# What Motivated You?



## SuperMonkeySlinger (Jan 28, 2013)

Hey guys,
Just wanted to know what motivated you guys to get better with a slingshot?

Did someone pass it on to you? Did you see someone thats good aim and it made you want to get better? Or did you just do it to be good?

Thanks,

SMS


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## SuperMonkeySlinger (Jan 28, 2013)

Ill start this off- My grampa taught me how to shoot and hunt with a slingshot, so i practice every day to be as good as him.

SMS


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## dgui (Jan 12, 2010)

I was ready to give up on slingshot shooting because none of the how to videos worked for me, But when I saw the Rufus Hussey Bean Shooter Man videos that was it I began to study his technique. It clicked after that.

This is a very good subject and glad you brought it up.

Dgui


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

when I started to research and study slingshots in more detail some year ago and when I joined this forum somewhere after that, I realised that there is much more to slingshot making and slingshot shooting than I ever knew, so I started to practice more intensively both activities

cheers,

jazz


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## abagrizzli (May 2, 2013)

My wife is a professional photographer. NG and commercial photos style. So she shoots a lot of birds. And we live in a forest. So a lot of birds just hang around our yard and she makes really nice photos of them. Recently she paid attention, there're stray cats hunting her birds in our yard. Actually they killed a few birds. And that's where I come in with a SS. Just to keep those cats as far away as possible...And those cats are fast. so I have only one shot, unless I'll catch dgui's fast shooting technique... That's my motivation to get better. 

Ah, and I also love SS, since I've yielded my CZ75D Compact this is the only shooting I can get now... :huh:


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

as a little kid my parents bought me that one slingshot toy that came with 5 parachute guys that you shot into the sky. so being a lil kid i just wanted to see how high i could shoot them. so even to this day, i just shoot them primarily to have fun with, nothing real serious.


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## Jeff Lazerface (May 7, 2013)

It was the condom crossbow for me, wow, it's been my life long dream to use one. As soon as I can, I will shoot myself in the tender bits with my very own crossbow. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!


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## halbart (Jan 23, 2013)

Rufus Hussey! I'd done various shooting but hadn't even thought about slingshots in the last forty or fifty years when, purely by accident, I saw one of his videos. That did it !


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## August West (Jan 21, 2012)

Jeff, not sure about the condom crossbow or shooting yourself in the junk with it but I have played a lot of great paintball games up there in Angier.

I really don't know what originally motivated me, I have pretty much always shot slingshots. I am a lot more serious about it now though.


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

I was originally motivated to shoot slingshots to get rid of the pests that were plaguing my vegetable garden -- also it gave me something else to do with my knives besides carve wooden spoons.

But what motivated me to learn to shoot better was the need to quit hitting my hand and the slingshot so much. :wacko:


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## Skillet (Apr 19, 2013)

I've liked slingshots since I was a kid but was never real good with it, and then I got a bb gun which side lined the slingshot. Years later I saw a video of PFShooter shooting cans, coins, and marbles out of the air, and Bill Hayes cutting cards which intrigued me and led me to this forum. It is simple, realatively cheap, and a lot of fun. And I like this forum and the people on it. Thank you all for reintroducing me to this wonderful sport.


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## Beanflip (Sep 11, 2010)

A friend and I went shooting our wrist rockets and we had such a good time. Then Jorge videos. Then Pocket Predator shooting contests. It's so many things really. Inexpensive and I can do it right in my back yard. And of coarse, what man doesn't like to build stuff and tinker.


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## ash (Apr 23, 2013)

A YouTube adventure in search of means to deal with the rats that have recently moved into my garden wall, lead me to amazing airgun and slingshot shooting videos. I didn't realise such power and precision was possible.

Coming here turned me on to the fact that fine craftsmanship and materials are as much part of the slingshot world as they are the guitar world. As a maker of things, the making of handcrafted slingshots appeals to me greatly, and along with it the skills to use them. My competitive streak is tickled by the SOTM, Power Rangers and other badge contests here, so I will be joining in very soon.


