Sling shot

[LCHIEN]

Around here its acorn time (not the political group) and I have 5 live oak trees on my small suburban lot. There's acorns all over the place especially on my U-driveway in front. I wouldn't be surprised if there were 25-50 acorns per square foot on the ground right now.

I have a small slingshot from the local sporting good store. Talk about biodegradable ammo. While my wife sweeps them up I spread them around with my slingshot. One or two trees make nice round fat acorns and the others make these long, skinny acorns - must be different varieties of live oak. The fat ones fly nice and straight but the skinny ones do corkscrews and curves. I can also harass the squirrels but I have yet to hit one.

When I shoot them skywards they fly for about 6 seconds before hitting the street. I figure from high school physics that they must be doing 100 mph (145 ft per second) and go nearly 300 feet high when they leave the sling shot.

[Ed62]

We also have oaks, but the acorns quit falling about 2 weeks ago. They kinda sting if they fall on your head. That slingshot sounds like a good idea. I could shoot them all into my neighbor's yard.

Ed

[LCHIEN]

We also have oaks, but the acorns quit falling about 2 weeks ago. They kinda sting if they fall on your head. That slingshot sounds like a good idea. I could shoot them all into my neighbor's yard.

Ed

kinda slow that way. How about a modified yard blower that would suck them up thru a four inch hose and shoot them out like a machine gun? Cool, eh?

[crokett]

It has been a bumper crop of acorns this year. I noticed a lot more than usual falling from my trees and did some research. The acorn crop is indeed way up. No one is sure as to why yet. Also, a crop of acorns is called a mast. Just in case you needed to know that.

[cgallery]

I have squirrels, but no acorns.

[BobSch]

kinda slow that way. How about a modified yard blower that would suck them up thru a four inch hose and shoot them out like a machine gun? Cool, eh?

Or modify your DC.

[LCHIEN]

I have squirrels, but no acorns.

get a big slingshot and sling the squrrels. I saw that on a Youtube video somewhere, i think. They put squirrel food in a bucket attached with surgical rubber tubing to supports on the patio. Pulled the bucket back with a rope and a trigger release mechanism. When the squirrel got in the bucket, they launched him a few houses down...

[pacwind3]

This whole thread reminded me of a story of when I was a kid, probably 13 or so. Goofing around out front of my house with a sling-shot. Shot a rock up in the air, truly shooting at nothing. Well, the one in a million shot had the rock land on the head of a teenage dude about three doors down.
Needless to say: he was less then happy about it. I imagine it hurt him pretty good. He made sure to pay me back by charging up the street, throwing my sling shot on the ground and punching me across the face.
It really was an accident I wasn't aiming at him at all, just shooting up into the air. Aw well, lesson learned for me.

[jackellis]

It has been a bumper crop of acorns this year.

Rumor has it we're in for a pretty bad winter. The squirrels in California have been going nuts (pun intended) gathering and storing food for the winter.

I'm in Florida until Tuesday morning, where daytime temps are in the 80s. On Tuesday when I get back, daytime highs will be below 40. Brrrr.

At least the shop is heated.

[cgallery]

This whole thread reminded me of a story of when I was a kid, probably 13 or so.

Okay, since we're sharing...

When I was about ten I used a Wrist-Rocket to shoot berries from the bush in front of the house.

My favorite target was the squirrels on the power lines.

One day a Wisconsin Electric truck shows up and is working on those lines. The workmen are amazed at the amount of squirrel traffic and actually encourage me to keep the squirrels at bay w/ the slingshot and berries.

This goes well for about five minutes until a squirrel I recognized and had previously nicknamed Satan came along.

Satan moved fast, never paused, and was hard as **** to hit.

I knew I only had two chances due to his incredible speed.

The first shot was a miss by a mile. I should have hit him, but I was using berries after all and they aren't perfectly round and uniform projectiles. This berry dived like a sinker thrown by none other than Catfish Hunter.

