Medieval Style Crossbow: Assault rifle scope added

I wanted to add a sighting system to the medieval style crossbow, which right now is my favorite plinker.

Not so easy, the rubber swings forward and does not allow the medieval "fork" sights at the front of the weapon. Everything has to be behind the lock.

I bought a few Hensoldt scopes, made for the German Army standard isse H+K G36 assault rifle. Surplus, fine condition, 5 Euros a pop. These are made to be installed INSIDE of the plastic G36 stock, so there is no adjustment of any kind. But just the right factor (3x) and nice crosshairs.

http://www.co2air.de/wbb2/attachment.php?attachmentid=15377

I made a mount system from wood, nothing that a medieval weaponmaker couldn't have done (minus the modern screws).

It is amazing how accurate this is, and how easy the cocking is. I am plinking with TB black, a preteen boy can draw this out with both hands and a foot in the stirrup.

These inexpensive scopes are ideal for slingshot crossbows. A lot of fun!

Jörg

Jörg "Machete" Sprave (TV Trailer)

A few weeks ago, a German TV team (www.tapefilm.com) made a piece about me. The challenge: To build a plunger shooting slingshot! It will be aired next month, in a German science magazine called "Galileo". They will do a whole episode about plungers, and I am a part of that one.

The guys are great, we had a good time to say the least. They wanted to do a fun trailer, much like Robert Rodriguez's "Machete" with the gresat Danny Trejo as the protagonist. It came out great. Best is: They allowed me to upload the trailer to my channel, even put in English subtitles for me!

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nur78KfJdSM

My wife says my bearing is more upright and I drive faster ever since I saw the piece... :)

Jörg

"Night Hunter": Win it!

Attaching a flashlight to a slingshot is not new, see Trumark's "Bat" model. But these days, a whole new kind of flashlights is available! The video shows a Fenix TK35, which throws a powerful 820 lumen beam with just eight ounces of weight. This video shows a specifically designed slingshot with a hand made mount for the TK35.

The video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC9GeVmCnO4

It is easy to light up your target. This video shows the destruction of yet another sparkling wine bottle in total darkness.

You can win this "one of a kind" combo! Simply go to http://www.flashlightflux.com and check out the official giveaway details.

You can read more about the Fenix TK35 here:

http://www.fenixlight.com/viewnproduct.asp?id=86

Jörg

Speargun rubber!

Ordered some speargun rubber.

Got 16, 18 and 20 mm thickness, a meter each.

The stuff is beastly! I decided to test the "weakest" one first. 6,5mm walls, compared to 3mm walls on the already tough Thera Tube silver. Here you see TB black, silver and the 16mm speargun rubber in comparison.

Did a bandset for the medieval crossbow. The center hole is too small and the rubber is too tough for the knot in hole method, so I attached the rubber to the outside. Works fine.

Draw weight of this exceeds the 40 kg my scales can measure. I estimate it at 45 kg (about 100 lbs).

I reinforced the nut and tickler with steel because I did not trust the wood on wood method for this off the scale power. It holds fine.

It is surprisingly easy to cock the crossbow, the stirrup method rocks. Ancient weapon makers clearly knew their stuff.

It shoots absolutely frighteningly fast. My most powerful sling-x-bow for sure.

But there is room for improvement - see the 18 and 20 mm beasts in comparison... stay tuned.

Here is the video:

Watch it on youtube

Hammergrip style design for "Gamekeeper" John

I asked John if he wanted a hammergrip design from me, as he doesn't have such a model in his portfolio for now. He said yes!

Now I have to take a few things into consideration.

1. He sells his products at a low price (17 pounds). Therefore, it must be possible to make it in reasonable time.
2. Materials, same thing. He uses 18 mm multiplex. So that is what I must use, too.
3. He has his own style (by now), with medium fork height, width and horizontal fork tips. Deep band grooves. That must prevail.

It ain't easy to make a good hammer grip frame from 18 mm boards, as you need something substantial as a handle. I made very good experiences with narrow, but deep handles - this way there is a lot of control over the frame. No unwanted canting. So two parts are needed, and for stability, the fork part goes all the way down the handle part. A little epoxy and all is solid.

I had to optimize it, as always when I make the first sample from a new design. But now it is a fantastic shooter. Note this is not as well finished as my "beauties", simply because it is a prototype.

Charles Goodyear Memorial Day Giveaway

Folks,

today is the official Charles Goodyear memorial day.

Exactly 167 years ago, Mr. Goodyear filed his famous patent that described the vulcanization process. The rubber bands that we are all using for our slingshots are still, to this day, basically treated the way Mr. Goodyear came up with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Goodyear

In order to honor the great inventor, I am giving away a Cougar "Limited Edition", banded up the way the winner prefers.

All you have to do is to write a comment to this thread:

http://slingshotforum.com/topic/8301-charles-goodyear-memorial-day-giveaway/

honoring Charles Goodyear's invention. Any sensible comment is OK. I will do the drawing at noon Berlin time tomorrow (16th of June 2011).

Good luck!

