# Surprising Performance From #32s



## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Via the grapevine I had heard some surprising velocities were being had with #32 rubber bands from Rubberbandgun:

http://www.rubberbandguns.com/ammunition/ammunition-size-32-red

Sooo, I bit the bullet and ordered a big bag of them ... although the shipping to Canada was about the cost of the bands. Initially I set them up as a braid with 12 rubber bands per side, which allowed me to pull a full butterfly at 60 inches. Shooting 3/8 inch steel, the results were lousy ... about 160 fps. So, on a lark, I tried shortening them to 6 rubber bands per side. I found that I could draw them to 36 inches, which just about maxed out the bands. The slack band length was only 6.5 inches.










After a few warm up shots, I fired 16 shots over the Chrony, and got an average speed of 195.9 fps. Now THAT made a believer out of me! That was significantly better performance than I have got with any other office bands. As you can see from the photo, this is a very compact rig. And the draw weight is only 13 pounds. I have not used this set up long enough to have any comments about band life. I always dust my office bands with baby powder before braiding, so that should help their longevity. Anyway, I am sure tempted to start using this set up on my carry around slingshot. Carrying extra bands is no problem, and with the gypsy tabs on small bolts, repairing a broken braid is a snap.

Just another report form an island in the Pacific ....

Cheers ....... Charles


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## ruthiexxxx (Sep 15, 2012)

That's a great design. I love the bolt on gypsy tabs


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## Carbon (Nov 18, 2012)

Very compact design. I would like to see the longevity if you are maxing out the bands. Keep us updated!


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Nice rig, Charles.


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

I think the big drawback with a set-up like that is band life. even though they are cheap it is a hassle to make them up all the time. When I started shooting again in 1998 I started with #32 set up like that and they will shoot pretty fast. I could not get good flat latex then and the #32's were faster than the gum rubber that I could get at the time. -- Tex


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

I did some destructive testing ... just stood there and kept firing, waiting for something to break. I got 257 shots and a band broke on shot number 258. I note that in another thread, Henry says he only gets about 200 shots with pseudo tapered tubes that are stretched to the limit.

http://slingshotforum.com/topic/20352-pseudo-tapers/

I do not know about other brands of #32 office bands, but I do not think that band life for these Rubberbandgun #32 short braids is too bad. Also, I note that in terms of velocity, the performance of this set up is pretty close to what I got with half doubled 1745 tubes.

http://slingshotforum.com/topic/20493-dykeema-vs-alliance/

I just remeasured draw weights. Those half doubled 1745s are reading about 5 pounds, and the #32 braid is coming in at 6 pounds. My previous report of 13 pound draw weight was in error, and I apologize. I think I forgot to reset the gauge after a previous test.

I note that this is just a single braid of #32 ... I have not yet tried half doubling the braid.

From my tests, I would say that single braids of Rubberbandgun #32 rubber bands perform very close to half doubled 1745 tubes, in terms of velocity, draw weight, and longevity.

Cheers ..... Charles


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

One more update ... I just tried half doubling the bands. That is, I used 2,2,2,1,1,1, going from fork to pouch. This arrangement was substantially harder to draw, coming in at a 16 pound draw weight ...That was very heavy for my poor thumb after all the shooting I did today. As before, my draw length was about 36 inches.

Anyway, after about 10 warm up shots, the average velocity came in at 231.3 fps. Not too shabby for office bands.

Cheers ...... Charles


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Here is another update on my experiences with Rubberbandgun #32 bands. Today I tried a variety of pseudo-tapers. The room temperature inside today was 68 degrees F. All tests were done using 3/8 inch steel shot.

I previously tried a half doubled braid: 2,2,2,1,1,1 That gave me a velocity of 231.3 fps, but with a draw weight of 16 pounds.

My next test was a 1/3 doubled braid: 2,2,1,1,1,1 The draw weight was more comfortable (sorry, I did not measure it), and the velocity was a surprising 230.5 fps, which was for all intents and purposes the same as the heavier 2,2,2,1,1,1.

Then I tried a 1/6 doubled braid: 2,1,1,1,1,1 The draw weight was lighter still, but the velocity dropped to 210.8 fps.

At this point, the sweet spot for the pseudo taper seemed to be a 1/3 doubled braid. But just on a whim, I tried something a bit different. Check out the arrangement in the following photo:









In this arrangement, I "chained" the band next to the pouch, so it is not doubled as in ordinary braiding. But then I braided single bands from there to the fork in the usual way. I will call this arrangement 1,1,1,1,1,.5 because it is sort of like braiding half a band at the pouch.

This arrangement gave a slightly longer slack band length of 8 inches. More importantly, I found it easy to draw the bands to about 3/4 butterfly at 45 inches. The draw weight at 45 inches was only 11 pounds. The average velocity was 233.9 fps, which I thought was rather impressive. It beat out both the 1/2 doubled bands and the 1/3 doubled bands.

Just for comparison, a set of Alliance 107s, with an 8 inch slack length and 14 pound draw weight at a 36 inch draw averaged 208.2 fps, which was about what Ben was reporting.

Certainly we all have our preferred bands for high performance. But these Rubberbandgun #32s are well worth keeping on hand if your preferred band material is not available.

Cheers ...... Charles


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