# What distance do you practice at?



## 14585 (Aug 9, 2015)

Personally I practice at 36ft(10m)(because that's the longest point of my garden) what distance do you guys shoot from


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## fsa46 (Jul 8, 2012)

10m, 75% of the time, 15m, 20% and 20m, 5%.


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## Tag (Jun 11, 2014)

I shoot 10m, but what I should do is mix it up outdoors.


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## you'llshootyereyeout (Apr 5, 2014)

90% at 10m. I would love to mix it up more but the layout of my property doesn't allow for it.


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## Stockman (Jul 25, 2014)

Approx 8m indoors.


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## TSM (Oct 8, 2013)

Usually anywhere from 10-15m. Every now and then I push it to 20m if I'm really fellin' it.


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## wll (Oct 4, 2014)

I stump shoot as practice in the desert so most of my practice shots are 25-35yds, some further, 40yrd shots are not uncommon.. All hunting shots are between 25-40+ yds.

There are never any 10 or 15yrd shots for sure.

wll


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## Cjw (Nov 1, 2012)

wll said:


> I stump shoot as practice in the desert so most of my practice shots are 25-35yds, some further, 40yrd shots are not uncommon.. All hunting shots are between 25-40+ yds.
> 
> There are never any 10 or 15yrd shots for sure.
> 
> wll


. At 40 yards how tight can you group. ? If I couldn't group with in a 2 in. Circle at the distance I'm hunting I wouldn't shoot. Because if your grouping from that distance is 8 or 10 in. Unless the target is a foot wide any hit is going to be by chance.


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## Phoul Mouth (Jan 6, 2015)

I practice at 10 and 15 yards. I can get to within 15 yards of Squirrel, dove, and rabbit easily for hunting so practicing that range makes sense to me.


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## BAT (Feb 26, 2015)

My practice is 90% at 10 meters, and the other 10% it depends, sometimes 15 meters, one day two friends and I were practicing with a can at 30 meters. I shoot mostly at 10 meters, because my friends and I get together every Thursday to practice, and make a ranking at 10 meters, to see how we are improving our shooting skills.

Cheers!


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## wll (Oct 4, 2014)

Cjw said:


> wll said:
> 
> 
> > I stump shoot as practice in the desert so most of my practice shots are 25-35yds, some further, 40yrd shots are not uncommon.. All hunting shots are between 25-40+ yds.
> ...


About 2.5 feet + or - at 40 yds maybe less when I'm on, I really can't say to be exact .. but it is around that. Remember I'm not shooting rabbits, squirrels, pigeons or anything like that ... the only thing I have are a few starlings !, and a good body hit is more than enough to put them in starling heaven. That is why I put my heavy ammo away and use 3/8" steel and 5/8" marbles 99% of the time when I'm out shooting.

I don't have game come in closer than 25yds at 50yds if they see you they fly off.

The only way to get a 15-20 yrd shot where I live is to stumble upon them and catch them by surprise.

wll


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## CanH8r (Dec 3, 2013)

20 meters... Because it makes 10 meters so easy when I move up.


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

I'm a 15 meter guy. I changed my anchor point lately so my target would not be obliterated by my top fork (gangsta style hammer hold, jaw anchor point). I anchor lower than I used to so to get the elevation needed for the transition drop from 10m to 15m. I'm a little wild with that anchor point still, a relatively new thing.

By the way I figured it would only take a 3mm error in windage to miss the width of a beverage can at 10 m and a 2mm error to miss one at 15m. Lemme explain. If I have a pouch hold off by 3mm side to side it results in a miss as well as a 2mm pouch hold side to side for a 15 meter miss. The math is simple to figure this. I was doing a PM series with a member and wound up with these calculations I concocted.

I've always used a little math to figure out how and why things work, being a curious sort. I really hate a mystery. Stuff needs to be figured out or I'm uncomfortable. In this case let's figure out how much pouch error, call it anchor point error too, results in missing a pop can at 10 meters using a 9mm ball as ammo. Let's start first my some common sense calculations. This will take you about 10 minutes to go through so if you've not time now, save it for a rainy day. It may help to have some coffee before hand! LOL

If you have a yard stick on the floor and find the middle, 18 inches, and pound a brad through the yard stick at 18 inches, into another piece of wood under it, using the nail as a hinge (fulcrum), if you move one end of the yard stick 1 mm to the left, the other end moves to the right also 1mm, right? Using this principle we can figure target impact error in relation to pouch hold error and draw length and range distance.

