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Pistol grip Slingshot.

Improved accuracy through better release mechanism. Sort of Smith & David & Wesson & Goliath
  [vote for,

I have never been able to accurately time the release of the old style slingshot (this being the type used in David and Goliath - not the Y-shaped type with stretchy rubber, as I am pretty deadly with those). Once the stone is whirling you are to whip your arm forward and release one of the 2 straps at the right moment so the stone is slung from the pouch in the desired direction.

My problem, either caused by lack of practice or just general klutziness, is that my stone is just as likely to go off in any of the non-desired 358 degrees as in the forward-facing 2 degrees I want it to go. Rather than do the sensible thing of getting more practice, I've naturally decided that the fault lies with the equipment and set out to design a better release mechanism which obviates the possibility smashing the windows or clobbering the people behind me.

What I've come up with is a pistol grip shaped device which has the 2 straps attached to the top roughly where the hammer would be on a real gun. You would point the pistol in the direction you want to sling the stone and whirl as usual to build up momentum. When ready, pull the trigger which releases 1 of the straps - but it will only release when the pull of the stone will make it go in the forward facing 2 degrees of the pistol's "barrel".

AusCan531, Apr 28 2012

World War 4 weapons http://uncyclopedia...m/wiki/World_War_IV
[AusCan531, Apr 28 2012]

Wrist Rocket http://www.slingshots.com/
A very fine tool [csea, Apr 28 2012]


       //only when the pull of the stone is in the forward facing 2 degrees of the pistol's "barrel"// That could explain why you're having trouble aiming. You need to release when the stone is heading towards the target - at which point the pull will be approximately at right angles to the direction you want it to go.   

       //slingshot//, I think, exclusively refers to the stretchy rubber type. Better to call it a sling.   

       There have been developments along these lines, i.e. partially automating the sling; all the way from a pole with a hook on the end to the trebuchet.
spidermother, Apr 28 2012

       You ARE aware projectile weaponry design has moved a little beyond slings & arrows, right?
UnaBubba, Apr 28 2012

       //at which point the pull will be approximately at right angles to the direction you want it to go.//.   

       I was aware of that [spidermother]. I just left it out of the explanation as I'm a lefty and thought it'd be too convoluted to say "releases at the 9 o'clock position if you are a lefty twirling clockwise but at 3 o'clock if..." etc. The release mechanism would be able to be rotated then locked into position once the user had "dialed-in" the point at which it releases the stone forward for their particular slinging style. I have slightly edited the original post.
AusCan531, Apr 28 2012

       Yes I am aware of that too [Ubie]. I'm just preparing for World War IV. [link]. Fortune favours the prepared you know.
AusCan531, Apr 28 2012

       Once the stone is up to speed, as you swing your hand back and under, move your whole arm forward as if to actually throw the stone at your target. Release the string when your hand is being pulled straight up (or at 90 degrees to your target). Follow through and point straight at your target. The stone will go where you're pointing.   

       After you've practiced it about 500 hundred times, you'll be able to hit a dart board at 10 paces. Your aim will never improve beyond that. The only people who ever master the sling are those who literally have nothing else to do as children than sling stones at a target all day.   

       If you can't get the hang of that technique, I'm not sure how this device will improve things, because the aiming is in how you move your arm, not where you hold your hand.
Alterother, Apr 28 2012

       You're not using a big enough rock.   

       Given a large enough stone, and a motion as [Alterother] describes, you don't have to think about a release. The rock's momentum *will* take the grip-knot away from you. (Or it'll dislocate your finger, in which case you need to re-think how you've got hold of your sling.)   

       (My favorite sling-projectile is a 5-and-a-half pound fired adobe brick. Makes a pretty decent poor-man's fragmentation weapon.)
lurch, Apr 28 2012

       If it comes to war with slings and arrows, I'm going with arrows. I'm not a spectacular archer, but I own a couple of bows and can definitely hit anyone who's close enough to hit me with a sling. I'll hit them long before they get the sling up to speed, even if they get the drop on me. That whirring sound is a dead giveaway, but a well-maintained bow doesn't make a sound until it's fired.   

