From reading a number of posts I have gathered that it is possible to hunt small game (ie birds, rats, or other small targets) using something called "flak" or "grapeshot".  Just out of curiosity, is flak & grapeshot the same thing, or is it different?  How big & how many pebbles should one use?  Is there any specific techniques one should do to effectively hunt with it... or even to shoot with it?  Could someone please discuss using these with a sling so that some of us newbies can better understand what to do with this stuff?  Thanks in advance for your replies.

I had some luck trying with gravel wrapped in tissue paper. You could hit relatively tight clusters, and seemed to get predictable spread. I fairly quickly decided that it didn't have enough punch for pest control though. You would never hit with more than one pebble, and they are too light and slow down too quickly to do any damage, let alone cleanly dispatch something. Maybe largish caliber lead balls would be better, but I think they would be lacking as well...

Better off getting good enough to hit with a single stone I think. Chances are you won't hit much, but you won't be maiming things either.

Multiple Glans Projectile

Matthias

I dont know much about it, but I can say this, dont use pebbles use something like lead or steel ball bearings.
They have more mass and would be more likely to work.
A single dense rock should work fine for hunting, but for something like grape shot, where the ammo is intentionally small youll need all the mass you can get.
Use a long sling, maybe a cupped sling would work (?)
and dense ammo. I think theirs an article about making cupped slings in the articles section. Someone will probably be along shortly that can give you more info. Good Luck and welcome to the forum.  :)

i dont know if the style has a name but i have better luck not spinning the pouch. I take a short sling, load it with flak, and just put it behind my back and throw.

Matthias, that M.G.P. link was very informative. Usually, I just pile pebbles into the pouch, but the tissue paper method seems great because the pebbles won't spill out of the pouch when shooting. It's like one big rock.

Even with lead, you are missing the grunt to do enough damage. I think I worked out in the M.G.P. link that a shotgun puts something like 50 times the energy on target. Show me a setup that will shred 1" blue foam and I'll reconsider. As it stands now, the rats that were laughing at me while I was working this out could probably catch my gravel in their teeth... But a lucky (I mean skillful ;)) shot with a single rock would make for one very flat rat.

Matthias

Yes in the end, I just dont think you can get enough power to make grape shot feasible. It's amazing the difference between one large rock and many small ones. Maybe depleted uranium would work...hmmm.

Jack's patented Anti-bird flak shot is easy to produce, and nonlethal! All you do is take about 4-6 small pebbles, or whatever will fit in your sling, load them up, ready the sling, select a target (or two or three) and whip the sling forward. As I've said before, it's nonlethal, and all it may do is frustrate the bird or fiddler crab and make it think twice about getting in the way of any subsequent shots. It's not for hunting purposes, really. I just do it to amuse myself or out of boredom.

I've found for the tissue paper/cloth method, pebbles As Round as Possible work the best, because their shape lets them be heavy, but not have much area, so the air doesn't slow them down as much as say a thin oval shape

i line up longish rocks singel file points faceing strings and that works you can use some quite heavy (for flak)shot that hits hard

try using some gravel to stun it, then finish it of with a knife