Make your own powerful sling bow using basic materials

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If you love archery, but suck at it, you might want to consider trying a different tack. How about, for example, making your own sling bow? 

Follow this guide to find out how.

As you can imagine, you'll need some tools and materials before you get started.

Materials and gear needed

• Plastic tubing or handle
• Hacksaw
• Nylon string
• Cable ties
• Rubber/surgical tubing
• Modeling/surgical knife
• Heatproof gloves

With all your gear in hand, it is time to get on with this great little build.

Step 1: Make the main body of the sling

The first step is to take your plastic tubing and secure it in a vice. Once done, saw off the threaded end, if present, of the tube using a hacksaw. 

With that, mark a line down one length of the tube around 9 cm long. Once done, take your hacksaw again and saw a channel down the length of the tube following the line faithfully.

Transfer the pipe to a heat source, like a kitchen hob, and heat up the plastic gently until it is pliable. Once done, bend the sawn ends of the pipe outwards into a Y-shape. Ensure you wear some heatproof gloves when doing this as the plastic will be quite hot. 

With that done, recurve the ends of plastic upwards to make a W-shape with the ends of plastic forming recurved arms of the sling. 

With that done, take your power drill and sink some holes through the middle of the upward angles of the recurved arms. Clean up the drill holes as needed.

With that done, and if desired, spray paint the main body of the sling in any color you like. In this case, red has been chosen. 

Step 2: Make the string

While the paint is drying on the main body of the sling bow, we can now move on to actually making it work. Grab some nylon string and tie a basic knot at one end then cut it down to a short length. Rinse and repeat to make two more. 

With that done, take the short knotted lengths of nylon string and place them in the holes of the sling bow knot side up. 

With that done, take your surgical tubing and measure out around a 23 cm length of it. Cut the tubing down to size as needed. Rinse and repeat to make a second length of tubing. 

Next, tie the other end of the nylon string lengths with another basic knot. Then take your lengths of surgical tubing and insert over the exposed knots of the nylon string. 

With that done, take some cable ties and firmly secure the surgical tubing just above the nylon string knots as needed. Make sure they are as tight as you can possibly make them. 

With that done, take your last length of nylon string and tie knots in both ends. Then connect the two lengths of surgical tubing with the nylon string and secure using more cable ties as needed. 

Snip off the excess lengths of the cable ties as required. 

Step 3: Create a pull release and test

At this stage, the sling bow is basically complete, but we need another mechanism to make it comfortable to draw and release the sling bowstring. Take a long length of nylon string, loop it, and tie the ends on either side of the nocking point of the sling bow's string.

Then tie the main length of the loop into another knot so that you can easily hold and draw the string. With that, your sling bow is now pretty much good to go. 

Now set up a target, or if you are an archer use your boss. Grab some arrows, nock the arrow to the string and rest the head on the center of the sling bow. 

Then, following basic archery etiquette and safety rules, draw the sling bow and release at the target to your heart's content. Happy days!

If you enjoyed this little tutorial, you may enjoy making another archery-based item. How about making your own bow from common household items?