# Homemade wrist-rocket sight?



## Abe_Stranger

I'll apologize before hand for the poor formatting of this post, but I'm in a bit of a hurry.

Does anybody know of an inexpensive, effective way to make a sight for a wrist-braced slingshot? I have a Marksman 3061, and it shoots nicely, but I prefer a greater degree of accuracy only attainable using an aiming apparatus. I have experience using an M-16 A2 service rifle, so using a sight seems to be the only logical option, unless someone has a few tips for beginners using tube bands, or whatever the jargon is for the "stock" bands on wrist-rockets. Any Intel out there for me? I would appreciate the help, as I'm trying to eradicate a tribe of bastard-ass crows who think it's cool to screw with my cactus garden.


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## smitty

A sight is only going to help you with the sight adjusted for a known distance to the target and with a controlled temperature. The trajectory of the ammo from a slingshot, (especially with Marksman tubes), has such a large arc, that even with multiple pins, like a bow, it would be very unreliable. Temperature plays a key role in the trajectory of the shot. The best way to aim with a slingshot when hunting, is to use your gut feeling, (with tons of practice at unknown distances), for the first shot and if you miss, make the proper adjustment for elevation and shoot again. A sight for target shooting would work OK, but just using a fork tip as a reference with plenty of practice is pretty darn accurate, given all the variables that a slingshot has.


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## Charles

You have my sincere sympathy!!! I used to use a slingshot to keep the neighbor's cows from busting down my fence posts, from rubbing on them in the spring when they began to loose their winter coats. I would not think it would take that much aiming to hit a cow!!!







O.K. ... that was a bit snide of me, but I just could not resist.

I do have a whole lot to say about aiming ... plan to write a piece about it ... but will try to give you the quick and dirty right now. This is how I do it with any slingshot, including the wrist braced ones, of which I have several.

1) Stand sideways to your target. I will assume you are right handed and hold the frame in your left hand. So there should be a line coming from your target, through the arches of both feet. Your feet should be shoulder width apart or even a little more. This stance will allow you to get a full draw all the way across your chest.

2) Hold the frame sideways in your left hand, arm fully extended at shoulder height ... line through the forks perpendicular to the ground, handle parallel to the ground.

3) With ammo in the pouch, grasp the pouch with a guitar pick hold ...thumb mashing down on bent index finger, pouch between, thumb facing up.

4) Pull your right arm as far back as you can, bending your elbow in the process. Your right fist will be about even with your right shoulder.

5) Turn your head to face the target.

6) Bow your head forward toward your chest, face turned toward the target, until your cheek just kisses the top tube.

7) With your peripheral vision, check to be sure the tubes are stacked on top of each other.

8) Sight along that top tube just like you were looking down a broom stick or a rifle barrel (I am assuming you are right eye domminant.) Personally, I close my left eye to get a clear sight picture.

9) Focus on that front fork, just like when shooting with open sights. Use the middle of the tube on the front fork as your sight ... place it where you want to hit the target. For adjustments, move your body at the waist, not your arms nor your head.

10) Gently release the pouch.

Sounds like a lot, but after about 10 or 20 shots, it will become more automatic. If you have done everything right, your ammo should strike somewhere in a vertical line passing through your target. That is, you may be a bit high or a bit low, but you should be right in line. If you are a bit high, you probably did not bow quite enough ... honor your target ... bow to it! If you are a bit low, then your need to aim a little higher on your target. To aim higher, bend sideways at the waist, rather than just lifting your left arm. If you are hitting consistently to the left or the right, rotate your left wrist to bring the point of aim into coincidence with the point of impact.

Shooting a slingshot is not all that different from shooting a rifle ... but the sights are just a little different, and I take more of a sideways stance in order to get a full draw.

Try it ... practice it for about 50 or 100 shots. It works well for me ... but all of us are different, and you may well find something else that works better for you.

Cheers ... Charles


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## Scrambler84

I agree with what Charles is saying. As far as I can say on the subject I myself go with both eyes open concentrate on the target using more instinct shooting but for long distance it is also more along the lines if guessing the drop of the trajectory.
I have hit things as far as a block away .OK here is the Story had a Friend say I could not hit him at the end of our street so I took a shot at it hit him square in the butt lucky shot who cares but I hit my target we were kids and it was funny at least for me LOL.
The one shot the one that counts you will remember those its a feel. at least for me..


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## treefork

Bill hays also has posted excellent videos on the topic. The above post is very good charles!


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## Abe_Stranger

Thanks for the info; I'll be sure to take my practice into the wilderness very soon. Oh, and I'm shooting at crows, not cows, lol. Colorado crows are HUGE! One of them ate my neighbor's Yorkie!


