A slingshot toy for target practice, with a laser on one fork arm and a spirit level on the other. Line the dot up, center the bubble, and you finally find out whether the last shot was you or the tool.
No sights to file. No cord to knot. No guessing where the band sits. Clamp a band in, drop a ball in the pouch, and go.
The shot you can actually repeat
You already know how a slingshot works. The hard part has never been the first shot, it is doing the same thing twice, because drawing to a slightly different place on your cheek puts the ball a foot to the left and nothing tells you which draw you just made. So every miss looks like every other miss.
The laser module clamps to one fork arm and puts a red dot where the fork is actually pointing. The rail beneath it carries four small colored sight beads, green and orange in turn, marked on the maker's diagram at 10, 20, 30 and 40 meters. Pick the bead for your distance and hold it on the dot. The module takes three LR41 cells, not included.
Your wrist is tilted and you cannot feel it
Roll the fork a few degrees off upright and the ball goes low and to one side every time, and all of it reads as bad aim rather than as a tilted hand.
A short vial of bright green fluid sits in a bracket on the other fork arm. Center the bubble and the fork is level. That is the whole instruction, and it quietly removes a variable you were never measuring.
A new band takes seconds
Bands are consumable. They stretch, they cloud over, and one day one lets go mid-draw, which is usually when people discover theirs were tied on with cord.
Each fork arm ends in a sprung jaw with saw teeth cut across it. Press the knurled knob on the outside and the jaw opens, the old band drops out, the new one goes in, and letting go closes it again. No knots, and nothing to stretch over a horn with your teeth.
Why not the cheap fork from the market stall
The ten dollar version saves money in three places and you meet all three the same afternoon: its bands are tied on with cord so a change is a bench job, its handle is round and smooth so a damp palm slides on it, and it has no sight of any kind so every shot starts from nothing.
This one answers each in turn. The bands clamp. The handle carries a panel of small raised studs on each side, so a wet hand still has something to hold. And between the dot, the beads and the bubble you have three things to line up instead of none. The frame is polycarbonate and it weighs about four ounces, so it rides in a coat pocket.
Which of the seven to pick
Blue, Red and Gold share a mirror-finish handle and a chrome-look fork. Gray is the quiet one, matte all over, with no gloss and no chrome anywhere on it.
Then decide whether you already have something to shoot. Slingshot Only arrives with one band and pouch fitted. The Set adds four spare band and pouch sets, thirty steel balls and ten stick-on targets, and it is the easier start if you have nothing to aim at yet. One gap worth knowing: the Set comes in Blue, Red and Gold, and Gray is sold on its own.
Pin a target to a board at the end of the garden, center the bubble, and start counting hits instead of guessing.
Specifications
Dimensions: 4.5 x 4.5 in (11.5 x 11.5 cm), with the laser and the level fitted
Fork gap: 1.7 in (4.4 cm)
Fork arm head, across: 0.8 in (2.1 cm)
Weight: 4.2 oz (120 g)
Material: Polycarbonate
Sight: Laser module clamped to one fork arm, plus four colored sight beads on each rail, marked 10, 20, 30 and 40 meters
Level: Spirit level vial clamped to the other fork arm
Grip: A panel of raised studs on both sides of the handle
Bands: Flat bands, held in a sprung toothed clamp, changed by hand with no tools
Battery: 3 x LR41 cells for the laser, not included
Takes: Steel balls, clay balls and small stones
Does not take: Arrows, bolts or darts. The pouch holds a ball or a small stone and nothing else
Colors: Blue, Gray, Red, Gold
Set availability: The Set comes in Blue, Red and Gold. Gray is sold as the slingshot only
Package Includes
1x Slingshot with Laser Sight and Spirit Level (every option)
1x Flat Band and Pouch, fitted (every option)
4x Spare Flat Band and Pouch Sets (Slingshot Set only)
30x Steel Balls (Slingshot Set only)
10x Stick-On Targets (Slingshot Set only)