# Reference point for aimers



## reset (Apr 13, 2013)

Now ive gotten reasonably accurate with shooting sideways i thought i would try upright style. Cant hit a barn door that way.

What do you upright aimers use on the slingshot for a reference point or is the upright style more for instinctive shooting?


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## reset (Apr 13, 2013)

Guess i should add that upright shooting works well for me with my Black Dragon but nothing else. So could be in the way im holding it. Ive been aiming it where i want to hit just centering between the forks. Maybe hammer grip guys have the answer.


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## reset (Apr 13, 2013)

Wow 69 views and no one shoots upright. Im surprised. Guess its not real common. There was a survey done here a while ago. Seemed that there were a few. No worries ill figure it out yet.


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## stej (Jan 16, 2013)

I had been shooting just instinctive, no reference point. Upright feels more natural for me for instinctive shooting..


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## Vetryan15 (Feb 7, 2013)

stej said:


> I had been shooting just instinctive, no reference point. Upright feels more natural for me for instinctive shooting..


 This is how I have been shooting as well. I can't do the gangster style to save my life. It's alittle harder for me, cuz I am right handed, but left eye dominant. While shooting upright, u can still use anchor points. I have seen videos of Bill Hayes shooting upright. I have been trying to set up a aiming reference point on my slingshots, which is the top of the handle where the forks start to branch out, but I have to work on my accuracy to actually c if that will work, and report my findings


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## twparish (Apr 13, 2013)

From an Old Timer ... when we were kids back in the 1930's we all shot upright with homemade slingshots and were pretty well accurate. Now that I have a renewed interest late in life, I find that the sideway style of shooting is much more comfortable and accurate for me. Makes me wonder why we didn't try the sideway style of shooting back then. Just my two cents worth.
twparish


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## Arturito (Jan 10, 2013)

I don't shoot upright (vertical) because I shoot butterfly, but sometimes I like diagonal 45° and yes it is more intuitive, no bands line up, I use what I call a "projection" ...

Cheers

Arturo


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## JetBlack (Mar 9, 2012)

I like between 45 and almost upright,I started out shooting gangster and can but don't like too, its less consistent for me


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## dgui (Jan 12, 2010)

Projecting your line of sight all the way to the target. Aim with what? Too many variables to try to aim creates nothing consistant. Just my opinion and I do not mean to offend any. What ever works for you will be proved out by yourself.


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## Dr J (Apr 22, 2013)

My problem is similar to yours Reset. I line up in the middle of the fork point is slightly forward and twist the pouch I hit the target a large percent of the time. Gangster style is not my friend, regardless of if I line up the bands or not, so I think it might be my release. I am not interested in target shooting. I shoot to try and get rid of Iguanas and Parrots which destroy my fruit which gets my wife upset, which irritates me. So I have to hit what I aim at.


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## JetBlack (Mar 9, 2012)

DJ unless your forks are really narrow like a pfs,I would always aim using the higher fork or tube. I shoot lefty with the slingshot in my right hand, tilt around 40 degrees to the left and just glance at the inside of the top right fork.works really well. Reminds me of a bead sight on a shotgun


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## Craigensor (Jun 25, 2013)

I've just started shooting so I'm no expert but I found that shooting a Barnett pro Diablo works best for me is through the forks and I don't bother with the sight on it can't hit a barn door at 10 feet useing that I just get the target in between the forks and the last moment I look at the left hand elastic to make sure it's 90 degrees to the front face of the slingshot I usually hit what I'm aiming at at around 20 feet and hit or get close at 30 feet but then I've another slingshot I can tell u the name of it but it like a black widow but the forks are quite small so over the top feels a lot more comfortable with this I don't use any reference with this I just use the force hope this helps


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## Arturito (Jan 10, 2013)

Craigensor said:


> I've just started shooting so I'm no expert but I found that shooting a Barnett pro Diablo works best for me is through the forks and I don't bother with the sight on it can't hit a barn door at 10 feet useing that I just get the target in between the forks and the last moment I look at the left hand elastic to make sure it's 90 degrees to the front face of the slingshot I usually hit what I'm aiming at at around 20 feet and hit or get close at 30 feet but then I've another slingshot I can tell u the name of it but it like a black widow but the forks are quite small so over the top feels a lot more comfortable with this I don't use any reference with this I just use the force hope this helps


low or very low forks like a PFS is very comfortable to grip, strain is minimized and indeed help your shooting (even I use "lazy" grip), but it needs the technique dgui demonstrated on several videos (pfshooter on youtube), once you get used is very unlikely return to high forks, at least was my case ...

Cheers

Arturo


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## sblrog (Aug 4, 2013)

Hi Reset, from a fellow Albertan. I'm pretty new to shooting slingshots, but here are my thoughts. I'm the opposite of you. I started out shooting upright on a Trumark FSX-FO and got pretty decent. Then I switched over to sideways shooting on a hand-made wooden ergo I got off e-Bay. I will never go back to upright because I've found sideways to be more accurate, the reason being that, assuming a good release, you can get your left-right alignment EXACT(Bill Hays talks about this) by lining up the pouch, bands and target . Then you're left with just the elevation to work out, and if you want to aim, you find a reference sight point that will be a function of your anchor point, your fork position/orientation and the target distance.

I'm still kind of interested in upright shooting because of my FSX-FO, but in my mind, aiming upright is tougher because not only do you need to calibrate a sight for elevation, but you also need to do it for left-right alignment. And there are fewer natural points to chose from (although you could presumably find a way to attach aiming pins to the fork). THE FSX-FO helps a bit for left-right alignment because the bands (tubes actually) attach to rotating prongs that have sights attached to them. These sights point to the inside of the forks, effectively closing the fork gap that you look and aim through, making it easier to centre the pouch on the target. However, you have to make sure that the rotating prongs/sights are always symmetrical (have rotated the same amount), which isn't always easy. For elevation, I sight along the tubes, which works if the distance isn't too great.


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## sblrog (Aug 4, 2013)

Dr J,

I have some similarities to you. I hunt lizards for our cats. I also had a lot of troubles when I started shooting gangster... lots of fork hits and even some thumb hits (I grip sort of hammer grip but my thumb goes in between the forks... I know, kinda scary). But I'm used to it now and haven't had any fork hits in a long time. You could be on to something when you say that you might be having release problems. Sometimes, when I use marbles (1/2" or slightly larger), the shots seems to fly on line by high of my target. I think this is the so called "speed bump" effect caused by an uneven release (ball rolls over the index finger). I recently switch to shooting hexnuts (flying saucer orientation) gangster style. It takes a bit of getting used to because you need to center the nut in the pouch really well, but after I got used to it, my accuracy improved tremendously. I think this is because it's easier to release the hexnut evenly than it is to release a large ball evenly.


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## Frozenthunderbolt (May 31, 2014)

*Upright *- I sight the forks like the V-sight on a rifle, make sure I have no cant, OR twist to the forks and use a consistent anchor point.
Sideways (archery style) stance aligns my chin (anchor point) immediately behind the forks so I'm shooting straight and only have to worry about the elevation that is dealt with by raising or lowering the slingshot holding arm.

*Gangsta *- For me at the moment (shooting only irregular naturals) I'm shooting instinctive sighting down the top band (sort of). When I make some geometrically precise square edged board-cuts I'll try aiming precisely ah la other pros on the forum.


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