Saturday, October 16, 2010

The African Godess of Slingbows






I revisited the sling bow today, inspired by Fish (he made a sling bow a while ago, but posted the video again here in a different thread).

I had a few tasks.

First, I wanted to eliminate all the dead play.

Second, no handslaps.

Third, a conventional bow release had to work.

Fourth, I wanted a quality arrow guide for accuracy.


So I made the "bow" 40 cm long, and the bands are a bit pretensed in unloaded mode. This way, no dead play at all!

Then, I put a Hover arrow rest (kind of a whisker buiscuit) INSIDE of the bow, right in the middle.

The bands can never touch the arrow rest (a big problem with sling bows usually).

Next, I designed the bow arms in a way that the bands are effectively stopped and can not slap on my hand.

I formed the "cable" from some paracord, with a loop for the release (otherwise the angle is so steep that the arrow falls out in full cocked position).

This shoots great! It is the best sling bow I have made so far.

Weight is 550 gramms (1,2 lbs), complete with bands. It looks a bit like an African sculpture, that is the reason for the name.

Too bad is rains so hard that I can't do a video today, hopefully tomorrow will be better. But I have to finish the Scallops video first.

8 comments:

  1. I *really* love this. Would you consider making them for sale?

    John

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  2. The African Goddess slingbow design really takes a lot of the flaws out of the mainstream slingbow designs. You also mention in your videos about the ability to pull back poundages similar to a recurve bow.

    I think the biggest detraction from the slingbow being taken seriously is that many people still see slingshots as toys for kids rather than usable tools. With your designs, I would not fear taking on a large game animal here where I live in a typical archery hunting situation.

    If you decide not to make this model for sale, could you at least think about putting the design plans up so that others can make use of this design innovation?

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  3. can you make plans for this and post them on slingshot forum?

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  4. Yeah please! This is so beautiful I want to make one to enjoy too!

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  5. Please make a PDF design plan, this is one bow that is a must have. Great job as always.
    Thanks

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  6. There are mentions of hunting with this. As the arrow would be subsonic, wouldn't the noise of the straps hitting the "bow" be loud enough to cause an animal to reflexively jump and increase the risk of a non-lethal hit? This is one reason that bows are built to be very quiet, correct? Just curious, as I don't personally bow hunt.

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