I've found to be true. Using heavy bands (.6 and up) to move light ammo (5/16 and smaller) is a complete waste, whether shooting short or long draw. You can make it work, but it's like buying a Ferrari but you never plan to drive faster than 55 so you de-tune and govern it way down. All that potential sitting there being wasted. I messed around a bit with elastic from .4 to .7 and shooting 3/8 steel. Again not using extreme tapers or anything, I found that they all shot within about 25 fps of each other. So why would I use thicker bands with heavier draw weight, more noise and slap, when I can achieve almost the same performance with better behaved and more efficient thinner bands? The story changes when you use heavier ammo like lead, or 7/16 and up. Those make much better use of the thicker bands potential, and the thinner stuff starts to struggle to push them effectively.
> 
> Let's take hunting and the power/speed junkies out of the equation. If you are primarily a target shooter, like me, then you can do everything you need to do with elastic from .4 to .55. In MY opinion, for BB I would say you don't want to go over .4. For 1/4 - 5/16 (6 - 8mm) you can use .4 - .5. And for 3/8 (my current favorite) use .45 - .55. Without any trouble or too much experimenting, those will give you velocities over 230 fps. If you need more than that for any reasonable target shooting, then you're on your own! My current favorite setups all shoot 3/8 steel right around 240 fps. They all have very light draw weights and are extremely accurate. They shoot flat enough to easily hit targets at 30 yards and obviously farther as long as I do my part right. Shooting 3/4 butterfly my favorite is Precise (gen 2) .5 cut 1/2 - 3/4 with a 10.5" active length. Same cut with Precise .45 is excellent and only about 10 fps slower. Before the Precise my favorite was 100% Slingshot .55 with a 9.5" active (very stretchy stuff). Can't give an accurate draw length because it varies depending on the elastic and how it feels when I stretch it.
> 
> ...


*Well said, best distillation of the essential ammo/latex relationship I've seen. *


----------



## StringSlap (Mar 2, 2019)

Alfred E.M. said:


> StringSlap said:
> 
> 
> > All the above contains all the bits and pieces of the answer. The really simple answer is that it doesn't take much to get 1/4 steel going super fast. I don't like to get bogged down in extensive testing and tweaking, but without taking extreme tapers and such into account, here's what I've found to be true. Using heavy bands (.6 and up) to move light ammo (5/16 and smaller) is a complete waste, whether shooting short or long draw. You can make it work, but it's like buying a Ferrari but you never plan to drive faster than 55 so you de-tune and govern it way down. All that potential sitting there being wasted. I messed around a bit with elastic from .4 to .7 and shooting 3/8 steel. Again not using extreme tapers or anything, I found that they all shot within about 25 fps of each other. So why would I use thicker bands with heavier draw weight, more noise and slap, when I can achieve almost the same performance with better behaved and more efficient thinner bands? The story changes when you use heavier ammo like lead, or 7/16 and up. Those make much better use of the thicker bands potential, and the thinner stuff starts to struggle to push them effectively.
> ...


Thank you! I am humbled!


----------



## MakoPat (Mar 12, 2018)

Very enjoyable thread.

I love 1/4" for light draw weight and ease of carrying many rounds. Fine tunes the release and flattens the trajectory. All the above is true.

But I didn't see anybody mention how inexpensive they are! Haha... so easy on the wallet.

Stringslap, those groups are awesome!


----------



## StringSlap (Mar 2, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> SteveJ said:
> 
> 
> > Im starting to want a chroney , just for fun, saw one of amazon about 80 bucks
> ...


Same here. I use it to be sure I'm getting decent performance from my setups, not to try to squeeze every last fps out of them. Also to see if any changes have a positive or negative effect.


----------



## StringSlap (Mar 2, 2019)

MakoPat said:


> Very enjoyable thread.
> 
> I love 1/4" for light draw weight and ease of carrying many rounds. Fine tunes the release and flattens the trajectory. All the above is true.
> 
> ...


Thanks, Pat. I'll be sure to post the good groups soon! :rofl:


----------