       You also can't really go wrong with a good hatchet. I'm no good at throwing them, but it would scare the bloody bejeezus out of somebody long enough for me to get up close with my longsword.
Alterother, Apr 28 2012

       A hatchet has the edge purely by virtue of the corny lines possible. "I've got a plan... and now I'm going to hatchet." <Chop> "You axed for it."
spidermother, Apr 28 2012

       Wasn't it Einstein who said, "If there's a third world war, fought with nuclear weapons then I know what the fourth one will be fought with... rocks."
UnaBubba, Apr 28 2012

       Bows, bows are good...
<scene wavers, time scrolls widdershins, mullet re-grows>
I drooled over this ninety pound pull bear bow in a sporting goods shop once. It sat there at $500.00 for over a year, this was fifteen years or so ago so and that was a fair chunk of change then, but it went on sale one day for a hundred bucks off. I'm looking at it and trying to hide the drool while packing a freshly cashed pay-check when a clerk says, "If you buy that today it's a hundred bucks off y'know?", not knowing that it had been dropped that much on the ticket already and so I scooped it up.
Not proud of that mind you, but, it's my prrecioouusssss.

       I started at ten feet from a home made target and sunk ten arrows, then scratched a line five feet back and again and again until I could use it competently (for target practice).
Just found out two years ago that it's been missing a counter ballance all this time.
Who knew eh?

       Sorry [AusCan531] I got nuthin for slings but I love the concept.   

       Yep [UB], which is why I made the WW4 reference and put up the link to Einstein's quote.   

       //...those who literally have nothing else to do as children than sling stones at a target all day.//   

       Which is why I am good with the Y-shaped version. In my youth, I moved several gravel pits' worth of stones from one part of northern British Columbia to another. When we went back for a visit a few years ago I was still able to impress my 12yo son when I had him toss a tin can into the air. The truth is, I've spent very little time on the sling only style. I still think my device would make it easier to get the release timing right.
AusCan531, Apr 28 2012

       [lurch] is right, the string pretty much releases itself at the right time if you've got the technique. The power of the sling comes not just from how fast the rock is spinning around, but also from the throwing motion. So does the aim.   

       It's been ten years since I used one. I probably couldn't hit a target to save my soul if I tried it now. Once upon a time I was one of those woodsy guys who actually went out and practiced all of those hardcore survival skills not for bragging purposes or because I thought I'd ever need them, but just because I wanted to. Now that I've done all of that stuff, I carry a knife, a flashlight, and matches, and a half- dozen other small conveniences, and I stay within an hour's hike of my Jeep and/or canoe when I'm in the wilderness (a 1-hour hike is a half-day crawl). There's something to be said for the easy way when you know just how hard the hard way is (I'm not suggesting you don't; after all, you're Canadian).   

       To my memory, I've never used a slingshot or a wrist rocket in my life.
Alterother, Apr 28 2012

       //I carry a knife, a flashlight, and matches, and a half- dozen other small conveniences//   

       Fortune favours the prepared.
AusCan531, Apr 28 2012

       >5-and-a-half pound fired adobe brick.   

       It's in .pdf format? How do you throw the zeros and ones?
not_morrison_rm, Apr 29 2012

       It's a fake - all done on Adobe Photoshot.
AusCan531, Apr 29 2012

       >Fortune favours the prepared.   

       Hmmm, I have this nasty suspicion that fortune really favours those absent, and the dead, when bad things happen.
not_morrison_rm, Apr 29 2012

       People forget that for every instance in which Fortune favours one, she disfavours another.
UnaBubba, Apr 29 2012

       Not inexorably [Unabubba]. If [Alterother] is stranded in the woods during heavy rains but finds a stash of dry firewood and had the foresight to be packing firestarting equipment then that hardly disfavours anyone. If you are saying half of the people are more fortunate than average but half of them are less fortunate than average, that is just tautalogical.
AusCan531, Apr 30 2012

       Tell that to the bugs living in the wood [Alter] burns, exercising his "good fortune".
UnaBubba, Apr 30 2012

       That's the best you can come up with? Why do anything if there is a negative counterveiling cost for every action or stroke of good fortune. Its just not how I see the world.
AusCan531, Apr 30 2012

       Ah, but how does the world see 'you''?
ooh I got a chill

       //Ah, but how does the world see 'you''?//   

       You know that famous scene of Daniel Craig emerging from the ocean in the promo for James Bond?   

       Well not like that.
AusCan531, Apr 30 2012

       I'm sure I could do much better but I've noticed that many of the users here have grown somewhat thinner-skinned in the years since I was last here (Who says evolution doesn't work?) so I'll let that one pass, [AusCan].
UnaBubba, Apr 30 2012

       //so I'll let that one pass//   

       Well, that's my good fortune then I guess.
AusCan531, Apr 30 2012

       Oops, my bad.
UnaBubba, Apr 30 2012


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