# Slingbow survival



## Pepy (Nov 23, 2015)

Good afternoon!

I am new to the forum and would like the opinion of you ...

Do you consider the slingbow as a survival object?

A slingbow is able to provide residential defense and hunting in extreme situations?

Thank you!


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

I have to be careful here for forum rules don't permit posts about shooting humans so we'll limit the wording to "shooting animals". A sling bow would qualify under certain parameters as an apt weapon for "shooting animals". You must have a strong band set to launch an arrow at a reasonable velocity to project it at a fairly flat trajectory and energy delivery and penetration on target. An arrow is many many times heaver than a slingshot ammo...ball, cylinder etc.. so you have to have many many times the propelling force to launch an arrow reasonably well than you do for, say, a 10mm steel or lead ball. Pulling a slingshot with powerful bands is harder if you don't have a release. A+ Slingshots, aplusslingshots.com has some slingbow solutions and a simple no moving part release to aid you in the stiff pull necessary to launch arrows. Arrows are longer for slingbows than regular bows.

So if you are well practiced with your slingbow and it can deliver arrows to the target with good penetration at reasonable range (20/35 yards/meters) then yes it's viable.

Hunting game in a strictly survival situation with no other food option is a tricky task and iffy...depending on the game and where you are, if you are surviving deathly cold climate or in a lush warm area full of game. Remember, if you are in a humanly populated area, every other mother's son will be out hunting for food too...so as time goes on, game population will certainly diminish rapidly. For "animals" which are personal threats, an arrow won't kill instantly like in the movies and can infuriate the target and since it would be at fairly close range... and motivate either a fight or flight decision on the target's part. If it's fight, you must shoot again rapidly or exercise another option...of fight or flight as well.

I would consider a slingbow as my last option for defense other than a machete or club, against aggressive animals and a not so good option of hunting them for food if you have a fire arm and plenty of ammo.

Trapping food animals is a good option and suggest you learn how if you want to complete your survival skills..birds or beasts.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)




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## Pepy (Nov 23, 2015)

I understand...

Friends thanks for the answers!

I really do not consider the slingbow as first choice for hunting, so he said "survival".

However, when analyze the performance of some slingbows, note that the power (speed and final joules) is similar to a recurve bow 45 pounds. That is, if a bow of 45 pounds can be used with confidence for hunting because slingbow not?

Of course firearms, crossbows and bows are more efficient for hunting. However I think we can not overlook the effectiveness of slingbow.

If a hunting arrow consiguir penetrate between 10 and 15 centimeters in most animals, it is enough to slaughter them. Up to 12 meters, I think most slingbows do it.

Another thing: in ancient times, people hunted with bows and less powerful than a slingbow, and could get food from it.

That's my point of view, but does not mean it is a "fact".

:iono:


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## Tremoside (Jul 17, 2013)

I do like slingbows in general, not just as survival tools. Small size, customize-able draw weight, lower costs. It's really a fun also. I'm living in the city and when I travel to shoot (visiting family at the countryside) I really appreciate that I can carry this with me without having a car. With a release aid and some practice it is quite serious as a rig.


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## BockBorg (Dec 30, 2015)

I would figure if a slingbow can cause a fatal accident, it could kill a deer. Both are plausible. Shot placement as always is key. You would want a fairly savage broadhead, and yeah less than ideal but very portable, and you could fab a frame and arrows from sticks. Just add rubber and stir. In deep winter the animals are moving around to stay warm and a day spent sitting silently on a game trail hunting upwind or crosswind would have good odds. If you had a way to keep the bands reasonably warm until the shot, the yield would be worth the caloric expenditure and the cold would preserve your meat and mask its smell.

Just use as wicked a broadhead as you could manage with what you had... because it's easier to follow a short stripe than a long dotted line.


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## BockBorg (Dec 30, 2015)

As Pepy stated, tribesmen in various cultures would slay many types of big game with longbows from 15 yards away, producing much less kinetic energy than even a composite bow. A few strips of theraband and some real determination to eat, or to feed your kids would be sufficient to get the job done


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## JediMike (Jan 1, 2015)

The ability to kill an aniimal isn;t the only criteria on a survival weapon. I shoot deer with a rifle, but I'd still be in calorie debt after three days of schlepping around over hill and dale to find one.
In a "survival" situation it's not going to be calorie efficient to hunt deer or big game, so you may as well have a strong slingshot , since the calorie efficient thing to hunt will be small game (or better yet , snare small game, and focus on making smoke signal to get yourself rescued).


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

Can agree with Jedi Mike, snare/trap is the most efficient way to produce meat. Set it and come back...a slingshot would be good to dispatch that which you trapped, with ball for small game, arrow/broadhead for larger or a righteous club to the back of the head. You would want to be quiet so a slingshot/slingbow for that would be ideal. I think it was Wham-O which marked SSs for trappers..if I'm not right then one of the mfg of SSs did.

Trying to sneak up or ambush a deer at 15 yards may take a while...bring your lunch. Sure, boars, deer, whatever have been taken at that range but CAN YOU? And when? Two weeks of waiting? Unless game is very very prevalent and unless there are not a lot of people hunting that game, you might stand a chance for a survival BBQ. All this business about hunting for survival has a lot of "if" in it.

Scenario 1.

