How To Aim, Shoot And Fire A Catapult Properly – UK Preppers Guide

For some people, hunting with a catapult has been a lifelong process. But for quite a few people, actually knowing how to aim, shoot and fire properly, as well as accurately is not quite as easy as it seems.! 

If you own several different models, you will, no doubt, find yourself making little changes in order to suit your personal firing needs – these are small refinements and changes needed to compensate for your personal style of hunting, your physical strengths and weaknesses for your own ways of shooting.

You will, most definitely, find yourself experimenting with different types of ammo sizes and even shapes – as well as changing the power band strength to see what really works best for you.
Anyone who is serious about hunting finds that a bit of experimentation is the only and best way to be the most consistent and accurate for their needs.
You must experiment if you want to progress and get more accurate and proficient at this type of hunting and food procurement. Therefore, this short article is aimed more specifically at the beginner and intermediate user, rather than the experienced hunter.

All hunting has to be divided into the two main groups –

• PRACTICE – this is generally referred to as “Plinking”
• HUNTING – the practice of actually stalking down and killing game.

 All these types of targets are designed to help with your target accuracy and well worth investing in.
If you use ball bearings for ammo, then I would suggest investing in a different style of target – one that collects the ball bearing at the back in a tray. 

But before you do anything:  THINK ABOUT YOUR CATAPULT SAFETY FIRST:
It is very important to think of abut safety just like any other weapon – any weapon if used in an unsafe and irresponsible manner, will very easily injure, maim and even kill a human.

Always apply the same sensible rules as you do with any weapon:

• Never use against another person, in the United Kingdom, it will be regarded as an offensive weapon and the law will treat it as such.
• Never point at anyone
• Do not let anyone use unsupervised – especially children.
• Wear safety glasses.. a power band can snap and recoil – it will take your eye out.
• Wear a glove and if possible wrist protection against ‘band slap’ – this will start to hurt after a while..!

But please – always remember to be ethical about your hunting practices.
All hunters want a clean, fast kill – that’s why it is so necessary to actually practice and get yourself proficient with your weapon well before you actually go out into the wild looking for game to hunt.
The average quality will very easily take down many of the smaller animals like rabbits, pigeons, squirrels, pheasants – AT CLOSE RANGE

But again, I cannot underestimate the need to practice.
It is essential you are more than able to reproduce the firing action and technique you use when plinking at a target – regular practice will ensure you build up ‘muscle memory’ and use exactly the same action when your heart’s pumping and you’re all crouched up on the ground trying to aim at your prey for real.

Whether your left or right handed, makes no difference when it comes to how to shooting and firing properly – what does make a difference is finding a firing position, stance and technique that suits you personally. 

You must be able to comfortably pull back to achieve maximum power without having to struggle – if you find you cannot hold the pouch ‘fully cocked’ without wobbling then you must extend the band length to suit you body size, strength and style.

It is far better to give away a bit of power than constantly struggle with the band force and subsequently miss your target.
As you get more confident and muscle memory kicks in, you will find it becomes easier to maintain a constant aim with less effort.

You’ll find the key to successfully aiming, firing and hitting a target is very much an instinctive action, that gets better the more you practice and develop that muscle memory that is so important for hitting a target repeatably. 

Know You Trajectory:

By keeping you aiming arm steady and in the same place fro every shot, pulling the bands back to the the same length and same position will increase your success rate to the point where it become second nature.

I find this is an area where some people prefer to use large ammo and others smaller – there’s no definitive answer to ammo size or type.
As Preppers, it makes sense to practice with all types and sizes, but especially with FREE AMMO.. the type you find on the ground, namely stones.

For consistent results, you will need consistent ammo, and that normally means steel ball bearings.

Fortunately, steel ball bearing are relatively cheap to buy and always consistent in their size and weight.
Which makes them also consistent in their flight path, speed and trajectory.

Try to use the same power bands whenever possible, and, of course, always carry a spare set – again, a cheap item to buy, light weight to carry around and compact – so no reason to scrimp on extra bands.
They will snap, I can guarantee that, and there’s nothing worse than getting all set up, having good ammo and a target sitting right in front of you, only to have a band snap and no replacement.
This is a typical quality hunting catapult – with a spare set of power bands the whole set-up costs around £30, so not an expensive item considering the usefulness to us preppers.