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## bigron (Nov 29, 2012)

its the only thing that my father and i did just the two of us he taught me how to make and shoot them when i was real young he died a long time ago its the only thing about me that is the same as back then


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## Bob at Draco (Feb 18, 2013)

My Dad helped me and my brother build them when we were about 12 years old. We used them to shoot sparrows and black birds that ate a lot of her chicken feed. We killed them by the droves. My Dad was a great shot and I always wanted to shoot as good as him. I have always carried one in my welding truck as I work out in the country a lot and rachers are always wanting me to shoot pidgeons and rats.


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## Tentacle Toast (Jan 17, 2013)

Hitting what I intend to hit has always been my motivator. When I was a boy (a young boy, like <8), I'd get frustrated when I'd miss, so just kept at it. The years went by, & a perpetual deluge of myriad projectiles assimilated with my arsenal, & still it's wanting to hit my mark -& the satisfaction that it brings- that motivates me. Maybe someday I'll even light a match...


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## AZ Stinger (Aug 30, 2012)

Cleaning out the garage at my mom`s house after my father passed I found an old Wrist Rocket, brought it home and realized I could still shoot after all these years, today I am inspired by Capnjoe and Dgui to shoot my best...


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## Bostradamus (May 15, 2012)

This one is easy for me... It's my Dad, Kipken... I had a couple slingshots when I was younger but I absolutely sucked with them and thought they were a ripoff until he got into it about a year ago.. I was amazed at how easy it was to get the hang of it once I had someone show me how.. Now I love making them almost as much as shooting them.

I'll brag on him a lil' bit.. he's a BEAST with a SS! He makes me look like that 12 year old kid shooting rocks haphazardly into trees and bushes every time we go shooting together, hahaha.. So he keeps me motivated to keep practicing!


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## tnflipper52 (Jan 26, 2012)

When I was a little kid, I saved my coke bottle money and went to the Dime store and bought a little wire frame slingshot for 10 cents. It looked a lot like this:








That little thing became a constant companion, and the frustration of not hitting what I wanted demanded more practice. Sadly, I cannot shoot as well as I did as kid, and that makes me try harder now.


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## BrokenPins (Feb 10, 2013)

My interest started when I clocked the second squirrel in the temple with 3/8 steel fired from a cheap wrist rocket and watched it run away. I looked at the contraption in my hand and realized there must be a better way...

Found the forum, learned A LOT about frames, bands, what works, what doesn't, etc. Watched Rufus on YT, moved on to DGUI and CapnJoe, built my first sling - a PFS with hand cut TBB and homemade pouch, and that's all she wrote. Love everything about this sport, from building to shooting, love the community and the open exchange of knowledge and theory. Love having a marble budget 

I am 100% addicted and my friends are getting on board now - really like that too! I've always been a shooter and slingshots take it to a purity level - complete control over frame, power source, ammo, and shooting style. I like experimenting with all in the quest for SS oneness


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## Incomudro (Jan 12, 2012)

My Father had a Scope Shot slingshot when I was a kid, and I remember when he took my sister and I out in the woods with it.

It came with "exploding pellets," and I remember my father marking trees and logs with it.

Some time later, he brought a Wrist Rocket when they were first introduced.

To my young mind, it was the pinacle of slingshot evolution.

My father let me use this one, maybe I was 12 or so at that time?

I've had a Falcon II slingshot in my teens.

I probably didn't pick up a slingshot all through my twenties 'till very late thirties when through the magic of the internet I purchased a Barnette folding wrist slingshot.

Still, I never worked on being good.

Never target practiced, just took it out in the field here and there.

Only after finding this site probably less then two years ago (I'm 49 now), did I get involved in these non wrist braced slingshots.

