# Agile Toucan



## Dayhiker

Yesterday my Agile Toucan arrived. I took it downstairs and shot with it for a while and once I took the typically too-short tubes off and replaced them with some 17-45's and one of Irfan's nice pouches, I was amazed and flabbergasted with the sheer excellence of this design. I had a target that was only the top ring of a soda can dangling from a string at ten yards away. First 3 shots: bam! bam! bam!

After that I settled in hitting about every other shot, which is very unusual for me with a target that's only about 3 inches in diameter.









The size is just perfect -- not too big, not too small.

The grip is superior to anything else I can think of... and I have many many slingshots. It is just great in the hand!

















Aside from my usual gripe about too-short bands, I am delighted with this purchase. I haven't tried flatbands on it yet, but I can just tell I won't be disappointed. This is just a perfect design. I would recommend it to all who want to try a Dankung -- especially to beginners who want to experiment between flats and tubes.

Irfan, I salute you. You designed one of the best slingshots I've ever used.

... Oh and by the way, I took about 50 more shot with it today -- awesome!


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## mckee

great piece to add to a collection !


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## e~shot

DH, have you tried them with flats ?


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## Dayhiker

e~shot said:


> DH, have you tried them with flats ?


Not yet, Irfan. But I will soon. Like I said above, though, I already know it's going to be great because this is a perfect slingshot!


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## erlkonig

e~shot said:


> DH, have you tried them with flats ?


Ihave tried using band set which Imade that similar to HC loop type hunter band, it is hit hard with 1/2" bb just like hunter did.

but I found the ring on Toucan were too small copmared to couger, you might try to narrow down the flat to have nice fit.


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## Jacktrevally

Hi guys,

where did you buy the Toucan from?


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## Dayhiker

Right from Dankung.com


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## e~shot

I cut the tapered exactly fit the fork width (20mm / 0.78") easy attached and shoots well. after a long break I shoot with tubes too wow works very well


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## Jacktrevally

Thanks....

BTW, according to dankung the fork tip is 24mm\2.4 cm is that right?

Just want to know, as 24mm is big enough for 25-20mm tapered flats!


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## e~shot

Jacktrevally said:


> Thanks....
> 
> BTW, according to dankung the fork tip is 24mm\2.4 cm is that right?
> 
> Just want to know, as 24mm is big enough for 25-20mm tapered flats!


I was originally designed 20mm but I think they may changed it prototypes but final product is 20mm fork width


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## Jacktrevally

Thanks for your reply. Is the final product 24mm at fork tip?

If it is 20mm then I might as well go for a cougar. I sent an email to Dankung yesterday for a quote. :S

Erlkonig: what is the dimension on yours?


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## e~shot

it is 22.5mm just now checked, but I need a caliper to get a accurate reading.


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## Dayhiker

22mm with my caliper.


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## Jacktrevally

Thanks very much guys.

Just waiting for the reply from Dankung. I'll get the toucan if everything is fine.


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## Dayhiker

Here's the setup I'm shooting with now. Some off-brand flats doubled and tapered from 3/4 inches to 1/2 inch. With one of Irfan's pouches.


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## orcrender

I am using the same tube setup that came with my flatcat. It works real well. I don't remember what Jack called it, but I am converting all my Dankung style slingshots to it.


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## erlkonig

orcrender said:


> I am using the same tube setup that came with my flatcat. It works real well. I don't remember what Jack called it, but I am converting all my Dankung style slingshots to it.


What size tube you are going to use ?


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## orcrender

I have setups in the 17/45, 20/40 and 20/50. I prefer the 20/40 on the Toucan 9" from the front loop tie.


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## Rapier

That does look lke a gooden. Great shape. Thwack, Ping!


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## THEstoneSlinger

were do you get these????


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## rapidray

How much do the metal slings weigh in at? Nice looking slings.


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## ebooks886

Stoneslinger, you can get them from dankung.com a brilliant slingshot like many of their range!


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## Incomudro

I might need to pick up one of these.

I've got two Dankungs, but they're really just for collection purposes.

I've got a Snail, but aside from its diminutive size - it isn't made to be held in the right hand.

I've also got a Luckring - but I picked that one up to use as a rearview mirror ornament.

If Dayhiker says that this Agile Toucan is a shooter, I may just order one. (Dunkungs are so inexpensive too.)


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## culcreuch

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread. I started using slingshots just a short time ago, and have already started to increase the size of my collection! The Postman delivered my Toucan this morning. In between rain showers I nipped outside to see how it would shoot.

Very comfortable in the hand and the design makes it almost impossible to hold incorrectly. The forks are quite low so I felt less leverage than I do with my BloodShot hunter and there is a nice little protrusion on the side of the fork which aids in the aiming process. As I am new to the sport I am using M8 hex nuts (cheap) and a 1745 looped tube set with the target set at 12m. After the initial shot to check my aim...... I hit the target with 9 consecutive shots before the rain returned and stopped play. To put it mildly......... I am really pleased with the Toucan


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## oldstevie

does anybody know how the touchan compares with the panther?


