Modern catapults or slingshots all use the energy storage of human power by muscle, in elastic rather than chemical in a cartridge. Electro-magnetism is proving the ability to send large military projectiles faster than any gun can, as well. Google ‘Railgun’. Older catapults, like the Trebuchet and Mangonel (the auld Scots version and the name chosen by a top Scottish sling maker for his latest creation) had to use the bend of wood, or resistance of dried cows’ sinews, to provide the force. Go back longer and you have the sling itself, the weapon that smote Goliath. It is also still in use in Palestine, in the news….. awful.
So, 1845 and the vulcanisation of rubber is our earliest date and whether we blame Thomas Hancock who got the UK patent or Charles Goodyear who had his granted in the USA three weeks later, slingshots don’t go back into pre-history as a thing. But the stuff we like to do with them has been part of human psyche since since the dawn of time. Cooking what game you have harvested and the bushcraft of hunting for the pot and how we fettle and cook with open fire, is all vital to our community. We enjoy gathering for shoots and cooking…
And it happens that we have so much in common with the Bushcraft community, that Slingshot World got onto the organisers of the massive Bushcraft Show http://www.thebushcraftshow.co.uk/ and they sent us press accreditation. A major thank you is in order to the organisers and we NEED to organise a shoot and camp there, next year.
The show is huge and to see it all properly, you do need both days. The people range from the slightly hip to the out-there lunatic, with everybody in between, like Vikings and Bronze Age horse dung and mud-furnace paleo-metallurgists. Yep, in a really cool open sided tent thing with huge poles, there was a creator of Bronze Age, well I think they are axe heads… Check this video we made of the dude. He has dead posh roots but he is a Bronze Age throwback I reckon, living among The Modern. I especially like the quality he gets from Bronze, using technology that Pete Hogan would get. IN fact ONE day, I shall take Peter to see this.. and film the encounter he has with Simon. A top bloke and deeply interesting. Oh and I was wrong…. I can recite the geological periods from Precambrian to Pleistocene, but have no clue as to mankind’s Stone-Bronze-Iron timeline.
The Early Bronze Age was from 3,300 years B.C
That was after we saw these guys, who do axe throwing and archery as well as having a catapult. Sadly, they were using garden peas. But we covered up Alex Rosier’s Gamekeeper Proshot hoody and went and pretended he was a beginner. With the need to ask to use real ammo, it was a bit of a fail as the peas are like a car with a wonky wheel and do not fly true at all.
But this was a laugh.
The fact is, we could have visited a good few of the sellers and done video on lots of them. Like the awesome leather crafts supplier with all the leather and tools, and books and hides and a mass of fancy buckles, studs and fixings for leather crafters. Stephen Fairbairn and Mick French would have both come out of that tipi with serious shopping done, I feel. But we had the one day and despite arriving while folks were queueing for showers, we couldn’t cover even just the stuff our catapulty audience would love.
But this dude, oh wow. The craftsmanship and artistry is just huge. Hunters appreciate their quarry and art to do with it. These are awesome.
I loved it, from the chance to learn swathes of stuff about how far it has come, to the food and stage thing and above all the brilliant cool hip atmosphere. I tried and failed as a kid to knapp flint and didn’t even know why I failed. But I could have signed up for a course with a bloke who can and does – at the show.
I think I have watched this simple 360 degree pan video a dozen or more times. It’s a bit like a Lowry painting come to life. Lots of people. and cool bushcrafty stands.
I am certainly going next year and making a full weekend of it.. I reckon you should, too.