I've since built a target, as well as occasionally set up improvised ones - like a 3 x 3" Post It pad adhered to a box.

I've gotten much better, because there is no way in **** I could have hit a Post It pad at 30 feet years ago with anything but the most lucky of shots.

Still, I'm not really good.

Certainly not good in this company.

I'm just a guy who can shoot a slingshot.

I don't really care either, because I just like to have fun with it.

I'm good enough for me,

I think I would find being really good to be kind of boring.

I mean, where can you go if you can light a match at 30'?


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## Arturito (Jan 10, 2013)

I don't know ... my first ss (big horn Daisy) I bought as a gift for my 62 birthday, I was buying crossbow arrows and seen that ss and added the the cart, then when I start shooting I found that I did really awful and left it for a week, one day I google "slingshot" and started to read and see a lot of incredible videos and discovered Jeorg channel and this one, I was thinking on a rubber rifle or crossbow, one day I resumed the ss shooting trying to apply what I've seen and read and hit a can, it was so amusing that don't have stopped a single day, I forgot the crossbows, shooting the slingshot was pure fun! ... the rest came with the time ...


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## 223fan (Apr 28, 2013)

My motivation is being able to hunt with one. I have a way's to go but I will get there.


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## Popcorn (Mar 25, 2011)

Well, I'm a bit like Will Rogers: I never met a rattlesnake I liked. I walk my dog regularly, and sometimes come upon a rattlesnake during the walk. I've found it very inconvenient to then hunt for large rocks to lob at them, so I thought a slingshot might be a good thing to carry and be able to use. That is what inspires my practice. If I'm ever successful getting one with a slingshot, I'll see if I can get a picture and post it in the hunting section.


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## SonoftheRepublic (Jul 3, 2011)

Guess I've always been a "shooter" (and a practical kind of guy as well). When I was a young boy (mid-1960's), I watched my grandfather shoot a gopher in the front yard with a slingshot. I was hooked! I wanted one so bad! It was all I thought about. So finally one day he bought me a wrist rocket at the local hardware store. I shot that slingshot for several years and got pretty good with it. That was until I got into .22's, and then the slingshot was set aside for a while. But periodically throughout my life, I would pick it up and begin shooting again.

This website and its contributors have really inspired me and brought me back to the joys of shooting the slingshot. I love how accurate it can be, and how much power it can deliver in the right configuration and with the right ammo (and with lots and lots of practice!). Its quiet, concealable, and can be carried with you most anywhere. And it really satiates my passion for target shooting, plinking, and hunting.

I explain this passion to others using the analogy of playing golf. Shooting a slingshot accurately and with enough power to hunt small game is a wonderful skill and a tremendous challenge, just as hitting a golf ball accurately is a challenge . . . Only I believe, (as my grandfather would say), that developing your shooting skills is much more useful (and practical!) . . . *than chasing a little white ball around the green!*


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## primitive power slingshot (Apr 5, 2013)

I HAVE ALWAYS LIKED HITTING WHAT I AIM AT. AND AS FOR SLINGSHOTS IT WAS A MAN NAMED DAVID JOHNSON WHO WAS AN AREA LEGEND WITH A SS, WHO AT A DUMB AGE OF 16 I ( PRODDED) ALLOWED HIM TO SHOOT A DRINK BOTTLE FROM MY HAND JUST AFTER HE HAD EYE SURGERY. HE DID AND I WAS AMAZED BY HIS SKILL. I LIKE SLINGSHOTS BECAUSE OTHERS SEE THEM AS UNWORTHY UNTIL I SHOOT A PLUM FROM A BRANCH OR POP A CAN AT 100 FEET. THEN THEY TOO WANT TO SHOOT MY UNWORTHY TOY.


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## quarterinmynose (Jan 21, 2012)

There are many things that fuel my fascination with slingshots.....