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## jonathanfv

Hey! Just wanted to say, I think I'm going to buy one of these Agile Toucans! Seems to be a very good, solid and affordable shooter. My roommate just got a fork hit on my Scout, and it chipped the attachment bit. Now, I'm worried that it would damage the bands, and if I file it then sand it, there's going to be a big chunk of the tip missing.  Since I'm touring, it's really hard to get things shipped to me, so I guess a steel slingshot would sustain fork hits better so I wouldn't have to get an other one shipped if it happened again (it might, since I want to encourage the people on tour with me to play with the slingshot).

I'm also hesitating a lot between this one and the Panther, and I like both a lot, but I think I'll go with the Toucan because it's a little smaller, and would probably fit most pockets a little better. But it would be nice if someone have both and could give us a better comparison. I think I like the attachment of the Panther a little better, it seems like the extra little lump on top and in the middle would hold Dankung tubes consistently at the same place, although it might be annoying if the tubes naturally want to set somewhere else. The Agile Toucan's shape also seems smoother, so there might be less chances of the bands getting a little bit "hooked" somewhere.


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## bmlodge

Oldstevie and jonathanfv,

I own both the Toucan and the Panther. Both are great slingshots. As to which is best is a tricky one. Overall I would say I prefer the Toucan (my opinion), mainly because of it's smaller size. I am 6" 3 and have fairly big hands and I have no issues holding the Toucan comfortably. I also think it's more comfortable to hold it in the Dankung style (pinch grip is it called or something?) I find the Panther a tad uncomfortable to hold in this way although hammer grip is fine as it's a larger slingshot than the toucan. A plus point about the Panther though is the grooves in the top for the tubes to sit in so you know it's going to accurate everytime. Saying that though I find the Toucan very accurate as people have already pointed out. Below is a picture of my Toucan and Panther for comparison. Both para wrapped by me.


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## jonathanfv

Nice, thanks for the reply! Yesterday, I purchased the Toucan, as I have small to average hands abd prefer to hold my slingshot with a pinch grip anyway. Thanks a lot for the comparison. I expected the top grove of the Panther to help set the bands in the same place. But I think it might also be an annoyance if using office bands. In any case, I'm looking forward to receive my Toucan!  And thanks for the comparison picture, jt helps a lot to see the size difference between the two (the difference seems bigger on picture than when looking at the measurements).


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## bmlodge

No worries. Yeah I think the pinch grip is more comfortable as the Toucan is more curved for it than the Panther is, the rubber that holds the tubes in helps too. I've only been shooting for just over a year and already I have a dozen slingshots including Dankungs and Bill Hays designs mainly (pocketpredator.com). I absolutely love them. Let me know how you get on with the Toucan, pretty sure you'll love it.

Ben


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## jonathanfv

I will!


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## jonathanfv

So, I got the Toucan yesterday, and as promised, I let you guys know how I like it! First, here's a picture of the setup I made with it:










As you can see, I'm using a pseudo-tapered (to 1/3 of the length) 1842 tube, and it's pretty long. It allows me to shoot it in full butterfly, and I could stretch it out even more if I had longer arms. Since I'm touring, I don't have a ruler, so I didn't do very precise calculations for my band length, but it still shoots fast. With 3/8 steel, I get hand slaps, and my backdrop (2 towels folded in half) isn't good enough anymore. I made lots of holes in it, and the BB can go through 2 layers of towel at nearly every shot. I found a store that sells lead balls for black powder guns, and as soon as I'll have time, I'll go there and purchase .36 calibre lead balls. The extra weight should help reducing the hand slaps, although I want to purchase these for hunting more than plinking anyway. For plinking, I bet these would go through the towels AND the wall.

Now, I'm talking about the bands quite a bit because I didn't really like the bands the Toucan came with. They had a short draw, and were very heavy. No doubt they'd be very good at throwing heavy projectiles, but besides lead balls of a calibre greater than .50, I think it would give me furious hand slaps no matter what. Yesterday, I used these bands quite a bit (with rocks), and did get such nasty hand slaps that my middle finger is blue and swollen. The bandset that came with it was, I think, doubled 2050. It also made the slingshot quite uncomfortable to hold, the edges of the pinch grip digging hard into the bone of my thumb. But with appropriate band weight, the slingshot is pretty comfortable to hold, and my pseudo tapered 1842 is shooting 3/8 faster than the double 2050 (the double 2050 couldn't make it through one layer of towel), and I'm sure the .36 lead ball will be shot almost at the same speed as the 3/8 steel. It's a little heavier, but the bands still have enough power left in them to give me a fairly good hand slap.

