Davyo Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Who had one and what bother did you get into lol.I used to shoot the milk bottles off the neighbours walls full or empty.Milk man came knocking & i got a slap off him and then my old man took the leather belt with the big buckle and braid my ****.When i wasnt getting into bother i used to shoot tin cans in the quarry.Shot my mate once in the nut with a nut (6 stiches),to be fair though he shot me on the knee.Got the belt again off dad & then he went up the hardware shop (thats like a B&Q to you young un's) and told the shop owner he'd belt him if he ever sold me black elastic ever again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 (edited) Still have a couple, including my old Milbro, hanging on a peg beside the back door for those odd occasions when I spy something that needs scaring off. As kids we used to flatten old lead piping with a lump hammer before cutting it into squares with a chisel and then roughly rounding them into 'big' bore sized pellets. We decided to do this after one of the 'squares' took a chunk out of a mates thumb end on release. We then used to ratch about on the local tip jumping on old cars and fridges etc and scattering the rats inside, which would then be catapulted the hell out of. Saying that I don't think we got many but it was great fun for young lads. Best fun was smashing the window panes in the old derelict signal box and the windows of the scrapped cars and old tv's. Great times. Edited May 21, 2016 by Scully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Fifty odd years ago I would never leave my house without my catty , I never hit anybody or got into trouble but that was down to being lucky . My neighbour was a bit on the posh side and had a shingle drive way which to me was like someone giving me free ammunition although at the time she didn't know she was giving me it One of my party tricks was chucking a can up above me with my right hand and hitting it on the way down , we could do it with bottles as well although having broken glass above you was a bit on the dangerous side . Another form of ammo was steel rivets that were left behind after they had cut up railway trucks at the disused railway station at the back of mine , if one of them had hit you in the head they would have gave you a bit more than a headache , then we moved on to cutting strips of lead up to make lead shot , where the lead came from , well that I cant remember even if I could I wont be telling you lot as the church warden is on P W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 My granddad made me one out of brass, think I still have it somewhere in the house, we used to play on the bomb site just up the road and build dens out of old corrugated sheets pinched from the scrap yard, there were also bins full of 10mm ball bearings we would load our pockets full of them and have raids on each others den, dangerous but fun when you are 10 years old, when I was about 14 we progressed onto banger guns made from copper pipe, highly dangerous but you did not see those dangers at that age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wymberley Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Father owned a garage so I had an endless supply of various sized ball bearings which put paid to a few rats. We weren't too well off at one point and I remember one Christmas present being several hundred tapered roller bearings to be used as building blocks and played for hours with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deny essex Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 We used to make our own catty's when I was a lad in Walthamstow, I had 3 older brothers so was taught how to make them , bows and arrows , cross bows and all sorts of things including air gun use. Was a regular thing having catty and air gun fights with the local gypsy lads down the lane . With all the things we did and got up to none of us ever had injury's more serious than cuts, bruises and bumps suprisingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnlewis Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 (edited) Still got mine wjth 3/8" rubber and my grandfathers with 1/4" rubber and tongue from a shoe for the pebble holder with a hole in center to locate missile being used. Edited May 21, 2016 by johnlewis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aga man Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 We always had a catapult in our school bag at secondry school, we would twag off english an RE and shoot pigeons, doves etc in the graveyard next to the school. We was pretty efficient with them in the end but didn't always consider the backstop and smashed a few greenhouse windows in that time. We started out with Milbro 'deadshot' and then when we could afford one it was a black widow with armrest which was the dogs danglies in them days. Ball bearing from old wheel bearings and marbles was the ammo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guzzicat Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Apparently before i started school I got hold of elder brother,s Pult, I tried to use it & let go of the wrong end,I still use one, & it has put a couple of geese in the bag,using it to lift them off stubble to get a 12 shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarepeg Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Put a lot of meat onto the table 70 years ago, mainly with old rubber inertube power. Then progressed to 3/16 and 1/4 inch square from Brookses army store in Doncaster. Still have 4/5 around with various types of propulsion, some of it rubbish from the Bay the best by far I'd theraband gold, it's still got life in it at full stretch. Lots of lead balls 36 calibre and good stoppers when you connect right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 i am ashamed to say i wreaked havoc and did a lot of damage with my catapult...............................it was at an age that i learnt to lie very convicingly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjimmer Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 A late friend of mine knocked out over of the 200 coloured light bulbs that used to hang along Weymouth sea front one night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 i am ashamed to say i wreaked havoc and did a lot of damage with my catapult...............................it was at an age that i learnt to lie very convicingly... You wont be the only one...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norfolk dumpling Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 When my dad died a few years back I found my last catty which he had made for me out of a bit of blackthorn. Still got it. God we reeked havoc with a pocket full of marbles. Found a couple of huge disused greenhouses when we were 10-11ish. Me and mates took out every last piece of glass. Criminal really but huge fun and never found out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewh100 Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 i had a black widow the one with the arm rest god it was powerful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deephayes12 Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 we used to get catapault elastic from a local hardware shop,the first time i went in, i asked for a yard of elastic please.the chap behind the counter said stretched or unstretched Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
team tractor Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 I've had my Diablo since I was 11/12 ( now 34) and its accounted for the odd squirrel . We used to go up our local woods after school with my mates lurcher with a pocket full of gravel off the drive and a load of crow scarers lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 The best projectiles were bearings we used to find on the local MOD range as kids, from the numerous vehicles left there as targets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Never honed the ball bearing skills, but get plenty of use today on the fishing front! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
figgy Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) Started of with a milbro then various fishing catapults until I got a Black Widow with the dark gold Amber bands by that bloody thing was powerful. Fave ammo was glass marbles known as alley,s locally. As for what we shot,more what we didn't anything and everything,used to find it amusing to watch your mates get halfway a cross a field of horses or cows going home before letting a few off at the rear ends of the animals which would then run wild. Why did hearing your mates scream amuse you so much as a child. The Park Keeper used to get it a few times for chasing us off catching us egging. See how many greenhouse glass panes you could get with one shot round the allotments. It's a wonder I can still sit down the amount of hidings I got. Catapults soon got forgotten when I saw a Gat Gun and onto Webley Tempests and BSA Scorpions. Edited May 22, 2016 by figgy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrwood Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 I remember James Bond 007 game on the PlayStation one. Great little catapult on there. Those were the good old days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
team tractor Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 we used to launch bangers in the air and panic when they hit the max height and still hadn't gone bang . Running around with our hands on our heads lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpoonlouis Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Ball bearing and plate glass! We discovered the almost perfect round bit came out of the back of a sheet of plate glass when hit by ball bearings, there was an abandoned car show room due for demolition that got covered in thousands of strikes, looked like it had been machined gunned. We thought it was so cool... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Ball bearing and plate glass! We discovered the almost perfect round bit came out of the back of a sheet of plate glass when hit by ball bearings, there was an abandoned car show room due for demolition that got covered in thousands of strikes, looked like it had been machined gunned. We thought it was so cool... I remember seeing that many a time as a lad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 The best projectiles were bearings we used to find on the local MOD range as kids, from the numerous vehicles left there as targets. my prefered ammunition was ...and still is 3/4" gravel..(selected of coarse) 3/4" nuts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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