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Slingshots - Disaster use against Rats
by caregiver222, Apr 13, 2009 01:48PM
A slingshot is extremely effective against rats, predators, and for self-defense.
I have never seen the use of the slingshot mentioned in any of the FEMA material or the survival sites, but it is an essential tool to have on hand.
One of the biggest problems following a disaster, and a refugee encampment, is vermin, specifically rats. In my city, the grow as big as cats and there are thousands of them in our city park after midnight. They will chew through packages of food, get into the garbage, spread disease, and in general make life miserable for survivors. Much has been written about use of the .22 rifle to get rid of them. Many kids in America learned to shoot by killing rats at a landfill. The fact of the matter is you aren't going to be able to discharge a firearm post-disaster without getting yourself arrested. And people will not toloerate your shooting of even an aigun around a populated area.
Another problem will be feral dogs, particularly when they wander around areas where there may be bodies. You don't want to shoot them, yet it is useful to have a means to scare them away and make them flee.
Small birds can be hunted with slingshot for food, of course.
And slingshots provide a means to defend oneself as an alternative to a firearm.
The best ammunition for a slingshot are ball bearings, next are marbles, balls for a .44 blackpowder pistol are third. But any small round stone will do. A round stone is best for acuracy. A jagged stone for lethality.
A rat-killing team is composed of two people. One with a slingshot and the second with a hoe, axe, or baseball bat. The person with the slingshot stuns the rodent and the second person moves in and clubs or stabs it to death.
Slingshots are easily made. You can use the fork of a tree (at least 1/2 inch in diameter) with the open top of the fork about 4 inches wide. If you choose to use wood, hardwood is best, softwood second, plywood, third. Or you can use 1/2 inch plumbers pipe, "U" connections and caps. If you cut the slingshot from wood make a "U" hole about four inches by four inches. NOT a "V". The best bands age 1/2 inch wide and cut from automobile or bicycle tire tubes. The length of unsrtretched band from the leather pouch to the slinghot should be 12 inches. You are going to require at least three inches extra on either end. Cut two hacksaw cuts in the top of each side to hold the band. Then wrap with duct-tape. The pouch to hold the slot is made from leather 2 3/4 long by 7/8 wide. Round the corners. You need slots for the rubber. Make a slot on each side by heating a butter knife and burning the slot through the leather. A slot, instead of a hole will prevent the leather from twisting as you release it, which keeps the stone true.
You can quickly make a dozen slingshots, and have a very effective means of deterring looters. And you have a weapon that probably will not be confiscated. But the most important use will be to rid an area of rats.
I have never seen the use of the slingshot mentioned in any of the FEMA material or the survival sites, but it is an essential tool to have on hand.
One of the biggest problems following a disaster, and a refugee encampment, is vermin, specifically rats. In my city, the grow as big as cats and there are thousands of them in our city park after midnight. They will chew through packages of food, get into the garbage, spread disease, and in general make life miserable for survivors. Much has been written about use of the .22 rifle to get rid of them. Many kids in America learned to shoot by killing rats at a landfill. The fact of the matter is you aren't going to be able to discharge a firearm post-disaster without getting yourself arrested. And people will not toloerate your shooting of even an aigun around a populated area.
Another problem will be feral dogs, particularly when they wander around areas where there may be bodies. You don't want to shoot them, yet it is useful to have a means to scare them away and make them flee.
Small birds can be hunted with slingshot for food, of course.
And slingshots provide a means to defend oneself as an alternative to a firearm.
The best ammunition for a slingshot are ball bearings, next are marbles, balls for a .44 blackpowder pistol are third. But any small round stone will do. A round stone is best for acuracy. A jagged stone for lethality.
A rat-killing team is composed of two people. One with a slingshot and the second with a hoe, axe, or baseball bat. The person with the slingshot stuns the rodent and the second person moves in and clubs or stabs it to death.
Slingshots are easily made. You can use the fork of a tree (at least 1/2 inch in diameter) with the open top of the fork about 4 inches wide. If you choose to use wood, hardwood is best, softwood second, plywood, third. Or you can use 1/2 inch plumbers pipe, "U" connections and caps. If you cut the slingshot from wood make a "U" hole about four inches by four inches. NOT a "V". The best bands age 1/2 inch wide and cut from automobile or bicycle tire tubes. The length of unsrtretched band from the leather pouch to the slinghot should be 12 inches. You are going to require at least three inches extra on either end. Cut two hacksaw cuts in the top of each side to hold the band. Then wrap with duct-tape. The pouch to hold the slot is made from leather 2 3/4 long by 7/8 wide. Round the corners. You need slots for the rubber. Make a slot on each side by heating a butter knife and burning the slot through the leather. A slot, instead of a hole will prevent the leather from twisting as you release it, which keeps the stone true.
You can quickly make a dozen slingshots, and have a very effective means of deterring looters. And you have a weapon that probably will not be confiscated. But the most important use will be to rid an area of rats.
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A slingshot can also be used to knock fruit off the high limbs of trees.
And, of course to break windows. Why would you want to break windows? To ventilate a house that has a broken gas line inside after an earthquake. You wouldn't want to get too close.
If you purchase a bag of paintball ammunition, these can be shot with a slingshot to identify looters.
You can also use the slingshot recreationally to have contests.
If you have a small pond being used as a water supply the slingshot can enable you to chase off ducks, for example, whose excrement will foul the water.
But there is another way. Remember the old German "Potato Masher Grenade". It was a grenade attached to a long stick.
Cut a 24 inch stick, or piece of broomstick. Attach your weight to one end with duct-tape and the rope. A small can of vegetables works well. Swing the stick in an arc parallel to your body over your head and you will be able to throw the line much further that if you used your arm alone.
My preferance is the Trumark, which has a range of 225 yards and velocity of 200 mph. It uses surgical tubing for the rubber.
Ammunition runs $3.90 per pound of steel ball bearings. 128 3/8 in. bearings per pound.
Or glass balls made as slingshot ammo 1/2 white 168 per pound/box at $4.75
Do not use glass balls for hunting.
I do not recommend 1/4 inch bearings. You need more weight in the pouch.
If you become good you can hit a two inch target at 25 yards, although you want to be much closer for game hunting.
Slingshots can be used to flush game, and also to spread scent pellets. If you walk around to place the pellets you contaminate the area with your own scent.
The velocity of the slingshot round, from a high-performance slingshot is over 300 foot per second. In comparison, the .45 ACP bullet exiting from a M1911 Colt travels at around 830 foot per second.
At a recent conference involving members of FEMA I was told they have purchased metal detecting wands to screen refugees for weapons before entering a "refuge area".
A wooden slingshot and marbles are not detectable by a metal detector. I am not recommending you violate any law. I am saying you should be prepared to board an "evacuation bus", and before you get on you may be "wanded" and forced to surrender a pocketknife or legally owned and licensed firearm.
To stop a vehicle with a slingshot aim for the driver's side window first. The windshied cannot be penetrated. The first hit will completely destroy the side window.
One of the most dangerous problems with a slingshot are richochets. NEVER aim directly at a concrete wall or use a tree for target practice. The best target practice is conducted using a cardboard box. Fill the box with crumpled newspaper. The target is a two inch circle. Afterwards you can retrieve your ammunition.