How to use a slingshot when you haven’t touched one of those things since you were a little kid? Odds are, slingshots look a lot different than the ones your dad and grandpa used to play with when they were kids. In fact, they look downright deadly.
Several factors go into firing a slingshot. Once you master the grip, draw, how you hold the slingshot, your stance, and how to look through the ‘Y,” you’ll be able to actively hunt with a slingshot.
That’s right—a good slingshot is an outstanding hunting weapon for small game or for killing vermin and rodents on your property. When you stop and think about how hard a steel ball bearing hits a tree, you can imagine the damage it will do to a rat or an armadillo.
How to use a Slingshot
Start by gripping the handle with your weak arm. You only draw and release with your strong arm. If you are ambidextrous, you need to figure out which eye is dominant and hold your slingshot appropriately to aim with that eye.
Grip the handle with your thumb parallel to the vertical portion of the handle. This keeps the “Y” from pulling back when you draw. You want the “Y” to stay perfectly perpendicular to the ground.
Place your ball bearing or shot (BBs or pellets) in the pouch/cup. With your thumb and index finger, close the pouch by pinching both ends of the pouch to seal and hold your ammo. Keep your ammo centered.
Draw the rubber bands back, bringing the pouch to the top of your cheek, just a hair below your dominant eye. Your weak arm should be completely straight, with the rubber band horizontal or parallel to the ground.
Don’t fear the rubber band. If it breaks, you might get slapped on one of your cheeks, but you’ve probably been through worse. It’s always a good idea to wear some sort of safety goggles when messing around with slingshots, just because you never know what might happen.
Where do you Aim
Keep your strong arm directly in line with the rubber bands, pulling your elbow back behind you. Whichever is your dominant eye, that food should be slightly forward with your other foot set at shoulder-width length from your dominant foot.
Line up the target in your “Y”, straight back to the rubber band and through to your elbow, like its one, giant arrow pointed at the target. Release during the natural pause between breaths.
That natural pause should be calm and steady as if you are just standing there without a care in the world. When you are shooting a firearm, you practice the same thing, pulling the trigger during that natural pause between breaths, when everything is at its most steady.
Are slingshots easy to learn
Slingshots are very easy to learn. The only thing that may hold you back initially is the aim. However, if you practice all of the above elements, you will pick the aiming part up fairly quickly. Sure, it’s a big “Y” but remember, it wasn’t until the modern bow that some sort of front sight and rear sight were devised.
Aiming is not just about lining up a target in a front sight post and back through the rear sight aperture. It’s about mind and eye, and both of those things alone can equal any precision aiming system. It’s also about using what you have available to replace traditional sights.
Slow and steady wins the race, along with a lot of practice. Start at ten yards out with Coke can targets, and once you are consistently knocking them down, back them off an additional five yards.
Bottom Line
You would be surprised at how quickly a slingshot will replace your small caliber weapons, especially when it comes to hunting small game or getting rid of pests on your property. A good slingshot is more than capable of doing both.
Practice makes perfect, and it won’t take you months—it won’t even take you weeks—to learn how to fire a slingshot accurately. Repetition and frequency will get you there before you know it.
Once you get over the initial excitement of consistently shooting your targets, you’ll be surprised at how many uses you will find for your shiny new slingshot.
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