Jörg

Review: Three "Gamekeeper" Catapults

John "Gamekeeper" Webb has been selling his slingshots for quite some time now, and his designs kept improving. Therefore, it is high time that The Slingshot Channel reviews the products.

The excellent catapults are made from high grade multiplex wood, well polished and sealed with polyurethane. The bands are top notch hunting bands, capable of very hard shots.

The very affordable weapons (20 pounds including shipping) have passed all tests with flying colors.

You can win one of these slingshots! John will directly ship the model of the winner's choice.

Drawing will take place on July 1st, 2011. You have to vote and also leave a comment here:

http://slingshotforum.com/topic/8265-what-is-your-favorite-gamekeeper-catapult/

Thank you, John, for the generosity as I am sure it will bring many new members to the forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfOdsLUxiFY

Medieval Style Crossbow shoots balls, is rubber powered

I have made many slingshot crossbows, but all have been long and narrow - more like a modern rifle.

But this time I wanted to make a slingshot crossbow that resembles a medieval style model! Of course with rubber instead of a steel prod, and shooting balls instead of bolts. But regarding the look and lock/trigger mechanics, I wanted to follow the ancient design.

It came out very good!

Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fllqaJax88

It shoots great, and as you can see in the slomos, the bands never touch anything - they will last a long time.

The weapon is really accurate.

Second Natural from Ukraine

Made a slingshot from the second natural I brought from Ukraine. This time, a hazelnut fork, wide but not even.

My idea was to make it even by adding a handle made from some other material.

I rummaged through my exotic wood box and found a piece from a scrap convolute I bought on ebay (like, 10 pieces for 10 Euros). I made the handle from it. I don't know what wood it is, but when I started the rasp and filework, it smelled strongly like lemon, very pleasant.

I sawed out the even part from the hazel fork and prepared it for the "marriage" with the handle.

The vise test failed (I always test before the glueing), so I replaced the wooden "dowel" with steel. This time, rock solid. I love my steel, truly.

The slingshot came out fantastic. The hazelnut looks like polished ivory, and the contrast with the dark, strongly grained handle is quite attractive, I think.

No ink this time, just clear gun stock oil.

Natural From Ukrainian Beech

Made this one today, from the beech fork.

A big fork that turned into a small slingshot... just the way I like it.

Inked and oiled it, now all I have to do is to clean the grooves out and then polycoat the frame.

Foam Handle Shooter

Bought a set of soft foam handles for bikes at the hardware store sale like a year ago, found them while cleaning up the shed.

I decided to make a strong, efficient slingshot with it. Sawed out a wide, low fork from multiplex, with a straight bar instead of the usual handle. Fitted the wood into a piece of copper tube I had left over from the heated band shooter, fixed everything with aluminum pins (detachable). Then I slipped the foam handle over the copper tube.

Inked the wood to match the handle.

A great shooter! Put on a strong three layer TB Gold band, works really good.

Took about 40 minutes total.

A trip to Ukraine

Just returned from my first visit to my wife's parents. They live in Kovel/Ukraine, not far from the Polish border.

My father in law was very happy with the "Red Army" slingshot I gave him. We took it to the Datcha (a large garden outside of the town with a small summer house), and while the Shashlik roasted on the BBQ, we shot at the makeshift backstop.

The neighbor came over and shot with us some, then we switched to his Baikal air rifles. At the end, I shot a 15 mm steel ball into the wooden plank he used as a target, and punched a big hole clean through the wood!

A fun trip, only slightly tarnished by the 7 hours waiting time at the Polish border... nothing moves for hours, just frustrating.

Made a Red Army frame from Jim Harris's natural

Will be driving to Kovel/Ukraine this weekend, about time. Have been married four years in a month and haven't met my mother/father in law as they live in Ukraine and it is very hard to get a visa for Germany for the guys.

So what to bring? Sure - a slingshot. My father in law served in the Red Army many years ago, so it had to be a RED one.

I took the natural fork Jim Harris gave me at the ECST, a big one (I love those as you can freely carve the shape).

A higher fork again (beginner dimensions), and since my wife says we have the same hand size I did add finger grooves.

It is amazing how well the inking method works, every time. I will be putting on a few layers of polyurethane and then make a presentation box, like the one I made for my boss.

Circular saw blades as ammo

If you want success at youtube, unfortunately you have to go to extremes.

I have presented beautiful slingshots en masse, with just a few thousand views. But it is the extreme stuff that makes videos go viral.

Machete shooters, vampire stake launchers gatling slingshots do that. But you know what? A certain percentage of my viewers will actually go into slingshots as a hobby. And they don't copy my crazy designs - no, they mostly try naturals or boardcuts.

So every once in a while I will have to make wild shooters.

But you know what - it's fun!

Here is the sawblade flick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrHFxscunOA

New slingshot release

I made another release, entirely from wood (except one screw and four short 6mm aluminum tubes).

It came out pretty good, inked and oiled it to give it a nice reddish finish. The rollers in the arms turn very smoothly, which ensures a totally accurate release.

Hope you like it!

