Jan Nowak, the first European to travel to China for a slingshot tournament (he came 40th out of 200 so bloody well done! We were proud to have our Slingshot World logo on his shirt!) told me about a degree course in slingshots in China, with textbooks and professor in charge. But as far as I know, Slingshot World Magazine is the first printed content about catapults in the West.
That makes our “Glossary or Wassat?” page in the back of the magazine – still every much on sale, with free gifts, here : www.slingshotworld.co.uk/store – the Oxford English Dictionary of catapults. I can happily tell you, that as Matt has been selling cores of the crucial shape (long yet grippy handle, massive wide OTT tips with a decent distance apart) for some time, the Hedgerow Hunter has quietly become a bit culty. This has led to the term ‘HH’ entering the glossary section, like a new word being added to the OED!
The thing is, as our first mooching feature showed, Matt is a dedicated hunter, literally mostly eating game. He shoots instinctively although he can aim at targets but they bore him rigid as soon as he knows he can hit it. No interest is taken in targets as such. They are merely to inform the hunting experience. The Hedgerow Hunter has really wide tips and Matt’s favoured ammo is 10mm lead. With his preferred steep taper of the thicker, orangey GZK latex band, he hits with a destructive power that makes his kills largely flapless! If you take a 10mm lead from the Hedgerow Hunter, it is lights out. Matt can breast shoot a pigeon and it sails clean through. The man is useless for taxidermy specimens and often, publication. I had to choose his kill pics carefully, as many are a bit rugged and bloody.
Here in the UK, we have seen unauthorised copies from China from counterfeit manufacturers, of US classics from Simpleshot and also some UK designs, simply ripped off. By contrast, in the UK we have a thriving trade in authorised classic designs, made in cast metals, from the Hogan stable at www.proshotcatapults.com that are cast from designs by Gamekeeper John and Asa Wilson and a couple of Americans. Their latest is the new run of WASP Uniphoxx in Aluminium. Sweet!
But THIS is a first, never-been-done-before thing. For leading supplier of Chinese slingshot elastic, accessories and frames – GZK, has been working with Matt. And now, they have a Chinese made Hedgerow Hunter, with the same basic shape, made for the slightly smaller hand (as it is for sale in China as well) and with frame clamps to hold the bands to the fork. Not grooves, but the modern clamp system so beloved of the modern Chinese shooter.
Available from Matt in due course, I have no idea as to price or the exact specification, as in fork tip widths and widths apart of said forks, stuff like that. But I can tell you it is real and it coming. The main thing, is this is a total first. Talk about ‘Coals to Newcastle’ as the oldies used to say! This is slingshots to CHINA!
Well done Matt, a slice of UK catapult history is YOURS!