I quickly reached for another berry and came up with about as large and hard a berry I'd ever picked from that tree. I fumbled a little bit getting it in the pouch. Feeling like this was a sure thing, I pulled back, aimed, and let it rip.

I hit Satan in mid-jump, nearly knocking him from the wire. The squirrel recovered and was able to grab the wire with his front, but then swung into the basket with the utility guy.

Now this was a white plastic basket like I'd never seen before. I had seem the type when you crawl into the basket through a hole in the side, but this basket was solid on four sides and the bottom, and had fairly high sides. You had to crawl over the side to get into this basket.

The sides were apparently pretty smooth because Satan couldn't get any traction. The utility guy had both hands on some wires and didn't look like he was able to let go, yet he had this pretty disturbed squirrel running around in circles at his feet, trying desperately to get out of the basket.

Every few seconds, Satan would stop and start making the squirrel clicking noise. The "I'm going to whoop your ass" (in squirrel language) noise that I was pretty familiar with. You corner one of these bad-boys and they will bite you get get away.

When I heard the clicking (which was amplified by the basket) I shouted, "look out, he's gonna bite you." At this point the utility guy started screaming like a little girl, but was still holding onto whatever he had his hands on to begin with.

This went on for about a minute (although for a certain utility worker I'm sure it seem like an eternity). Satan would circle him, pause and click, and I'd yell, "don't let him bite."

Finally, Satan knew what had to be done. He climbed right up the guy's overalls and jumped out of the basket.

The utility worked recovered from his paralysis and finished what he was doing, while three of his co-workers on the ground laughed so hard I thought they were going to require medical attention.

[sparkeyjames]

Around here its acorn time (not the political group) and I have 5 live oak trees on my small suburban lot. There's acorns all over the place especially on my U-driveway in front. I wouldn't be surprised if there were 25-50 acorns per square foot on the ground right now.

I have a small slingshot from the local sporting good store. Talk about biodegradable ammo. While my wife sweeps them up I spread them around with my slingshot. One or two trees make nice round fat acorns and the others make these long, skinny acorns - must be different varieties of live oak. The fat ones fly nice and straight but the skinny ones do corkscrews and curves. I can also harass the squirrels but I have yet to hit one.

When I shoot them skywards they fly for about 6 seconds before hitting the street. I figure from high school physics that they must be doing 100 mph (145 ft per second) and go nearly 300 feet high when they leave the sling shot.

I would think that that would be far less height in reality because of wind resistance and gravity. I think it would be lucky if it made it to 1/2 to 2/3 of your figured height. BTW acorn tops make great whistles.

[sparkeyjames]

get a big slingshot and sling the squrrels. I saw that on a Youtube video somewhere, i think. They put squirrel food in a bucket attached with surgical rubber tubing to supports on the patio. Pulled the bucket back with a rope and a trigger release mechanism. When the squirrel got in the bucket, they launched him a few houses down...

I saw that video and it launched the squirrel about 10 to 15 yards at best.
Even at that it was still funny.

[LCHIEN]

I saw that video and it launched the squirrel about 10 to 15 yards at best.
Even at that it was still funny.

maybe i confused a few yards with a few houses...
(internet fact checker gone wrong)

[LCHIEN]

I would think that that would be far less height in reality because of wind resistance and gravity. I think it would be lucky if it made it to 1/2 to 2/3 of your figured height. BTW acorn tops make great whistles.

if that's the case then the time going up would be shorter than the time going down. But they seem to be equal, about 3 seconds each way.
Gravity is taken into account by the physics formulas - if not, it would go up forever. Wind resistance at 1/10 or 1/20th the speed of a bullet, its going to be a smaller effect than the effect on a bullet.
I'm sure there's some wind resistance effect, but you know it gets so high the atmosphere is thinner.

[Mr__Bill]

Okay, since we're sharing...

When I was about ten I used a Wrist-Rocket to shoot berries from the bush in front of the house.

My favorite target was the squirrels on the power lines......

Thanks for the laugh...

Bill