SSW001 HowtoAim.indd 15 20/07/2018 16:07 S S 1 6 : 0 7 SS 16:07 SKILLS 015 T he single most challenging part of all. Barn door, cola can or winner of the shoot-a-minty-sweet money sweepstake? How about making A-Team for your nation at the World Cup? If you are an expert slingshooter or just mad keen, then invest in the two books by Jack H. Koehler, called ‘Slingshot Shooting’ and his latest, ‘All About Slingshots” as they are revered by those as knows and Jack, although in his eighties, is a legend. Just these books’ contents lists about how to shoot straight, consistently and accurately with a slingshot, would be too big for a single page. So this is really for the newbie or those who never really got shown how. (And for the experts to critique.) When I went to my very first shoot, I took an old classic. Held upright with my deformed thumb on the thumb pad and flipping forwards, I felt I was starting to get my mojo back from when as a kid in my dad's garage. I was able to put an air gun dart into the bull's- eye of a dartboard. Sometimes. But pretty well everybody else was not just holding their catapult in the other hand, presuming most people are right-handed but also they were all holding their frame sideways, in the so-called gangster position. This bloke, a Northerner to my southern Nancy ears, approached me, told me somewhat bluntly I thought, (southerner….) that my technique “just looks so uncomfortable and awkward” and then promptly gave me his own catapult to try. That was how I met Mark ‘Jumbo’ Willis, England A-Team member ranked 4th in the world! A lovely bloke, amazingly talented engineer and major league show fixer-worker, never missed a single shoot, welcoming an utter newbie. I once owned a Wham-O Power Master. It came with instructions but I was disgusted when I read them. I was hoping for insight. All I got was airy fairy stuff about instinctual aiming being ‘felt’ rather than deliberate and how you should hold the thing at silly 45° angle. I never did that. Despite Vegans’ evangelism about what we are ‘biologically equipped’ with to say kill a beef cow, as an argument for being vegetarian, they neglect our very definition. Sapiens or sapient, because slightly better than chimpanzees my friend, you and I are ‘Man, The Tool-Using Ape’. Our ancestors picked up rocks, then smacked edges onto them and these days, there are people at the bush craft shows making arrowheads the same way! Every single shooting or throwing sport has masses in common. Our hero Terry Doe, says so in the video he made for us. Nathan Masters explains it eloquently in the video interview we did with him. It’s great fun and it matters to your soul when you get it right. LINE UP: The tough part is that you now have your pouch anchored so you can look along the bands with your dominant eye, (another worm’s nest) and pick a REFERENCE POINT on the frame or along its edge. If you look at my ‘aiminatcha shots’ you can see how well each shooter lines up. The very best keep both eyes open. See JohnJoe Knight’s shot in the Sheffield shoot feature. RELEASE: Here is where the variables can pile up… the amount of rubber, how far you are pulling it and even the wind and temperature can make a difference to the speed your ammo now goes at. Even how soon you do it. Release smoothly. See where your shot went - a BIG piece of paper on a towel over a line, helps. Accuracy will come as you work out how to do windage (left and right) and elevation (up and down) adjustment. Then you will get a grip of different reference points for different distances. Sights are used on some frames, Like Jumbo’s. Easy to describe, A lifetime to practise in and still not be as good as ‘Blue’ Skeen. SO HERE’S HOW: FRAME HOLD: There is no right or wrong hold so try both and decide. Right-handers commonly hold the frame in their left. I don’t. POUCH: Put the ammo in the pouch and hold AROUND the ball, not in front of it. Make the same grip each time. EXTEND: Pull back the bands and extend the frame forwards, with the frame in the sideways position, AKA ‘Gangster’. Now the vital bit: Make sure that the pouch grip hand will not come back and punch you in the face. It must be braced against your cheek, like an archer, or else held so it will not hit on you on recoil. Make sure the frame is held vertical to the ground, not slanted fore or aft if you can help it. ANCHOR POINT: This place is where you retain the pouch each time, so you can look along the bands. Either along the top surface of the flats if it is a Through The Forks or TTF, (many draw a centre line on the rubber, to help line it up) or directly above the vertical edge of the bands of it is an Over The Top design, as perversely, OTT and TTF refer to the frame’s elastic fitment when upright. Yet most shoot ‘sideways’. Go figure. HOWTOAIMASLINGSHOT SSW001 HowtoAim.indd 15 20/07/2018 16:07