# Using Marbles



## shot in the foot (Jan 3, 2010)

Ive read on a few topics about people using marbles for hunting, they are ok for birds but please dont use them for rabbits and squirrels, i hate rats but still wouldnt use them, ive been hunting with catapults for nearly 40 year, marbles dont always give a clean kill,
im sure all the veteran hunters on the forum will know the same,
please give clean kills,

marbles dont do this, this rabbit was going no were, jeff

10mm lead


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## reecemurg (Oct 9, 2011)

Holy cow !! How wide are those bands in the first pic ?? They look huge !


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Oh smack!!!! Looks like a clean kill to me.


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## shot in the foot (Jan 3, 2010)

reecemurg said:


> Holy cow !! How wide are those bands in the first pic ?? They look huge !


there 30mm at the fork to 22mm at the pouch ha ha, i like to kill what i hit ha ha, jeff


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## reecemurg (Oct 9, 2011)

Crikey extreme taper !! 
Good shots on both prey ,, and that's a good looking catty mate !!


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

holy shiite !!! now thats a hit !


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Nice shooting. I, too, am a fan of heavy ammo for hunting. I believe most slingshot kills on game bigger than rats are due to blunt force trauma ... at least that is my experience. I will use steel around water because of local laws. But lead is my preference.

Cheers ..... Charles


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Steel is good, too. But lead is best. I think 7/16 steel with a single 1 to 3/4 inch taper in TBG is pretty deadly with rabbits as long as you can get a head shot. With 3/4 to one-half inch doubled TBG and 7/16 steel, you really do have a good rabbit and squirrel killer.

Again: lead is better for sure. I like .45 cal myself.


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## shot in the foot (Jan 3, 2010)

Dayhiker said:


> Steel is good, too. But lead is best. I think 7/16 steel with a single 1 to 3/4 inch taper in TBG is pretty deadly with rabbits as long as you can get a head shot. With 3/4 to one-half inch doubled TBG and 7/16 steel, you really do have a good rabbit and squirrel killer.
> 
> Again: lead is better for sure. I like .45 cal myself.


1st rabbit was hit with 10mm lead the 2nd was with 12mm steel,


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## Beanflip (Sep 11, 2010)

I am glad you are a part of the forum Jeff. Thanks for the post. Good shooting!


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## reiko1078 (Sep 11, 2012)

i will second this. i hit my first squirrel with a slingshot this afternoon. square in the chest and the little bugger shrugged it off like i told him a joke. was cutting nuts as soon as he jumped trees across the creek.

need to get some lead shot


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## shot in the foot (Jan 3, 2010)

reiko1078 said:


> i will second this. i hit my first squirrel with a slingshot this afternoon. square in the chest and the little bugger shrugged it off like i told him a joke. was cutting nuts as soon as he jumped trees across the creek.
> 
> need to get some lead shot


squirrels are hard as nails, ive shot them head shots with the air rifle and had to finish them off,


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## reecemurg (Oct 9, 2011)

I found when I got my first squirrel the other day my first shot with 10mm lead and double tbg must have stunned him and even after a 30ft drop onto tarmac , he was still alive ,, I had yo put one in his head to finish him off ,, but I am yet to get a rabbit !!


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## Berkshire bred (Mar 4, 2012)

i find that marbles are inadequate as they are big with no weight to them, i have been hunting with a slingshot for about 4 years and throughout that time i have found that 9.5mm steel is fine if you are good enough to hit a rabbit in the head or in the vital organs i shoot it at about 350 fps and this is plenty to kill it cleanly.


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## NCLeadSlinger (Sep 18, 2012)

I too agree. And the reason lead is better is due to the deformation factor and force transmitted to the target.Steel will not deform on a soft target, not even on bones, but Lead will deform and impart the most amount of force to the intended target. That my experience at least from my Airgun days.

P.


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## Adirondack Kyle (Aug 20, 2012)

Ya, was doing some testing with hex nuts, im not sure if i like them yet either,


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## mrpaint (May 16, 2012)

adarondack kyle said:


> Ya, was doing some testing with hex nuts, im not sure if i like them yet either,


they are deadly, the flat spots / edges really put the hurt on whatever you shoot.