As for the frame in itself... I like the form factor a lot, it's small and easy to carry. It feels a little flat, but as soon as I put my pinky in the ring, it feels a lot nicer. The universal fork is very nice, it's easy to slide the tubes in, and the steel is very well polished and smooth. One thing I would change, thought, is how long the protuberances are. I would make them shorter. I don't think it's really useful to have them that long (for me), and when placing the hand around the slingshot, the tips can easily dig in the hand. So I'd make them shorter (8-10 mm shorter), and a little rounder, keeping the concave part for the fingers as much as possible, because I like it. But that's me. Overall, I think the frame is great, easy to carry and to shoot, and solid. I'd only make one small ergonomic improvement to fit my hand better, but I'm happy with my purchase. I know they also sell a version of the Toucan with a wooden grip. It seems like it would fill the hand better, but I wanted to buy the flatter version to keep it easy to pocket without making a big bulge. The version I ordered was the bare metal frame with the Paracord on the side. Oh, and one more thing I like about the frame! The outside tip of the fork sticks out and makes a pretty sharp aim point.

I'd also like to point out that the Dankung guys are nice and accessible, even thought they live in China. Fedex made a mistake in the delivery, failed to deliver it in time to the city where I wanted it delivered, and the seller quickly reacted and made sure the package would get sent to the right place. We had the package rerouted to a completely different city, since instead of being shipped to my girlfriend (was too late for that), the package would have to be shipped to me directly.

Hope this post helps people decide whether they want to get the Agile Toucan or not!


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## bmlodge

Nice Toucan Jonathan. Nice paracord wrap. I think they come with looped 1745 tubes, well I'm pretty sure that's what mine came with anyway. Are you getting hand slap because of the length? I've never shot butterfly. I don't get hand slap with the Toucan but then I use short 2040 or 1745 tubes with mine.


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## jonathanfv

Thanks!  I think that it's 2050 because the inner diameter of the bigger tube is bigger than the inner diameter of my 1842, and the difference in size is quite significant. Here's a picture of the 1842 compared to the tube that came with my Toucan:










For the hand slap, I think I'm getting it because the tubes are powerful. I don't think I'd get it with a shorter draw of 1842, but a full butterfly draw makes a big difference in terms of speed. Per example, for 3/8 steel, the pseudo tapered 1842 in full butterfly is a lot more zippy than the double 2050 at about half the draw length.


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## bmlodge

Here is my 1842 and 1745 tube set. They look similar to yours. The 1745 bandset is a powerful one. As far as I know the only Dankung which comes with a 2050 badset is the Panther. Could be wrong though as it's been a while since I bought any slingshots from Dankung.

This link might help clear things up

Would love to try butterfly but how on earth do you aim?

http://slingshotforum.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=43492


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## jonathanfv

Oh yeah, you're right, they do look the same! The difference of size between the two is much bigger than I expected! I thought that the 1842 had an 1.8mm inner diameter vs a 1.7mm diameter for the 1745... Also, on the Dankung tubes comparison chart, the 1842 and 1745 look more similar to each other than they are in real life.

What type of ammo do you shoot with your double 1745? If it's fairly light ammo, how do you not get hand slaps?

And for shooting butterfly... I just pull the pouch all the way back, as far as I can with my reach, and I also push forward with my hand holding the slingshot. Then I lean my head over the band (I shoot sideways) until my check bone touches it, I align the tip of my slingshot with my target, and release. I'm not a great shooter yet, but it's coming along. Today, I managed to hit a little yogurt pot at like 12-13 meters, but it took me a good 10 tries.


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## bmlodge

Yeah they do. They're weird Dankung tubes. I've heard that Dankung sometimes send the wrong ones out and they're difficult to tell apart, well I I find it difficult anyway. My mate bought a Panther which came with 2050 tubes and I didn't like them as they were more rigid than the 1745's. Good power but difficult to pull. I find the 1745's overall the best tubes. I tend to use the 2040's for plinking though.

I used to shoot 9.5 or 10mm steel ammo with single looped 1745 band sets. Sometimes 10mm lead. I doubt I could pull back double 1745 tubes. I use flatbands now, theraband gold mainly.


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## jonathanfv

Yeah, I feel like pulling that heavy would depend on the frame. At heavier pulls, the Toucan would hurt my hand. Like, I still don't know if what I got is looped 1745 or 2050, and maybe I tried to pull it too far back (it felt like the rubber didn't want to be pulled back any further), but just holding the frame was bruising my thumb bone. I find that I like a lighter pull with a longer draw, so I don't need a heavy draw on the Toucan anyway.

