# Safety first!



## besomuk (May 29, 2014)

Hello everyone, 
greetings from Serbia, Europe...

I haven't use any kind of slingshot for a long time so i got this one: http://www.rothco.com/product-details/marksman-folding-slingshot to warm up a little bit...

I never cared about self injuries and that's exactly what's on my mind now...
My greatest concern is band failure and what will happen if it fails and hit me in the eye 

So, any good advice on this, besides wearing protective glasses?


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Inspect for tears and wear prior to shooting. Don't have the bands in direct line to the eyes.


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

Hi besomuk,

greetings from Bosnia, hope you will soon warm up and start enjoing the sport!

the first thing beside wearing protective glasses is - to wear protective glasses.. by this I mean CONSISTENTLY because the Murfy law says that no matter you have them for 1000 times, 1001-st time you do not put them on is the shot you realy needed them..

another way is to hold the rubber a bit away from your face, I hold it some 20 cm at the level of my chest, which means that I NEVER look close down the rubbers which also means that I do not draw to the corner of my mouth, ear lobe, chin or so - but this is higly personal!

besides rubber hitting ones eye, there is a possibility of a fork hit which ricoshets back into the eye, and another one is return-to-sender case where ammo does not leave the pouch but fires back (in both cases protective glasses might help).

another thing in itself is the fork hit which can break the fork; for this reason people here experiment for materials that can stand considerable blow: micarta, composites, aluminum, hard wood and thick forks etc. etc. - you have to read about this, use search function.

hand hit (when you hit not the fork but your thumb or the finger or that soft space between thumb and index finger) and hand slap (when the rubber hits your hand on its way back after it passed the fork to its most distant point) require either heavier ammo to match the rubber or less strong rubber to match the ammo, or something inbetween, but good protection gloves are very helpful; I found bycicle gloves not so bad..

your question (safety) is always highly relevant, it never looses its freshness and I encourage you to research all the safety measures recomended here in the forum and tips like those in the begining of the Art of Shooting section in this forum (somewhere down the main page).

cheers,

jazz


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## ruthiexxxx (Sep 15, 2012)

It's the possibility of an RTS that freaks me somewhat. I had one a long while back that nearly broke a rib...and the last one missed my head by inches. An ounce and half of lead travelling at that speed is scary...as it was it simply took out the mirror behind me.

I get the impression that they tend to be a phenomenon of very heavy bands and very heavy ammo. The one on that scary video of Tobias comes to mind. That one could easily have been fatal too.

RTS are why I mainly shoot arrows now. They tend not to come back atcha!


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## besomuk (May 29, 2014)

Thank you all for your answers...I'll remember those tips


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