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## muddog15 (Aug 15, 2012)

I tried the hex nuts, the only thing they hurt was the back of my hand.


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Different strokes for different folks! Whatever works best for you is what you should use.

Cheers ...... Charles


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## Longtang (Oct 12, 2012)

I'm buying 1/2 inch steel balls. I pay ten dollar for 100 in USA. I hav to drive to fastenals to pic them up.

Each inch is 25.4 mm. So u do the math.

Cheers.

Plan to get a ghillie set up and approach ground squirrel with total stealth. Kil them! I plan to get within a few yards. Each yard is one meter. So u do the math if u r British.

Cheers

Funny thing is I call yards and ounces the British system. But the brits hav no idea wut a yard is.


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## Adirondack Kyle (Aug 20, 2012)

Ya. I wouldnt use marbles


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

If you are going to hunt with a marbles, please don't use anything less than 5/8 diameter with a speed of 200 FPS or better. Now having said that, lead is superior to marbles and steel because of the ricochet of the steel and marbles. They usually just don't deliver all of the energy to the animal. -- Tex


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## Geoff uk (Oct 22, 2012)

* @ Longtang*

* brits invented the decimal system back in the day..as i,m late fifties i was taught yards and feet at school and then compounded by being an avid hot rodder drag racer and general american car fiend..all my mics and measuring equipment is in inches ..working in the retail carpet industry for many years i got a good handle on the metric system..so i have the best of both worlds..i,m one of the lucky ones and also own an open mind even at my age...some of us just like living in the past and some of us like to keep up...i come a cross all sorts of odd attitudes towards measuring stuff..our government in all its wisdom tried to eradicate LBS AND OUNCES about 30-40 years ago but you can still go to most places especially markets and buy your fruit and veg in LBS AND OUNCES...Have you noticed that all our serious ss makers still mostly use feet and inches to describe there ss dimensions and rubber tapers. good thread... *


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

Geoff uk said:


> brits invented the decimal system back in the day..


Ummmm.....

The *metric system* is an international decimalised system of measurement that was originally based on the _mètre des archives_ and the _kilogramme des archives_ introduced by France in 1799.


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## muddog15 (Aug 15, 2012)

si i have been told by a few Europeans that said they knew both systems they prefered the American system or whatever the correct name for it is, (brain fart), over the metric system.


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

A quick exercise for you:

You have a piece of metal 2 7/8" thick. Now remove 17/32", remove another 7/16" and finally remove 19/64". What do you have left?

Lets look at that in metric.

You have a piece of metal 75mm thick. Remove 12mm, now remove 8mm and finally remove another 10mm. What do you have left?


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## Geoff uk (Oct 22, 2012)

@hrawk.........invented : wrong wording..but i was lead to believe it was widely used by the brits before we went imperial..way back in the day...personally i prefer the decimal system but none of it makes me shoot straighter..


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

It's all good, now, back to marbles...


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## Geoff uk (Oct 22, 2012)

used loads as a kid..with square band on straight wood and wire....still find them in the back garden at mums...to us kids then they were better than airgun pellets...now good for plinking but nothing serious..i would have thought .......


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## Geoff uk (Oct 22, 2012)

just about 2 miles from where i lived as a kid they held the marbles world championships!!! i went a few times as a kid but could never work out what they were doing with them as the games we played with marbles were very different..

we either dug a hole in the ground and we had to get them in, first one would take all or we shot them from our ss's..the greyhound pub tinsley green..i think it still happens every year ..i think i ought to set up a ss tournament to run alongside.....marbles only !!!!!!


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## danmakesshooters (Oct 6, 2012)

Longtang said:


> I'm buying 1/2 inch steel balls. I pay ten dollar for 100 in USA. I hav to drive to fastenals to pic them up.
> 
> Each inch is 25.4 mm. So u do the math.
> 
> ...


 we do, I use ounces all the time, its just yards, meters are much easier to work with, cheers


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