A true next generation slingshot:
For quite some time now, I've had a dream of having a true Custom feeling slingshot that fills and fits the hand perfectly,
designed for ultimate side shooting accuracy... but not custom made, manufactured instead... THE most
ergonomic slingshot ever manufactured....
so you can take one right out of the retail packaging... go to a tournament and win with it.
And as it so happens, The Scorpion was designed with that goal in mind.
The only problem we faced was it was simply "impossible" to do is all... Up until now, that is!
It seems like just about everybody has a mix of talents and that mix contains different and varying quantities of each thing a person is talented at... In my mix (Bill Hays), problem solving is very heavily weighted.
Here was the problem... Custom made slingshots are almost always better feeling and more ergonomical than those that are mass produced... and that's mainly due to limitations in the manufacturing process. But to be fair, the mass produced pieces
will always be more uniform from piece to piece... as it's very difficult to reproduce by hand the same exact curves and contours from one piece to the next.
Manufacturing is chiefly limited because solid one piece slingshots have to be engineered so that they can fit into a two part mold that leaves a flat part line... Look for yourself, EVERY slingshot until right now... if it
was made in a mold, it has a flat part line.
In other words, the molding, the making process has a built in limitation that custom makers do not have to contend with.
So I had the thought, "What if I could design a two piece steel mold that allows for solid one piece objects to be made that do NOT have a flat part line"? That way, I wouldn't have to re-engineer the custom slingshot to fit the limitations of the
mold... The mold would be re-engineered to fit the slingshot instead! And if I could do THAT, then we could make actual custom quality slingshots but in a more uniform way!
So I took the Scorpion and TAC Hammer prototypes to our 3D engineering firm and also showed it to the mold makers as well... and they of course said it's a "no go" as is and has to be redesigned to fit a mold...
So I took some time and came up with an easy, yet completely overlooked solution to the problem... I ended up designing what can basically be described as a "mold within a mold"... and what that basically does is allows
for solid one piece castings to have a part line of basically any shape or contour so long as it doesn't exceed a right angle vertically!
You see, until we were able to solve the whole technological issue of the flat part line thing... this type of slingshot was not able to be made. But on top of that, this particular model had some other issues as well...
like where the webbing of the hand
is supported by the slingshot, that area is to thick for conventional molding methods, because of cooling rates/ flow problems along with shrinkage and so forth... So our engineers told us to make it hollow there and then come back
with a second cast do a fill with
either polycarbonate or some other material... just like so many others have done in the past (saves money and time we were told).
Well, I'm not one to quibble where quality is concerned so I told them "NO", we will figure out a solution to make it work... and after some time, I was able to come up with an enhanced radiator/ heat dispensation system for the molds
that allows for uniform cooling no matter how thick the piece or area of concern... because of that, and because we simply do not compromise where quality and safety are concerned we were eventually able to make the Scorpion just as I had envisioned!
Made from solid ballistic grade polycarbonate, with no after fills or other stuff that may interfere with the structural integrity of the final piece... The Scorpion is purpose engineered/designed to be the ultimate side shooting slingshot.
Held something like a hammer grip, but with greatly enhanced web support for the hand, and a pinky hole/ellipse to make sure your grip is exactly repeatable from shot to shot, session to session and month to month... Every part of the palm of the hand
can lend support and cushioning to the shot... from the meaty edge of your hand, to the hollow of the palm, to the web area which acts like a fulcrum for the whole slingshot when drawn... Every part contacts and lends support... that means
you can have more stability and thus more consistency from shot to shot and so on.
I can tell you this much... if some crazy law were passed that allows a person to possess only one slingshot... the Scorpion would be my choice... for no other slingshot has ever allowed me
to be as consistent and comfortable while shooting... plus it was the first slingshot in the modern era to allow consistent cutting of cards and lighting of matches... as seen on youtube!
