# Band life vs ammo size



## ATO75 (May 4, 2020)

Hey everybody I have been trying some new bands lately and found myself only getting 150 -200 shots out of them. The bands I normally use are precise .65 with a taper of 25-15 and shoot 8mm ammo. I typically get around 500 shots with them sometimes more if I use cuffs. The gong chi bands I was trying out just don't seem to last half of precise. Anybody see band life drop when useing heavy bands with light ammo? I think it might be the gong chi bands. They are high performance but may fail early . Any thoughts?


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## Island made (Aug 14, 2019)

If the bands are over powered You will definitely see a decrease in band life. I don’t cuff mine, I just use cotton butchers twine and I usually get 600 to well over a thousand shots sometimes. But I shoot heavy ammo, I’ve never shot light stuff much. I’m thinking the light ammo would almost be a dry fire.


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## ATO75 (May 4, 2020)

Ya thats what I was thinking but for some reason the precise bands last almost double. I tried Chrystal string (150shots ), amber belt ( same) and I went to cuffs and just broke 200shots. I will switch to 3/8 ammo and see if it makes a difference. I just found it wierd that the gong chi got less than half the shots that precise does with the same set up.


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## Kalevala (Jul 20, 2014)

You should try 20-10 or 15-10 taper.

I think that You get enough speed for target shooting with those.


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## urbanshooter (Aug 23, 2017)

Yes... light ammo and heavy bands equals reduced lifespan. The worst thing we can probably do is to dry fire, i.e. firing without a loaded pouch. Bands just don't like that sort of stress it seems... Always match ammo to bandset... light ammo, light bandset.


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## Pebble Shooter (Mar 29, 2014)

"Precise" .65 bands with a taper of 25-15 sounds like too much for 8 mm steel ammo, but probably suitable for 11 or 12 mm steel ammo.

I would bring that down to, say, 15 - 12 mm to calibrate draw weight with that very light 8 mm steel ammo. I personally shoot 8 mm steel using 0.55 mm "Precise" (yellow) bands cut to 22 cm, and tapered from 20 to 12 mm, and am wondering whether 18 to 12 mm taper might in fact be sufficient.

In any case, excessive draw weight relative to ammo weight will reduce the lifespan of flat bands considerably, due to the "dry fire" effect mentioned above by Island made. Hand slaps can also be an issue in such cases.


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## robbo (Jun 8, 2019)

stretching the bands to the max doesnt help, with my short draw i need .75 precise 19x9.5 for 8mm steel maxed out to go through coke cans at 20 meters getting approx 150 to 300 shots im gonna do what a wise old shooter told me and take from one end give to the other 16x12.5. even yousing a light pouch .65 doesnt get the job done with a short draw good for 1/4 inch though,i would be over the moon if i could get 500+ shots out of a bandset.


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## AUSSIE4 (Nov 21, 2019)

I would recommend a 20/15 or a 15/10 taper as 25/15 is way too overpowered for 8mm steel. You have excess energy that slaps into the forks, most likely the problem for early failure.


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## ATO75 (May 4, 2020)

Well guys I seem to have figured it out. Ammo size was definately part of the issue so I switched to 9.5 and only got 50 shots out of the bands before they died. I made a rookie mistake. The instructions on the catty shack catapults say to cut your bands to 4.5 elongation for best band life. I did that but forgot to add a little for the fork atrachment. Which are up about a 1.5 cm at the forks and 1 cm at the pouch. Which was really stretching the bands past the max. So I added a little extra to the bands to give me my 170mm active band length and bam I hit 200 shots and going. Rookie mistake. Thanks for all your comments and suggestions.


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