A 1930’s Gun Rifle catapult? What on Earth is THAT? Well, I just learned about it from the world’s top authority on rubber powered weapons.
That’d be Mr. N. Bird. Famed on the forums, although too shy for Facebook. It was he who allowed me to go and take photographs of his collection of Milbros for issue two. There is no finer collection world-wide and he knows way more history of the brand than the current owners of it, remotely have a clue about.
He sent me these images that are truly question begging, from a catalogue from the 1930’s. It was from A.G. Parker and Co. who were in Birmingham’s arms business area by the looks of things, (like BSA or Birmingham Small Arms) and whose factory was named for the UK’s most famous rifle range, Bisley.
What looks like a simple walking stick, has a cast (what looks like bronze) front fork, embedded in the shaft, with a through-the-shaft trigger mechanismto the rear, very like the one we see today. It came in two wood options, with the humble chestnut wood being five shillings and sixpence, and the ash one with an added adjustable back sight, being significantly more, at ten and six. In 2026 money, that’s £30, and pre-dates the Millard Brother selling catapults, by 15 years!
The one thing we don’t see, is the power side of this 1930’s Gun Rifle catapult. All will be long since perished to dust but the catalogue, that in 1930, could describe the use of the thing as being able to kill rabbits and cats, describes a truly wide choice of seven different strengths of power bands and they were medium cheap, starting at a threepenny bit, and the top ones being a whole shilling. (Roughly £4.25 today.) They are described as being braided from multiple strands of rubber and furthermore, Parker also offered a set of ‘loading tongs’ for gripping the loaded pouch under pressure. The draw weight must have gone up to pretty hench. They even sold a lead bullet mould and lead shot by the pound.
They’d get in deep trouble with the world today, saying such things about cats, now. Yuck.
A huge thanks to N. Bird and here’s to sling rifles!
