Any wrist rocketeers here?

[Snapshot]

My application is much less interesting than various intelligence, special operations, police and others posted here.

I park my truck in the driveway, it is a suburban area with lots of trees and birds. Several years ago a robin or perhaps a gang of robins decided they deplored by truck and any number of times I would see them attacking it with their beaks, especially the reflective surfaces like the rear window. I have no idea what brought on this behaviour, somebody suggested they were attempting to dominate their reflections...

Anyway I didn't care about the beak attacks but either as a side effect or another mode they escalated to chemical warfare and began using my truck as a toilet.

This I did mind, not only for the mess but also because bird feces is acidic and if left can damage clear coat and paint. I tried several home-made and commercial devices to discourage them, none were effective.

The driveway faces a busy road and obviously I didn't want to shoot my own truck, so my options were limited. I ended up sitting on the porch with a sling shot and a bowl of beans or tapioca, these were enough to fly 10-15 yards, not particularly accurate but also not harmful to the truck and not enough energy to leave the property. I don't think I ever made a hit but the startle factor seemed to be enough to drive them off.

This was several summers ago and many robins have come and gone since then with no interest in my truck.

But the slingshot and jar of ammo is sitting on the hall table if the problem resurfaces.

[Seven_Sicks_Two]

My own tomfoolery with the fabled wrist rocket was a bit later than some of you guys. It was the mid-90s, and involved unripe olives, and a pissed off neighbor chasing us through a vineyard with a tire iron.

I’m tempted to buy another every time I see one for sale in a sporting goods store.

[Totem Polar]

Mother of God...

https://www.amazon.com/wrist-rocket/s?k=wrist+rocket

[awp_101]

Mother of God...

https://www.amazon.com/wrist-rocket/s?k=wrist+rocket

I know, right? And you have to be careful because there's apparently a style of lingerie known as slingshot and those pics are mixed in with the launchers I'm looking at. Could make for an uncomfortable discussion if viewing at work or if She Who Puts Up With Me should walk by...

Some of those launchers look really cheap and cheesy which is why I'm hoping to get some input on good ones.

[Totem Polar]

The biodegradable ammo got my tail wagging... it’s like the Hornady TAP of wrist rocket fodder.

[awp_101]

I saw that. If it's decent, it would make my usage at work looked upon more favorably. I'm not looking to kill them I just want the birds to move along, find the huge dock doors and leave. Slinging something that breaks up on impact would be better than marbles or steel bearings since the stuff still has to come back down somewhere.

[JTMcC]

I have a neighboring bull that wanders in from time to time and acts like he owns the place.
I stealthily stalk within range an pop him with a wrist rocket.
My family, who understand how dangerous a range bull can be, find it humorous and so do I.

It's good that the bull is large as I can't hit anything smaller than say a.... well, say a bull . I should practice but don't have the time.

[EricP]

I park my truck in the driveway, it is a suburban area with lots of trees and birds. Several years ago a robin or perhaps a gang of robins decided they deplored by truck and any number of times I would see them attacking it with their beaks, especially the reflective surfaces like the rear window. I have no idea what brought on this behaviour, somebody suggested they were attempting to dominate their reflections...

The front door of our office had a reflective coating to lessen solar heating in the summer. One morning we found a turkey beating the crap out of his reflection. This was went on for a few minutes until the turkey started losing and his beak and spurs were bleeding. I chased it away with a broom. It stopped about 25 feet away, turned around and was deciding if it could take me.

On topic... I had the standard issue wrist rocket as a kid. Being bored with shooting rocks out of it, I bought a bag of 3/8” ball bearings with my allowance. These must have been very dear because I constructed a shooting range with a recovery system to capture the ball bearings. The backstop was a sheet of plywood that I dragged out of the garage. I stapled a cardboard box to it with the plywood with the open end down. You could shoot through a target on the front of the box. The bearing would go through box, ricochet off the plywood, hit the front of the box, and drop into a toolbox placed below ready for reuse. This worked pretty well until the box got shot up and the bearings would just ricochet off of the plywood and back at the shooter.

[Clusterfrack]

Not a wrist rocket, but same idea. I made a hand cannon out of metal pipe with a hole drilled in the cap. Thread a firecracker fuse through the hole and put the cap on. Then use some cotton for wadding and ram a marble down the barrel. It worked really well. Actually way too well. My dad covered for me when the police showed up, but let me know his true feelings afterwards.

[UNK]

Not a wrist rocket, but same idea. I made a hand cannon out of metal pipe with a hole drilled in the cap. Thread a firecracker fuse through the hole and put the cap on. Then use some cotton for wadding and ram a marble down the barrel. It worked really well. Actually way too well. My dad covered for me when the police showed up, but let me know his true feelings afterwards.

Thats cool We used to do that with can taped togather lighter fluid and tennis balls. More like a mortar actually.
Buddy made a potato launcher that used butane. Very powerful.