But as for shooting, the driving force has been the sound of hitting your target. Be it the crunch of a solid can hit, the ting of a socket or steel plate, or the thwack of cardboard, leather, or wood. The sound triggers that satisfaction of a shot well placed. I am not a very good shooter but I keep coming back for that sound.

This, and when I see the gracefully placed shots of some of the guys here I can't help but want to improve.


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## crypter27 (Oct 13, 2010)

SuperMonkeySlinger said:


> Ill start this off- My grampa taught me how to shoot and hunt with a slingshot, so i practice every day to be as good as him.
> 
> SMS


I've been shooting slingshots ever since I can remember.


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## Jeff Lazerface (May 7, 2013)

I met chris from the forum, my stuff was in a cardboard box, he had a cool pack. I knew at that moment, time to step up my game.


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## August West (Jan 21, 2012)

The pack was courtesy of Uncle Sugar, if I would have had to pay for it I might have been using a cardboard box too. LOL I am going back out to get me some of those forks, I can't stop looking at the colors.


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## Jeff Lazerface (May 7, 2013)

I would have gone today, i didnt wanna impose, my son wants to come saturday.


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## KITROBASKIN (May 20, 2013)

Like a lot of members, probably, it was all about firearms as a kid, BB guns, then .22's, then centerfire. With the expense and noise scaring the neighbors it went to archery. Turns out the arrows were pretty spendy when you lost them. Slingshots are the highly evolved, apex predator that motivates me. Flexibility in ammunition, compact, quiet, satisfying sound at impact, can be economical. The most common game in these parts is the rabbit. And some of you can shoot with a slingshot at close range as good as I can shoot with a scoped .22 rifle offhand. Wow.

As an item for collecters, they beat the fire out of porcelain pigs or Justin Bieber t-shirts. Plus, we have a great forum like this! My three year old son has a question though. When are you going to post more Ponies again? He loves Ponies (Without the strife of course).


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

just for you kitrobaskin. a little bit of a pony for your son and a little bit of strife for the forum ...


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## KITROBASKIN (May 20, 2013)

HIS FAVORITE COLOR FOR A PONY!! And by the way, it's OK for a manly 3 year old to like the color fuchsia. It's not pink when my boy likes it.

Will the forum gods reign down warning points on me if I ask on this thread, when folks think a good age for introducing slingshots to a young person should be? I'm planning on waiting for some time. Do I stray too far from the thread?


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## abagrizzli (May 2, 2013)

KITROBASKIN said:


> it's OK for a manly 3 year old to like the color fuchsia. It's not pink when my boy likes it.


Excellent point. :king:


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## ChapmanHands (Oct 14, 2013)

Well let me say first that since spending 8 years in the army I fell in love with survival skills. A slingshot in the survival bag never occured to me until watching a guys on youtube with one nailing squirrels at incredible ranges. MCQbushcraft I believe was the screenname. Seeing what he could do with one made me love the idea so I built myself a natural and got to practicing. Not quite there yet but I have been improving in leaps and bounds and look forward to the day I can throw one in my bag with the confidence that it provide protein for me and my family.


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## BlackBob (Mar 8, 2013)

My son bought me a Barnet Pro Diablo about 2 years ago I admit I am rubbish with it. Then I saw Rufus Hussey videos made a natural slingshot and was still rubbish, just a little better. Then I found Jorg Sprave videos and finally this Forum which has taught me so much. Now I am competent enough to go hunting and improving all the time.

So what really motivated me and still motivates me are the members of this Forum.


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## JonM (Aug 17, 2013)

My great uncle lived behind us as a Kid & had his own machine shop. He made my first one... a natural with red Inner tube rubber. I was spending so much time with him in his shop I think it was to keep me busy. over the years I've had several & now I'll be making my own based on some of the templates available on the net. I shoot mostly for fun, & to give my dog something to chase when the squirrels get knocked off a branch on occasion.


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## Dr J (Apr 22, 2013)

The US Government.


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