BoSS stands for Balls of Steel Sussex. The supplier has been the most hardworking, reliable and brilliant ammo mainstay in all UK slingshot history. AND WE TAKE HIM FOR GRANTED, which is a back-handed deep compliment to that total reliability, really!
We need elastic like cars need tyres but even a car with awesome knobbly off-road tyres, is not goin’ up no mountain without gas in the tank (OK, or juice in the damn battery..) and catapults need ammunition. Rocks and phat pouches are cool but the modern era means lighter pops and trick shots, too, as well as neat headshots to take quarry, flint-free, as ‘stoning a creature to death’ is the biggest no-no in slingshots.
Some still prefer to cast evil leads and hit stuff with EMPHASIS, only shooting to kill and not to arse around, but the rest of us shoot stuff with steels from BoSS, like cans and sticks and “See that conker on the tree…?
And do you know how much it costs?
If you are an air gunner, it’s cheapest to shoot wee 0.177 pellets. These cost from a penny and a half each, all the way up to German tournament, hand-sorted at 28p each! If you have a hench phat 0.25 calibre, these can cost you sixpence h’apenny apiece. In the most common 0.22 size, you will pay two or three pennies for each pellet for plinkers and can spend up to 24p each for fancy ones!
YES, the price of steel as a commodity is what controls the steel ball price but this is insulated by stocks. The real Yer-flippin-KIDDING-ME thing is the recent-ish price per kilo rise in freight costs. The Covid then EVERGREEN blocking the Suez canal turned it all on its head and prices went insane. The Chinese sales sites for slingshots in particular suffered as the shipping went haywire.
So the prices at BoSS have had to rise.. and by so little I think it shows evidence of them committing to keeping your costs low.
Some people get upset when we use the term, “Poor man’s shooting sport” for slingshots. Some, because dudes like the legendary collector Mason Rigden is so furiously acquiring frames that it seems like he is trying to catch up with the legend that is Mone Waller (he never will…) and thus disagree because they are still consuming every bit of moolah they earn, buying ever yet more, or because they think the term is derogatory. (Meaning, rude, innit… bollocks to yer “POOR” ya fugger!)
But no matter how we look at it, ours is more affordable than theirs. For one, you can use a catch box that even returns the ammo to you, even if you can’t be bothered to go and collect it! And for another.. here is what a steel ball will cost you delivered!
| 8mm | 3.1k = 0.97p each | 6.1k = 0.73p each | |
| 9.5mm | 1.1k = 2p each | 2.1k = 0.97p each | 4.1k = 1p each |
| 11mm | 2k = 2.25p each |
