# Fork length



## Shome (Mar 2, 2015)

Does length of fork sides influence the way you will have to shoot? (Both band position and ss holding)

Živeli!


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## flaco (Mar 5, 2015)

A suggestion from a noob, before committing to wood, metal or plastic take the template and cut one slingshot from stiff cardboard, see how the grab feels and re-size the template as needed; also do several different designs in cardboard and discard the ones that don't conform to your hand or holding style.


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

Hi Shome,

I agree with what flaco said above; however, I think that that relates mostly to board cuts and from some other thread I understood that you have couple of naturals and have intention to work with them.

So, the answer to your question above "depends":

first, usualy you do not go after fork length and decide on the grip, but you know your preffered grip, or someone else's prefered grip, sometimes the fork dictates the grip., etc, so that you then cut the fork the way you like.

second, in a case in which I would be given a ready made fork by someone and I want to shoot it, then oposite might apply, that is, I would try to see with what intention the fork was made and then use that grip; for example, there are slingshots, either board cuts or naturals that have been finished in such a way that the only possible grip is hammer (like in moorehammer); some other are directly made for pinch and / or thumb support grip, and still others alow you everything, but in that case, usualy one of the possibilites is not a best one; for example, I have couple of natural forks which you could use with a hammer grip but this is not as comfortable as the pich grip;

third, there is another relation between forks and a style of holding it; if the forks are rather long, a hammer grip becomes more and more difficult as the power of the bands grow. As a concrete example, double TBG bands, each being 2.5 to 2 cm taper (which in total is 10 to 8 cm taper) is so powerful that I do not know how a normal person could stretch that thing to the full draw, let us say, 200 times in one day using hammer style when the forks are some 12 cm long?! In that case I think that most people would hold it high at the forks, just below the tip which would ease the stress on one's hand/wrist.

I am not sure if this is universal but is my experience and I hope it helps.

cheers,

jazz


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## Shome (Mar 2, 2015)

Thank you both for these answers.

I will really try cardboard with my next forks.

So in other words I`ll have to try shooting all 3 ways and then decide on the best, and then go for my next ss?


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

yes, somewhat like that.

my suggestion is that you tell yourself: slingshots are fun so let's play!

and playing usualy involves trying, investigating, asking questions, experimenting -. and through this process somewhere your preffered style of shootting will set in.

cheers,

jazz


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