I like to use metrics because it's easier but we'll translate that into inches if you aren't too familiar with metrics. I like metrics because once you're used to it you can figure all sorts of stuff in your head such as 100 centimeters = 1 meter, 1000 meters = 1 kilometer, 1 liter = 1000 cubic centimeters of water, 1 liter = 1 kg, 1000 liters = 1 metric ton, and backwards and forwards by multiplying by adding zeros and dividing by subtracting zeros or just moving decimal points left and right and so forth. No silly stuff like 12 inches per foot, 3 feet per yard, 5280 feet in a mile blabla...you need a calculator or pencil/paper to do any figuring, impossible in one's head unlike the metric system.

Anyway, back to the yard stick, missing targets or hitting them stuff.

If you have a slim piece of wood that is say 2 yards long, put the brad at the same place of 18 inches and move the short end of the wood 1mm. The long end moves more than 1mm obvioiusly. How much? Figure on how many 18 inches there are in the other long end. It would be exactly three 18 inch segments in the remaining yard and a half long end, right? So if you move the short end to the left 1mm, the long end moves to the right 3mm because the long end is three times longer than the short end..law of leverage. So far ya with me? If not go back and read it again.

Let's translate that idea to slingshots. The short end of the stick is the draw length, the long end is the range. Visualize that and let's go on.

A 1mm error in the anchor point of the pouch at a draw of about 31.5 inches (80 cm) equals the impact error of also exactly 1mm at 80 cm range, (same as the draw length and a pretty short range, right? (same as the yard stick experiment)... 1 for 1 movement end to end only opposite movements). So to figure the error not at 80 cm but at 10 meters or 1000 cm for only 1mm of pouch error and draw of 80cm, all we do is multiply 1mm x how many 80 cm segments there are in a range of 10 meters or best said, 1000 cm to keep all the measurements the same unit so we don't botch the calculations..you can't multiply apples by bananas and get grape fruits.

1000cm range/80cm draw = 12.5 segments draw of 80 cm in a range of 1000 cm. With me so far? That 12.5 segments of draw length of 80cm, per 10 meter range, is important...we'll use that below a couple times.

OK, so using the yard stick experiment idea above, we move one end of an imaginary long 10 meter rod only 1mm to the left with the hinge (fulcrum) brad pounded through it at the draw length of 80cm. The long end would move 12.5mm to the right down range. Still with me because the long end is 12.5 times the length of the short end. Same as the yard stick idea only now we've got one end much longer from the nail hinge point than the other which greatly multiplies the other end's travel sideways relative to the short end's travel the opposite direction. Got it so far?

12.5mm is 1.25 cm. That means for every 1mm of pouch error (deviation in anchor point up, down sideways) you get 12.5 mm or 1.25 cm of error on the target at 10 meters range (standard international SS range and what we use also).

Divide that 1.25cm by the conversion factor of 2.54 cm/inch you get .49 inch (let's say 1/2 inch) error on the target for every 1mm of pouch error, viewing it again, a factor of 12.5.

A pop can is about 6.5cm (65mm) in diameter (through it) which means the target is a point in the center, 3.25cm from the edge, right? How many mm of anchor point error windage wise would miss the can target sitting upright on it's bottom end in the catch box using 9mm ball ammo?

First convert the can radius of 3.25 cm to mm by multiplying by 10... 32.5mm is your target's half diameter or radius as it's called...or the distance from the can center to the edge of the side. You've got to hit inside that so the ball's -center- will hit the can. Stay with me and it won't be so squirrely. But remember the ball's center is inside the ball's diameter...keep with me here. You can see a calculation error about to pop up.

You get only 2.6mm of anchor error and your ball's CENTER will miss or barely barely barely imperceptively graze the pop can! Well not exactly a miss for the 9mm ball's center is going to be 4.5mm from the edge of the ball, but only 2.6mm is the pouch error it would take for the ball's -CENTER- to miss the can. But the ball, 9mm in diameter will still nick the side of the can because of its 9mm diameter divided by two, the radius, of 4.5mm. So the ball would nick the can's side 4.5mm into the side itself. That's a hit, it'll send the can flying to the side, albeit not a direct hit..a glancing hit still good enough to win a hit. So what windage error at the pouch would it take to actually miss the can with a 9mm ball considering the ball's diameter itself?

Well, the center of the ball will miss the can or barely graze it if we have a pouch error of only 2.6mm.

There is a ratio therefore of pouch error to a target impact error, remember, 12.5

4.5mm / 12.5 = 0.36mm pouch error for every 4.5mm of ball diameter.

