# Shot bags



## M.Hawkins (Jul 19, 2010)

I've been pondering this little idea of mine: To manufacture small satchels of shot to be fired from a slingshot, much like shot is fired from a shotgun by means of a "shot cup". This would allow small shot to be fired from any slingshot in a speedy manner, conductive to hunting birds.

First this template is cut out:










All solid lines are cut, dotted lines are folded. The central square is about 2cm x 2cm, You can get four of these out of an A4 sized sheet of paper.

It is folded as such:
With the thin strips underneath and the broad "wings" wrapping around.










The bottom taped up with some scotch tape, this makes filling and handling easier. A small bit of crumbled up paper is tapped down to the bottom to make the whole thing a bit stronger, it is then filled with shot










I do not have any small shot at the moment, so I used roundnosed hollow .177 pellets. I have plenty to spare since I own many and they suck compared to the diablo ammo that I also own. I intend to smelt them into projectiles that do not suck some time from now.

The shotbag is then folded shut in "lunchbag" fashion



















(These are NOT to be used as beanbag rounds on beligerent drunks. Especially not if they ask you too!)

These can be carried around in your pocket. When you intend to use one, you tear the top of the packet (with your teeth, blackpowder musket charge style







)










load the entire thing (paper and all) in your slingshots pouch, pull back and let go.










The results?

Well, when I went to check on my wrist rocket, the rubber had ... degraded ever so slightly. I now find myself without a decent slingshot. I tried a pack with an old simple "Y" for children with about 6 kg of pull, and the shot went just about everywhere.

I was hoping somebody with a decent sized yard and a powerful slingshot could do some better testing.
If you do, I'll reward you with my eternal gratitude, a fresh pint of beer if you can drop by at a to be determined mutually convenient time an old, simple Y slingshot and a pair of seriously degraded rubbers that'll (no longer) fit any wrist rocket.


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## Sam (Jul 5, 2010)

I've recently had some fun shooting cherries out of my tree with small screws and I could achieve CD sized groups at a distance of just over 5 metres but they definitely weren't powerful enough to kill anything.


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## hiddenweaponmaker (Feb 14, 2010)

u can also use a *tissue







this will be easier but also rips easier*


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## Sam (Jul 5, 2010)

hiddenweaponmaker said:


> u can also use a *tissue
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I concur, I think simply wrapping 10 or 15, 4.5mm lead shot in a tissue then fixing it in place with a small piece of cello-tape would be considerably faster to produce and would actually result in tighter groups. I'm still dubious as to whether a slingshot could actually generate enough velocity to make 'shot bags' an effective hunting tool, even with lead shot I think they would need to send them through a chronograph at at least 350FPS to have any chance of immobilising the prey - maybe someone with a chronograph could confirm this? 
Oh yeah, they'd also be pretty expensive!


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## hiddenweaponmaker (Feb 14, 2010)

we always used tissues for my friends his spudgun long ago but it broke when he dropped it







i always made that ammo for him


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## stelug (Feb 6, 2010)

have used bag-shot in tissue in my youtness when rubbers (also the palr yellow-natural) wasn't so good as today. You could have a chance of success only with very small quarrys like song birds or similiar, wich I'll neve hunt any more


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## Sam (Jul 5, 2010)

OK, I've just done some maths and by my calculations using your band-sets and 4.5mm lead shot would be suitable for nothing larger than a sterling at a range of no more than 10 metres, also they would not provide sufficient energy to instantly kill a small bird, but should incapacitate a bird long enough for you to put it out of its misery with a fishing priest, it would definitely be a lot easier to do this than with single 0.44 lead shots but I think that the cost would definitely be a limiting factor, you also have to think about the ramifications for leaving 4.5mm shot everywhere as animals do eat them (this is why using lead split-shot in the UK is illegal.) So all in all, I think that this was a fun experiment but I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it!


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## M.Hawkins (Jul 19, 2010)

Awww drat









Fair enough, thanks for the effort.


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## whipcrackdeadbunny (May 22, 2010)

Sam said:


> OK, I've just done some maths and by my calculations using your band-sets and 4.5mm lead shot would be suitable for nothing larger than a sterling at a range of no more than 10 metres, also they would not provide sufficient energy to instantly kill a small bird, but should incapacitate a bird long enough for you to put it out of its misery with a fishing priest, it would definitely be a lot easier to do this than with single 0.44 lead shots but I think that the cost would definitely be a limiting factor, you also have to think about the ramifications for leaving 4.5mm shot everywhere as animals do eat them (this is why using lead split-shot in the UK is illegal.) So all in all, I think that this was a fun experiment but I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it!


Have you had a good look at ZDP's blog?


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## Sam (Jul 5, 2010)

whipcrackdeadbunny said:


> OK, I've just done some maths and by my calculations using your band-sets and 4.5mm lead shot would be suitable for nothing larger than a sterling at a range of no more than 10 metres, also they would not provide sufficient energy to instantly kill a small bird, but should incapacitate a bird long enough for you to put it out of its misery with a fishing priest, it would definitely be a lot easier to do this than with single 0.44 lead shots but I think that the cost would definitely be a limiting factor, you also have to think about the ramifications for leaving 4.5mm shot everywhere as animals do eat them (this is why using lead split-shot in the UK is illegal.) So all in all, I think that this was a fun experiment but I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it!


Have you had a good look at ZDP's blog?
[/quote]
No actually, I will now though!


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## Sam (Jul 5, 2010)

whipcrackdeadbunny said:


> OK, I've just done some maths and by my calculations using your band-sets and 4.5mm lead shot would be suitable for nothing larger than a sterling at a range of no more than 10 metres, also they would not provide sufficient energy to instantly kill a small bird, but should incapacitate a bird long enough for you to put it out of its misery with a fishing priest, it would definitely be a lot easier to do this than with single 0.44 lead shots but I think that the cost would definitely be a limiting factor, you also have to think about the ramifications for leaving 4.5mm shot everywhere as animals do eat them (this is why using lead split-shot in the UK is illegal.) So all in all, I think that this was a fun experiment but I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it!


Have you had a good look at ZDP's blog?
[/quote]
Wow, he's a true scientist, he's taken the Newtonian Physics behind slingshots to a whole new level!


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## Trent (May 30, 2010)

When I was a kid we used to use aluminum foil to wrap the shot in to shoot. It keeps the shot together in the pouch. When you let it go it often will tear the aluminum foil and you get the shotgun result. If it does not tear when you release the pouch, you get a bean bag result. It does not work very well for birds, there just is not enough velocity to get penetration with small shot (#8 or 71/2 size shot). I have tried it with #4 buck but it is not practical in my experience.


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## BCLuxor (Aug 24, 2010)

Hi guys my first post on here had to jump in i have done this many times before what you need to do is buy a pack of water ballons put your .22 pellets inside groups of 6 or 7 and get a pin and dot holes in the balloon to ensure it breaks when hitting the target very cool watching the neon yellow balloon spray pellets . BC


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