Total collapse, currency fail, no nuthin. No electricity, fuels, communication, no transportation other than animal back and careful walking. Dead of winter. NOW what? If you can go hunt for food and leave your family alone and house and possessions alone, good luck. You'd need a group..part to stand guard, part to hunt and procure, and wait. Others are doing the same thing. Game runs out quickly and things begin to get really fierce.

Scenario 2.

Your plane crashes in a remote wooded part of the world, winter, but you and a few others may survive the crash with minimal injury. You remove clothing from the dead and use it for the living to keep warm, the part of the plane that didn't burn is OK for shelter and you don't have an ax to cut trees. A few have lighters. That in itself is lucky already that you are still alive and able to function. Do you have your survival gear? A sling bow in your luggage? If so did it burn up in the luggage compartment? You are at least 150 miles, maybe 200 miles from any civilization. The plane has minimal food on board since they already serve the usual repugnant gas producing peanuts and cola. The going is rough, no trail, you aren't sure where you are...no map. Possibly the pilot has an air chart set. Is he/she alive? You find east/west north/south from sun/stars, easy... Do you try to walk out as fast as possible or hang around and try to kill an animal, fail, then try to walk out after calorie deficit gets serious. It's below freezing.

Scenario 3.

Your employer or your company fails. You can't work because there are no jobs available. I'ts not a melt down but heading that way...there are still folks working, still electricity, still water, fuels, communication. No war nor civil war yet. You can't get a loan, you've already exhausted your supply of credit or you simply don't qualify whether you had credit or not for the banks are within six months of failing and won't loan a thing. You are almost broke and have little to sell off other than a pickup full of stuff you can scrounge up from your house which is not ABSOLUTELY necessary to live..furniture, computer games, art, dance shoes, tennis racquet, bowling ball, a couple frizbees and a cowboy hat...that's going to last how long at panic selling time? You think, well, I gotta feed my family and myself, my kids are too young to hunt and wifey has to stay with them. Do you use a sling bow if you have other options? Of course not. Of course...sure, call Obama.

Sling bows as far as I'm concerned are good for fun...just fun shooting. Someday I may try one. I've got a compound bow and cross bow for arrow shooting. Yes SBs are very compact for the punch they deliver and yes boars, bears, deer and just about all other viable game has been taken with them, (and in some cases the shooter was blessed lucky he didn't get mangled, chewed up or gored in the groin) but the question is how much game has actually BEEN taken with a sling bow, and second question, can you? If it's not critical, if times are good and you've got plenty of means to eat, then yes, go a huntin' with a sling bow to say you did it and hopefully you'll bag some meat. It makes no difference survival wise if you tag that deer (other than the fact you bought a deer tag and can't shoot one). That's when I would hunt with a sling bow.

"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours. If it doesn't, hunt it down and kill it!"


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## leadball (Jan 14, 2014)

I believe a slingbow to be very close to. Or as potent as selfbows ( stick bows of the past ). That being said peoples of a past times knew the limitations and methods to optimize the weapons ability to "fill the pot" . Today those skill mostly lost.


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## leadball (Jan 14, 2014)

I believe a slingbow to be very close to. Or as potent as selfbows ( stick bows of the past ). That being said peoples of a past times knew the limitations and methods to optimize the weapons ability to "fill the pot" . Today those skill mostly lost.


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

I'm only saying and agree with your statement, that practice is mandatory for any hunting weapon's effectiveness. But my concerns about some scenarios is the availability of game and getting close enough to kill animals. In the very wild wilds, game hasn't had much contact with man, and is very very acute and wary of the slightest smell or noise and spooks easily...very much before you even see it or can come close enough on a stalk to shoot it. In other scenarios where every mother's son will be out there also trying to find meat animals...the animal population will be decimated rapidly, especially within 50 - 100 miles of a heavily populated area, i.e. much of the civilized world. If you are using your home or other shelter such as a bug out camp for a base, you can just as well use a compound bow or fire arm or snare/trap for more effective meat production.

I think one of the most useful "survival" tools would be a rifled barrel air gun, .22 or even .177 that uses an incorporated pump built into the rifle to charge the weapon, or a break down spring plunger rifle that has to have good velocity and accuracy, rather than CO2 cylinders you have to buy and can't, or a scuba shop to pump up pre charged tanks with high pressure for pumpless repeat shots.

Of firearms, a .22 tube fed 20 shot semi auto is my choice...with four or five extra tubes loaded up. You can carry 1000s of lethal rounds with not much weight compared to larger bore weapons. A Marlin comes to mind.

To survive if you find yourself crashed in a forrest or jungle or to survive if your house/neighborhood is severely compromised by whatever threat or threats, you must have various bug out plans for various venues..not just "well I'll head to the woods". What woods exactly? Have you scouted game frequently, several times year to make sure it's game plentiful and water plentiful? Nut trees? Do you have several of these places in mind you can walk to? If not, you are not prepared to bug out anywhere. I laugh when I hear or see the term "bug out"...for the usual prepper is no more prepared than his duffless city boy neighbor wimp stock broker yuppie.


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## ol'school42 (Feb 13, 2016)

I may be dating myself with this expression, but.... 'Right on!" for Chucks posts on this subject. I shoot a big ass hog in North Carolina thrice (that 3 times) with a 44 mag Ruger carbine using hollow points; if it weren't for the guides dogs I would have been pig scat about 35 years ago. One slug was found against a lung, another shattered the joint at one of the shoulders and the third bounced off his forehead. Of course with a slingbow he might not have been so pissed off.


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