Honoring Past Contributors to the Sport of Slingshot Hunting

 

Honoring past Contributors to the Sport of Slingshot hunting

In this post I want to give some acknowledgement to those individuals who have helped enrich the "sport side" of Slingshot Hunting.

Now before I continue with this blog post I want to say two things here:

1. I realize I called slingshot style hunting a "sport" now for me growing up as a child and the annual 3 months  I lived with my grandparents in rural Mexico I learned that hunting with a slingshot or any other hunting tool was more a matter of necessity than a game or sport. In those times the game we took with the slingshot was a supplemental meat source to our family's diet of mainly maize, beans, and squash. 

However, hunting with a slingshot is still carried out by people to add some meat to the table and because of the challenge of using such a simple projectile weapon. In this way Slingshot hunting is as much a sport of Hunting as is hunting with a bow with blunt tips for small game. Because we still hunt for the love of the challenge and the added benefit of a fine meal of natural un caged wild game meats. As an example my father who is an avid deer hunter and also was my original slingshot mentor still carries with him his homemade resortera when he is out deer hunting, and the man has many times harvested rabbits and grouse as his meal for the evening.

The wild creatures hunted with a  slingshot have a higher advantage of escape vs the difference if hunted with a shotgun or a precise firearm or the modern high powered air guns.

2. By past contributors I'm referring to pre Slingshot enthusiast forum contributors and there are many out there. The reason for this blog post, then is to acknowledge these guys; simply because all those who are newly interested with slingshot hunting should know that these guys trail blazed the interest towards slingshot hunting.


Additionally I will make reference to those who have made either past articles in the pre forum era and may not be publically active yet are part of what sparked the interest in the growing slingshot enthusiast community and I will share some of our old time hunters still active to this day!


Before I continue I must personally take this time to tip my hat to those who influenced and mentored me in the practice and skill of slingshot hunting.

1. My father as he is the first person to have handed me the tradition of hunting with a resortera. He taught me how to tie the bands, how to cut pouches and how to attach bands to the mighty resortera/slingshot. He also taught me how to determine by simply stretching an elastic to know if it would have the required snap to make a good slingshot. He also taught me how to select stones and taught me the value of improvised projectiles for the slingshot such as hex nuts, ball bearings and marbles to name a few. He also gave a quick walk through on tanteo shooting.

2. My uncle my father's brother who helped round out my knowledge of making resorteras and shooting them for hunting. He also is the reason I learned to make chained office rubber band slingshot bands.

Also my maternal grandfather and grand uncle who shared with me their tradition of resorteras from their part of Mexico.

I also thank the guys I met as a kid in the Barrio using slingshots namely the older kid who introduced me to using the #64 rubber bands.

Gracias siempre por la lectura y los consejos que me dierron cuando yo era un morro.

For that matter we should take the time and in fact will take the time to say:

Special thanks, to all the fathers, grandfathers, uncles and big brothers and others who helped every kid out there to learn the simple art of the slingshot, the poor mans hunting tool

Were it not for these people the rest of us would not have our unique individual slingshot hunting traditions.


There are many men over  the years who have helped spark the interest in hunting with Slingshots years before the existence of Internet forums.

Some have been immortalized in old videos like Old Rufus Hussey, then there are others like Mr. Sartain who was amazing with his red inner tube band slingshot and simple rocks and was known to hustle people with his slingshot (making bets with his shooting) and would get his fill of small game at the beginning of a hunting season with his old time slingshot and simple stones for ammo.

Amazing guys like these are what more accurately brought into the public eye the love of the slingshot which has always been a personal tradition varied within families from one land to another.

To say that it is because of the internet and forums that people are so interested in slingshots is not accurate a statement. I think that the more accurate statement would be to say that the slingshot has always been enjoyed by the poor all over the world and really just ignored by the more well to do people in the world.

Truly the homemade rubber powered slingshot is the poor man's hunting tool or the gun of the poor man who could not afford a gun for the sake of putting some food on the table for the family.

All the internet did was expose the use of the this humble tool to the masses of internet viewers.

However: There are still with us today some old time slingshot users that have been using slingshots since before the internet was ever active!

Madison Parker/Frogman 

 A friend of mine and long time member of the Rebel Slingshotforum  http://rebelslingshotforum.freeforums.org/

Mr.. Parker has been involved with slingshots from his childhood to his time in Vietnam serving our Country. A retired Navy Seal also still a survival instructor for our current Navy Seals.

He has is own unique style of slingshots based on truly Old fashioned slingshot styles that use heavy surgical tubing and heavy projectiles.

Of course his slingshots can never be simplified with a basic description for the man has evolved his old fashioned slingshot into a truly powerful weapon which stands in a class all its own.

Mr.. Parker has been a long time contributor to Backwoodsman Magazine from its early days and had many times presented articles regarding slingshot hunting.

It's contributions like his that helped fire the interest in slingshot hunting long before the era of forums and its current trend.

He has even contributed in the last few years to Field and Stream Magazine and has a few more recent articles on Backwoodsman.

Here's a link to an Field and Stream article with Madison Parker on slingshots
http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2010/10/how-make-handmade-slingshot


 Mr. Parker has the true spirit of challenge this is the essence of his group squirrel hunts, which the man does hunt by himself many times are hunts conducted in very, very challenging situations. At ranges that are tough in terrain that is tough.  Few are successful at his style of hunt which gives the squirrels an enormous advantage.  It is amazing to see the man shoot such incredibly heavy tubes with such grace and deadly accuracy.

The man can bring down squirrels that are in thick cover well over 100 feet above in the trees. Here's a video of the man in action. This video was not taken by me and full credit goes to the maker of this video (magnoliaweb) It is some great footage of his skill and shooting his slingshot with heavy projectiles.

Like myself and those who taught me the art of the slingshot Madison does not view the slingshot as a bow or treat it as a bow like so many of the modern slingshot enthusiasts do. What I mean is he does not shoot his slingshots like a bow hunter would by drawing to the cheek, instead he draws deep and shoots by instinctive aiming.  I don't know where his Bullet Proof site is but he is also found on the E2E on You tube and they have their own website.

If you wish to look him up this would be a good resource to find the man.  This is his current update website http://primitivesupplyco.com/


This blog post goes out to you and those sincere slingshot Hunters who love the pursuit and live for the hunt. There are so many other modern authors who predate the forum era that I can add here who have enriched the interest in hunting with a slingshot but I would run out of words to list them here.

As always good luck on your hunts