Sling Penetration

    Shortly before I left to go back I was lucky enough to get a day trip to Walkers Cay (Bahamas) with a few of my friends. More about that trip will come when i get around to a write up. Anyway, while we were there I had a bunch of trouble with getting good penetration from my sling shafts. I was wondering if anyone has any tips to get better penetration. I was also hoping this thread might generate some interesting ideas.


    Info:


    Sling was a standard wood sling with 1/2" small hole rubber. It wasnt weak but I plan on making this tighter and/or possibly switching to 9/16" spear rubber.


    Spear was a 9/32" diameter and 66" long. The spear was brand new so the tip was sharp but I might try to modify it. It had a pencil/rock point tip with the barb starting roughly and inch from the base of the point and the barb was between 1 and 1.5" long.


    Very few of the shots I took that day actually went deep enough for the barb to engage. I did manage to stone a few of the fish but some of the shots simply knocked off a scale or two even at point blank.


    Any tips, ideas, suggestions...etc are greatly appreciated. Thanks

    Use a heavier shaft 5/16.


    Use a screw on rotating point with two floppers. They will be closer to the point and not as long as the single flopper, not requiring as deep penetration to deploy.


    Tie 3 bands on it instead of 2 and exercise with it :)

    I know. What you call one band I call 2, so tie 3. If you can pull 3 that's great. I couldn't pull 4.


    When you use a single flopper spear, the flopper should be 3" long and set back about 3" from the spear tip. If you use a 2 floppers spear tip, the floppers can be 2" long each and set back only 1" from the tip. This second alternative requires less penetration to fully deploy.

    Why not have the single flopper closer to the tip? say 1/2" or so.


    Get it thru fish as soon as you can... just thinking here.

    How big of a fish we talking? 3 oz to 1 lb, 1 lb to 5 lb. 5-10 etc.


    What if you have a back stop (ROCK) that is close or shooting into a hole.


    If the flopper is to far back then it will not make it thru the target?

    Edited once, last by Linghunt: typo ().

    Neither have I until I did it :) Space the bands out evenly around the sling and shaft holder, temporarily secure with a zip tie, and tie the knot. You may have to fashion a new shaft holder if the one you're using has a hole for the band to pass through. It's easy to take a piece of Delrin dowel and put a hole in it for the shaft. Put a groove/recess around it for the tying line to grab the bands more securely.

    Quote from Dan

    That is one disadvantage. But the alternative is unacceptable, it simply doesn't hold well.


    Got it, I had to think a little as we are talking a Single flopper close to the tip.


    If it was a double flopper close to the tip, "the Spinning off" factor would be reduced.


    If the floppers were longer, then it would reduce spin off as well.


    if there were 3 floppers then it would reduce it farther.


    (all floppers reference to the same point on spear shaft.)


    -John

    I think just a thicker band will work instead of rigging some sort of 3 band system. The pistol grip slings suck in my opinion and arent as powerful as the setup I use currently. Pole spears work but I find they have a very limited range.


    John, as for the weight class, the muttons were all in the 5-12 lb range and there were grouper that were larger. Also keep in mind that mutton and other snapper have very large hard scales that can be very hard to get through.

    It would still be easier to shorten the length of the band and increase elongation. I have pulled back 14mm sling bands before and I can do it with some strain on land but in the water it is significantly easier so I might try it. Ive seen slings tied with everything up to 20mm rubber.

    I was putting together the video form my trip to the bahamas and I noticed these frames. They show the amount of power I'm able to put behind a sling shaft. The first pic is a pic of the shaft shortly before impact. The next two show the flex as the shaft hits the fish. Believe it or not, I was unable to recover that fish because the shaft did not penetrate far enough for the flopper to engage and it was able to shake of shortly after. Its a pretty sickening to loose fish like that. Hopefully Ill figure out a solution so this doesn't happen as often.




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