For the ammo, I'm surprised you didn't get hand slaps with the looped 1745 and the 9.5mm! I'm shooting 9.5mm (3/8) steels and I'm getting serious hand slaps! Today, my middle finger was dark blue! The doubled tubes and the thick pouch I received yesterday gave me really nasty hand slaps at normal draw length, and my pseudo tapered 1842 with a SuperSure pouch also give me hand slaps, but they hurt a lot less. Tomorrow, I'm going to buy .36 cal lead balls, and see how it goes with my 1842 tubes. I expect less of a band slap. Today, I shot larger rocks, and one rock didn't give me any hand slap, but it was a bit too big for the pouch, so I guess I'd like to shoot something about the same weight that's made of steel or lead!


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## bmlodge

When I shot the Toucan I held it hammer grip without the pinch grip so that's maybe why I didn't get hand slaps. I do with the luck ring but that's a pretty small slingshot. You tried wearing gloves? I tend to wear fingerless gloves as it helps with stability and handslaps I'm guessing wouldn't hurt as much.


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## jonathanfv

Yeah, I gave it a try yesterday, and it does help, but I don't want to need gloves, so today I didn't wear them and I intend to have a better match between my ammo and bands to avoid it instead. I'll try it with a hammer grip too, just to see.


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## Amarsbar

2040s will be great


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## namazu

I just odered my toucan and a jungle hunter from dankung.com . I realy liking the chinese style of s.s. Im more accurate with them . After hearing so much about the toucan i had to pull the trigger . Beats the plated knockoffs i have.


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## pop shot

The only problem with the agile toucan is that it almost lit my catch barrel on fire. I think it's in Panama with Henry right now.


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## namazu

Popshot how do you like shooting your toucan ? The plated knockoffs actually shoot well for me . Thats why i odered from dunkung.com . Thanks


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## pop shot

I really liked it when I had it, but once I got my sps none of my other ss got any action. I'm going to start selling them really soon.


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## namazu

Thanks popshot i appreciatenthe reply keep slinging em . Namazu


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## namazu

I keep seeing the sps and it is one sling id love to one i just cant afford it . Like a lovely lady great to look at but out of my league.


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## sharp eye

I have the same feeling that pop shot regarding the SPS, this slingshot is so good that once you try it is hard to let it down and practice with the others in the collection.


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## jonathanfv

Perfect birthday or Christmas gift?


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## namazu

I had my toucan for a while it may have a funny name (i keep seeing that toucan on a box of fruitloops) any way its been nothing but a great shooter . Definatly one of my favorites . its in my pocket as i post .


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## THWACK!

THEstoneSlinger said:


> were do you get these????


You must've missed it - he got them from Dankung.


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## Jacktrevally

The bands keep slipping off the slot because the elastic slit is too large! I threw mine in a box sitting in a corner! There are better slingshot around!


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## namazu

Jacktrevally said:


> The bands keep slipping off the slot because the elastic slit is too large! I threw mine in a box sitting in a corner! There are better slingshot around!





Jacktrevally said:


> The bands keep slipping off the slot because the elastic slit is too large! I threw mine in a box sitting in a corner! There are better slingshot around!


hi i understand your frustration about the slots being to big and bandsets flinging off. To fix the problem i used an end cap off of tubing like for for fuel lines . They made of a rubber like plastic. I cut two rings off and used them to close off the gap. Has worked out well you might also try small orings.


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## jonathanfv

Jacktrevally said:


> The bands keep slipping off the slot because the elastic slit is too large! I threw mine in a box sitting in a corner! There are better slingshot around!


There are, but this one is quite pocketable and polyvalent! For your band problem, do you shoot "over the top"? Cause I don't get that problem shooting like that, or more precisely with my bands looped around the top part of the forks.


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## namazu

Basicaly all my frames from dankung.com a wide in gap to place looped tube sets woth this simple mod problem is solved .


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## Jacktrevally

I shoot OTT, when you stetch the bands to the max this always happens. This has been a problem on many dankung frames and it is annoying.

There is one dankung that I really like and the slots are not directly down and slim. The romantic cup.

Even the bat the same thing happens, on the black palm thunder the tubing finger brace support prevents it from popping off.


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## Jacktrevally

The toucan is a bulky slingshot, heavy too!


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## namazu

I have about 11 s.s. frames so far the toucan and the palm thunder are my go to ones. And the ones i shoot best . Like lightgeoduck say sometimes the slingshot finds you. I hope you have success solving the problem with them . I hope making rings to close the gap helps.


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## THWACK!

Rapier said:


> That does look lke a gooden. Great shape. Thwack, Ping!


Someone mentioned my name?

THWACK!


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## Jacktrevally

I use my romantic cup mostly.


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## Henry the Hermit

pop shot said:


> The only problem with the agile toucan is that it almost lit my catch barrel on fire. I think it's in Panama with Henry right now.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_3148.JPG


Yep, that's where it is, and that is where it will stay unless you ever want it back. It's a great slingshot and I really appreciate it.


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