BTW: Some more pictures about the making process can be found here:

[url]http://slingshotforum.com/topic/7789-project-multiplex-release-part-1-and-2/[/url]

A slingshot for my CEO

About 18 months ago, the company I work for (I founded it together with my brother 20 years ago) was acquired by a publicly traded corporation (my brother and me still hold a little more than 20% of the shares). I am still the CEO of the company.

But now I have a boss. I directly report to the CEO of my mother corporation. He is a great guy and a financial genius.

At this year's dealer incentive trip, it came out he had seen at least one of my videos. When the band was playing a particularly lousy song, he gestured to me that I should shoot the band members with a slingshot (as a joke of course).

So now I want to give him a present, one of my handmade frames. I decided to use wood (multiplex core and striped maple as scales), I used my new Phoenix design, but made the fork higher - after all, he is most likely not experienced with slingshots and I don't want to be responsible for a hand hit...

It came out really really good. The sun was down already when I made the pics, so the glass like finish of the four polycoats does not come out - but it is really shiny and smooth.

Will put on medium target bands, good for beginners.

Now I am waiting for the wooden presentation box I ordered. Will add some new chrome steel balls and arrange things in the box like an ancient pistol case.

"The Avalanche" - six shots at the same time

Slinghshots are powerful weapons. But there is a limit to their destructional capabilities, as the speed of rubber is limited - and so is the speed of the ammo. One can use heavier ammo to achieve more energy. But there is a limit to that, too - if the ammo gets too big, it won't penetrate, just smash. Heavy ammo is expensive, too.

A big steel ball like the 20 mm (.79") is pretty much the maximum size ammo that makes sense. The ones used in this video will crash though wooden boards, watermelons, even coconuts. But imagine what a simultaneous impact of six of them can cause!

The Slingshot Channel presents "The Avalaunche" - the first slingshot crossbow that shoots six rounds at the same time. One trigger pull and all six are on their way to the target.

The weapon is big and has an enormous draw length. This means the six balls hit with about 60 Joules each. Enough power to demolish several objects! As always the video contains slow motions recorded at 40x realtime (1200 fps).

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfFAjaymQM0

More about the Full Auto Slingshot

Ok, so many people wanted slomos and destruction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyqhjhekSW8

Full auto slingshot crossbow

Gatling guns have been the first firearms with a firing rate close to modern machine guns. Their principle is easy: A set of rotating barrels are fired by cranking a wheel. This makes them technically and legally a repeating gun, not a full auto one - but it is close enough.

The Slingshot Channel took the challenge to design a rubber powered version of Mr. Gatling's great invention. And here it is: Eight 20 mm balls, on their way to the target in less than half a second. The theoretical firing rate is 960 rounds per minute, slightly faster than that of the popular M16 assault rifle.

The video also shows how you can fire single shots with the weapon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxtHtPK2MH8

A presentation brought to you by The Slingshot Channel!

The Curvy Lady

Kitties are sweet, but it was high time to make another slingshot.

I had bought some cheap leftover wood parts on ebay lately, an assortment that was not specified by the name of the wood. Anyway, Found a long piece that looked promising.

I carved a nice handle from it, then made a fork from multiplex. After oiling it with dark gun stock oil, the grain came out beautiful.

This is a very comfortable and solid shooter that I like a lot. What do you guys think?

Anti Vampire Slingshot

Vampires are fashionable right now, lots of Hollywood coverage going on.

The Slingshot Channel can not ignore this important tendency in entertainment.

Vampires are usually disposed off by means of a wooden stake, rammed right through the undead creature's heart. So shooting a stake is the challenge of the day.

A vampire stake is no lightweight thing, many movies clearly demonstrated that a 1" rod is minimum, and penetration must be about 8 to 10 inches to be on the safe side. This means that the stake will weigh 8 to 10 ounces.

Includes a training stake!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vx4FZNO5ko

Sometimes...

... it happens: While you are making a new slingshot, at some point in the process you realize you hit GOLD.

You finish the frame like in a fever dream, as you can not wait to see it buffed up and finished.

This happened today: My new one came out beautiful.

Alumimum core, sawed out of a massive 6mm board, and Thuja wood.

It is beautiful. Smooth. Feels great in the hand.

Of course it is a variation of the Hand Howitzer, minus the "teeth" (that I don't need as I only shoot hammer style).

I think the spike (just blunt enough to not nick the rubber) is a very nice detail. The aluminum allows me to go fairly thin without risking breakage.

This is ALMOST to gorgeous to be shot!

Hope you like it.

New video: Butterfly, monster bands, cabbage turnip

After the last video was wild enough to go viral (machete slingshot), I decided to go back to my roots and shoot at stuff.

Worked out the whole winter, it was worth it, I can now take a band set (TB gold, 2,8 x 1,8 x 29 cm, three layers per side) and fully butterfly the thing. Controlled.

The result is awesome. It almost knocks my catch box over when I hit it with a 1" steel ball.

In this video, I shoot the big balls against an innocent cabbage turnip. The results, as always, are shown in super slo mo.

This video also presents a new "tournament" slingshot crossbow, with a unique feature: Three different tube types that can be used either or, but also in a combination.

Some more bonus material completes this The Slingshot Channel production.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3DkyFqDuzM

Enjoy!