Cold Steel Hide Out Launcher!

Spiegel Online covers Jörg Sprave

SPON (SPiegel ONline), one of Germany's biggest online news magazines, has covered The Slingshot Channel with an article that made the formats title page yesterday.

Read the article (German language)

SPON had almost 200 million visits in May 2013 - after bild.de (a much more low level magazine that covered me a few months ago), it is number 2.

I think the reporter did a really good job in capturing my personality.

Oreos made from steel!

Mini Pistol - now 51 lbs draw weight!

Added some more rubber - now it has 8cm of TBG per side, pretty serious. This is over 50 lb draw!

Still a toy... but of the scary type!

Mini sling pistol

I had so much leftover plywood from the big projects that I decided to make a small, fun pistol.

Design is pretty standard, but for a more gun like look I turned the three layers of 9mm plywood into a round rod, then attached the handle and trigger guard (made from 18mm plywood).

It shoots pencils (see how nicely the muzzle fits? Epoxy, mixed with sawdust, and an oiled pencil made this work).

I made a "devilled pencil" with a nail. Some string (constrictor knot) stabilizes the tip. Works great!

A fun little toy to play and plink.

Potato Bazooka - The video

Potato Bazooka Progress

Pretty much done! The final touches will be done when the film team is here, so there is some footage from the built.

Also, had a reporter from a huge German on/offline news magazine (Der Spiegel) here today, he wanted to see me shooting many different pieces of my arsenal. I actually had to prepare some of the older weapon, exchanging bands and so on.

Most impressive was the impact of the witch bazooka with the bayonet on a stick. It shot all the way through the 40mm (1.57") massive oak board... with a heavenly sweet sound, too.

The German TV channel that will send a film team over to me on Friday/Saturday wants a potato cannon, just to have something interesting that isn't so warlike.

I want to shoot potatoes against a wall, against watermelons, and also test frozen ones, too. Should look cool on slomo!

The design is a bit like my cannon with winch, but this time I want a faster cocking method. Just a normal pull up slide!

I used the clamp method from the car sized cannon, but the trigger from my trusted old bone crushing crossbow. That trigger has the advantage of less play.

Effective draw length is 106 cm (total length 130 cm). I tested two full TBG bands per side, but then it is cockable only in the vise. But it holds! Normal shooting strength is one TBG band per side, still a nice 36 kg draw.

If you pull up the sled, it locks back automatically thanks to two hooks at the end.

The potatoes fly far, and fast. This hit against  a rock left a wet stain and some mashed potatoes, that is all :)

This cannon will need much work on the looks. I want to make a bazooka out of it, with a pistol grip. But it already is shooting nicely. 

Skull Splitter: The Video