b'LONG AGO, FAR AWAYThis column is about the slingshot-related adventures you got into as a kid.This issue, I simply bribed Facebookers to confess all for an old school Theraband band set! Thanks, lads!Apebbles at the wall mounted targets.few weeks after my grandad made me a natural catapultGrandpa called from the back door to as a lad, forty years agome and as I turned to answer,(I still have it) it was sadlymy gaze was met by the most confiscated by my dad asfearsome vision that will ever haunt I shot one of his .22 bullets instead of amy dreams.stone at a wall in the garden and wokeA disgruntled nun with ice blue him from his Sunday afternoon nap.eyes, all narrowed and spitting Couldve been fatal!daggers, holding a handful of John Webb III (catapult patriarch) what I knew to be pebbles from my grandpas rockery and As a kid I used a Black Widow toshe was screaming like a shoot my younger brother in thebanshee!head with a small plum o\x1ftheMy grandpa motioned neighbours tree, causing him tofor me to come forward, fall o\x1fa 6ft wall and land in theso dutifully, sullenly, I neighbours rose bush!walked towards this Ross Gregor (long dogterrifying middle expert) aged woman of the cloth.When I was thirteen I was using a BlackIt turned out that as both Widow frame trying to shoot a woodie o\x1f my grandpa and I shot at the the local flats. I had probably ten shotstop cans along the twelve foot wall, at it, then an old woman came bustingthe landing zone for the pebbles on round saying I had smashed her window.the other side was a catholic nunnery Later that day the police came knockingdining area!and I lost that catty. I didnt have oneI stacked up food cartons and cansMy god she had the most bony fingers again then until I bought a cobra atamongst the walls trellis and with theas she prodded my chest chastising me in seventeen. The rest is history and Ivehelp of a whiskey crate to stand on, I evenGaelic for breaking two windows.spent a lot on catapults since. managed to stretch up to place a fewFunny part was seeing my grandpa Richard Rogers (bandset maker) along its top. - the guy who took no messing from It was great popping o\x1fpebbles at theanyone, big or small - cowering and Whilst visiting my grandad in Dublin hetargets with my grandpa. hanging his then seventy-eight year old hand-made me a natty from a small tree inAbout an hour and a half later, grandpahead in shame in front of a four-foot-and-his garden, which ended at a twelve foot(bat ears) said he heard someonea-fart nun! Lesson learned.wall at the bottom. knocking and went in through the back toHave a safe back stop.Well chu\x1f ed with my new bit of kit,answer the front door. I continued to blastMathias Murray (bushcrafter)Just received the magazine and I must say Im very impressed. I think it will be a great addition to the growing slingshot scene in this country. The late Mark Barnett, 9th August 2018. He died 18th February 2019066 SlingshotWorldSSW003.66.Adv Scrapes Misd.indd 66 05/09/2019 17:24'