# From A Newbie To A Newbie--Vol. 1



## MOJAVE MO (Apr 11, 2018)

If you are a newbie with unlimited time and money and no regard for your own health or safety then save yourself the reading of this post!

Many of us newbies here were shooting every single day... around 45 years ago! I am shooting again, making mistakes, and searching for as many online answers as I can endure. For me every minute in front of a computer is another hour off of my life.

Avoid:
Buying on eBay and trying to 'make it fit' with your Dremel Kit.
Thinking your 10th grade woodshop class make ye a slingshot maker.
Working with Carbon Fiber and Super Glue unless you hate yourself.
Avoid banding up your slingshot from '75 because you still can. For me I spent the time and money and for some reason ending up shooting like I was 11 years old. Shoot with current technology, even if it is natural.
Getting hung up on creating from scratch your own bands and pouches. There are too many pro setups available for little cost and huge satisfaction. Learn to tie onto your fork, but reserve the frustration of good band cutting and pouch binding for a later date.

Better Plan:

Make yourself a nearly-no-cost catchbox using ideas from this forum.
Shopping for the 'right' slingshot is actually daunting at first. My final conclusion was to purchase a slingshot conceptualized around the designers hand size, which happened to be the same as mine. Discover your hand size and ask those questions about how the sling will fit your measurements. 
Get the right ammo for the sling you just purchased, not a pile of rocks from the driveway.
Shoot, rest, refine, shoot until you can put 12 through a 1" washer at 10m....in the air.

If you are more of a fiddler than a shooter then search for your own compromise. I fiddled myself one little PFS after a restless night and spent too many hours thinking I was a slingartist. Now instead of looking around and seeing slingforks everywhere, I am seeing targets everywhere!

Good Luck!
MM









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## mattwalt (Jan 5, 2017)

That a photo of your catch box?


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## MOJAVE MO (Apr 11, 2018)

...everything is a target...!!


mattwalt said:


> That a photo of your catch box?


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## Jolly Roger (Aug 14, 2017)

Used to be a local gun store here called Shoot The Moon but it sold out and is now Dan's.


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## Covert5 (Feb 7, 2018)

If you turn the picture 90 degrees and zoom out, you will see that it was a marble that cut a card in half, lit a match, and finally entered blue ballistic gelatin after being fired from a slingshot. Lol


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## Toolshed (Aug 4, 2015)

VERY good words my friend.

I love your words about HAND SIZE. I coveted a Hathcock Target Sniper, but found it is WAY TOO BIG for me. I am now in the process of slimming down my cast aluminum copy of the one I got from Mr. Hays himself.

I too came BACK into this sport full of piss and vinegar only to learn that I didn't know DIDDLY SQUAT. I started trading. Big eye opener.

That's another thing to mention to newbies. These folks take trading SERIOUSLY. I thought I knew how to give a fella a fair deal but these folks go OVER THE TOP when trading. Home made pepper jelly as an EXTRA. ?? I cannot ever top that even with molten metal....


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## MOJAVE MO (Apr 11, 2018)

Toolshed said:


> VERY good words my friend.
> 
> I love your words about HAND SIZE. I coveted a Hathcock Target Sniper, but found it is WAY TOO BIG for me. I am now in the process of slimming down my cast aluminum copy of the one I got from Mr. Hays himself.
> 
> ...


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## rosco (Jan 10, 2012)

A most worthy post!

I'm guilty of all the pitfalls mentioned and then some. Still manage to run away with myself even now. Ya think ya know a thing or two, old enough to know better, but really you know squat. I have scars that still itch.

As you've said MM - first buy a frame with bands, tubes, pouches, ammo, learn how to shoot that and then start making them. I love the making and so started before I knew anything about the dynamics involved and that was a waste of time, materials and dangerous. Who knew that a poorly designed and attached pouch is capable of sending ammo right back at ya? Think I've chipped a bone in a finger.....


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## MakoPat (Mar 12, 2018)

This is solid advice. Much appraciated.


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## hoggy (Apr 17, 2017)

wise words


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## MOJAVE MO (Apr 11, 2018)

I want to add that even though these are just 'stupid slingshots' do not guess around stuff you think is obvious. It ain't easy, but get into this ForumSite so you can figure out that you don't need to figure it out! MM

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## The Norseman (Mar 5, 2018)

Dude!!!!! This thread needs pinned!!!!!! Incredible advice!!!!!


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## keqi (Nov 24, 2017)

i am

Newbie


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## wbrazell (Feb 25, 2018)

Hi Keqi, welcome


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