Slingshots

I have always liked a slingshot of one kind or another as an aid to getting a wire up in a tree; I still have the Wrist-Rocket that I bought from L. L. Bean back when they were an obscure sporting-goods store in Maine, and it has served me well all of those years, (allowing for changing the gum-rubber tubing every decade or two), but when it comes to lightweight portable radio in the field it is just too big and inconvenient to carry around. It won’t fit inside, it won’t hang off outside without catching on things, a nuisance all around, except for those few minutes when it is needed. I have been looking around for years now for something that satisfies me, and finding nothing.

One day I came across a length of 1/4″ aluminum rod (the size that fits appropriate gum tubing) and it came into my head to try to bend up a minimal skeleton of a slingshot. About an hour later, with the help of a few C-clamps and pliers I had something that I could accept as a prototype.

This is Mark 3, made to test the bending jig that I fabricated … a little bit irregular, but it will loft a pebble and some mason line right up there! The rubber and pouch is from a rural hardware store but it is identical to this item at Amazon.

As soon as it’s warm enough for operating outdoors I will be going back to wire antennas up in the trees, and I will be testing this thing out asap, so watch for another post! Maybe tomorrow or Monday I will get out there again.

Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp.com!