Add 0.36mm to the 2.6mm error for the ball's center to miss and that totals to a grand total error of 2.96mm of pouch error to miss the can.

Let's round that off to only 3mm error on the pouch side to completely but barely miss a pop can at 10 meters with a draw of 80 cm (31.5 inches).

So! 3mm is .3 cm is 0.11 inch, a bit more than a 10th of an inch pouch error to miss a pop can at 10 meters with a draw of 31.5 inches. That's certainly NOT MUCH anchor point or pouch error, is it!! No wonder it is so dang hard for a beginner or even an experienced shooter to hit a pop can even at 10 meters. Slingshots take a lot of practice therefore. Right?

That isn't much of an error to miss a pop can and worse still, it doesn't count all the other possible errors like hand/wrist/arm muscular twitch and wobble of the frame, inconsistent release of thumb/forefinger, all possible pinch angles of the pouch variances, eye sight caused misalignment errors, cross wind, temperature variance of band heat and cooling at pull and hold times (hold bands stretched longer and they cool from the initial surge in pull heat and shoot low), and fork angle variance off the perpendicular on either of three axis angles, ammo tumbling sometimes (or not) in the air producing a curved path, positioning inconsistencies in placing the ammo centered or off centered just a fraction of a mm in the pouch, ammo weight inconsistencies, pouch "flutter", band contraction inconsistencies and contraction pattern variances just by happen stance, and so on. I've probably not included some additional variables which would involve impact deviations from center also.

So this sport has to be one danged precise repeatable shooting sport to hit a pop can at 10 meters let alone a bottle cap, edge wise card cutting or match tip lighting. But humans are amazing critters! It's done.


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

Sorry, missed my edit time limit (rather silly thing if you ask me because you can't correct an error if you've not enough time to proof read it
Correct "It would be exactly three 18 inch segments in the remaining yard and a half long end, right?" to read

"It would be exactly ////FOUR//// 18 inch segments in the remaining yard and a half long end, right? "

This typo doesn't make any difference in the calculations below it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

/////// The easy way to figure error based on pouch position deviation: ///////

Formula for finding the amount of error of impact caused by each milimeter of pouch position error

Use inches or metric but use decimal values, not x/x type fractions. Use either inches or centimeters, not feet and meters unless you want to confuse yourself and possibly arrive at the wrong answer.

Range: the distance from the fork to the target's surface.

Range divided by Draw Length = impact error at the range, per 1 unit of measurement of pouch positioning error/deviation

R/DL = impact error per unit of measurement

If the error in pouch positioning which is called "deviation" is for example 3 units of measure, multiply the result from the formula by 3 to get the impact error.


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## MakeSlingshots (Jul 16, 2015)

If anyones interested there is a trade on this form going around that needs more people.

http://slingshotforum.com/topic/44608-a-forum-trade-for-fall/#entry555028

its open entry till October 9th


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## MakeSlingshots (Jul 16, 2015)

and i shoot at 10 or 15m


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## Toolshed (Aug 4, 2015)

I have markings at 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 meters in my yard. My catchbox is at the back of my property.

I usually shoot from the 20 meter mark as that is where my beer-holder....I mean the steps to my deck are.

I also shoot from off the deck for variation, it's about 7-8 feet off the ground.


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## Rayshot (Feb 1, 2010)

74ft, appx 95% of the time.


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## Cjw (Nov 1, 2012)

Shoot about 40 feet from my target trap.


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## Cjw (Nov 1, 2012)

Hang different size targets from 1 in to 2in.


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## Northerner (Nov 9, 2010)

Indoors I shoot 9m. In my backyard I shoot 18m.


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## Ms.Reed (Feb 16, 2015)

I'm not much for hunting but I like to shoot at different distances during any given day out. I usually start out around 10-20m, move around the target from all angles taking shots, then, when I've gotten a groove workin' , I'll take more daring shots anywhere from 30m to 45m with varying success. I usually can hit 7 to 8 out of 10 times from 20m, but it can get a bit sketchy out to 45m,lol. Lucky to hit 4 out of 10 from that distance usually shooting at a Progresso soup can. I chalk it up to luck most the time. I shoot intuitively without aiming and just let go when it "feels right". I know everyone has their own opinion on this but when I try to aim I can't hit the broad side of a barn  . Seems to work for me coming from an archery background. I shoot a slingshot the exact same way I shoot my bows. Just seemed natural while making the transition from archery to slingshots.


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