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## Charles

I am HOOTING!!! Can't believe I read "cows" instead of "crows"!!! Please forgive my failing eyesight ... or my failing linguistic skills!!! Best of luck trying to shoot crows. Those buggars are very smart and very wary.

Cheers ....... Charles


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## slingman2

Great intel Charles, thank you for sharing.

We have feral cats here in East Anglia (UK) and I have seen one recently SWALLOW a whole (still struggling) crow. Head first and still had feet sticking out of its mouth when it had to sleep. 2 hours later it had gone - that's the crow AND the cat. I've had them GROWL a me but they don't argue with my dog - Lurcher, yeah, a real Gypsy Lurcher.
Sorry off topic, but thanks for the aiming post. Great intel.

Not seen one our cats try to swallow a cow yet.....LOL


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## Charles

slingman2 said:


> Great intel Charles, thank you for sharing.
> 
> We have feral cats here in East Anglia (UK) and I have seen one recently SWALLOW a whole (still struggling) crow. Head first and still had feet sticking out of its mouth when it had to sleep. 2 hours later it had gone - that's the crow AND the cat. I've had them GROWL a me but they don't argue with my dog - Lurcher, yeah, a real Gypsy Lurcher.
> Sorry off topic, but thanks for the aiming post. Great intel.
> 
> Not seen one our cats try to swallow a cow yet.....LOL


Not to hijack the post ... but feral cats can be a real problem. When I had a sheep farm, the Provincial Sheep Specialist advised me to kill every cat I saw, as they were the leading vector for toxoplasmosis, which causes spontaneous abortion in sheep and in humans. Some years ago the city of Victoria had to begin chlorinating their water because feral cats roaming the watershed were infecting the water with toxoplasmosis, and there was a consequent large increase in spontaneous abortions among young mothers in Victoria. The cats used to come into my farm along the river valley that ran through my place. From time to time they would kill several of my free range chickens ... I would bait a blind cubby with the chicken carcass after a kill, and invariably caught a feral cat in the trap. Several times I also saw them go after newborn lambs in the field. I used to shoot them with a .22 hornet, as you could not get anywhere close to the buggers. Going after those feral cats with a slingshot was just out of the question.

Cheers ..... Charles


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## Semper Rogue

Other than practicing "instinctive" shooting I think any kind of sight has negligible value. My 2 cents. I base this on the variables involved; the band will not release the same power consistently and your shot may be off in weight and shape enough to throw off accuracy. Toss in weather and blah blah. Your M16A2 for the most part, a service rifle, has enough consistency to warrant a sight system and some pretty good accuracy.

As for crows. I have a cattle ranch and some fairly advanced varmint rifles but the damned things know just about all the angles to sit where they are relatively immune to my sniping. The dead ones were the learning tools it seems.

I've given up on shooting or even scaring them away and resorted to simple trap. I found it on YOUTUBE for sparrow and it basically is a cage with a hole on top and sweet grain on the bottom. Crow hops through the foot wide hole, hits the bottom, eats like **** and then flies in circles trying to get out. It never dawns on them to aim for the hole. I'm sure one or two have figured it out but enough are in it to keep the numbers down.

No, I don't gun them inside like fish in a barrel. I suppose I could but I give a sporting chance. I open a bottom escape door and stand a few feet away out of sight with 12 gauge at the ready. Crow has every chance to fly up and out of range, most don't though.


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## Semper Rogue

Feral cats. I have a remedy for that as well. Try to post it as separate thread later. Does not involve slingshots though but more trapping.


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## MAV

I saw a Bill H video where he had a line drawn on flat bands for a kind of sight. I guess you could put a line on the tube at the fork for a sight. You would have to adjust and compensate for your shots, but it would be a solid reference point and might help consistency. I have never done that myself, just a thought.


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## rosco

Corvids (crows,ravens) are smarter than cats. You may think their braincase is small, but their brains are made entirely differently to ours so there's less weight. They can use tools. Seen a vid where they bend a piece of wire to hook out a morsel from a bottle. They bend the wire to be just the right shape to do this.

I had a pet raven when I was a kid. They have a keen sense of play and 'Blackjack' would crack up the entire family with his antics. He drowned one day in our pool. Completely broke me up. Never cried like that before.


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## lightgeoduck

rosco said:


> Corvids (crows,ravens) are smarter than cats. ........... They can use tools. Seen a vid where they bend a piece of wire to hook out a morsel from a bottle. They bend the wire to be just the right shape to do this.
> 
> I had a pet raven when I was kid....... He drowned one day in our pool......


My sympathy for your lose, and apologize that I found the irony, as morbid as it is, a bit humorous.









LGD


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