# Big shot - sort of



## andrewspens (Nov 14, 2007)

A little while ago I was in a local sporting goods store and saw a tennis ball launcher made by a company called hyper dog. This thing is basically a slingshot on steroids. Has anybody here tries using one as a substitute for a big shot? A big shot is too pricey for this weekend warrior.


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## TreeBot (Nov 14, 2007)

No, but I have used my big shot to shoot tennis balls for my dog to chase.


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## TreeBot (Nov 14, 2007)

TreeBot said:


> No, but I have used my big shot to shoot tennis balls for my dog to chase.



Oh yeah, it doesn't work very well either. They are too light.

I ended up snapping the tubing and had to buy another set.


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## ATH (Nov 15, 2007)

Have you considered a pneumatic tennis ball launcher? I got the idea here probably a year ago (in the video section), and I love it.


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## Dadatwins (Nov 16, 2007)

I think the big shot with 8' pole alone sells for less than $125, that is not a lot for the amount of work and time it saves. Mine has paid for itself many times over.


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## Blinky (Nov 16, 2007)

There was a thread on the Buzz about the hyper-dog. Someone finally bought one and replied it wasn't powerful enough for 10oz shotbags and zing-it but it works with the little 2-4oz balls and fishing line.

Big shot is the way to go for high crotches though, especially if you rig up a trigger. I still like to throw a 12oz by hand under 50'.


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## Rftreeman (Nov 19, 2007)

I have been pondering the idea of drilling a hole in a golf ball and putting some zing-it 1.75 trough it and see how high it will go.


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## andrewspens (Nov 19, 2007)

*That's what I thought*

I picked up the hyperdog the other night, along with a 300' of 1/16" braided nylon(?) cord. I think this is decoy line for duck hunters, anyways it is a black and orange braid, easy to see, and only 4 or 5 bucks. I have a friend bringing me some fluorescent golf balls tomorrow. Reading online, golf balls are 1.6oz, should work. Three reasons I am using the decoy line, seems mighty strong, I am cheap, and the store was a military surplus / outdoors store going out of business. I'll use the upcoming holiday to try out my new toys, the day job gets me home after dark lately.


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## Tree Machine (Nov 21, 2007)

Here's a link to a past thread on the Hyperdog.


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## Themadd1 (Nov 21, 2007)

Watch those golf balls and your background. They could do some damage. Build your own big shot, you just need to bend some aluminum tube, and hook it up with some rubber, and a sling of some sort. I cant imagine it is very hard to do. You will need some metal working skills, and a sewing machine. 

Actually I am not sure if it is aluminum or steel? I havent used one yet. Just go to your local supplier and take a look at the structure and go from there, I really cant imagine they are that hard to make. 

The rubber tubing they use has to be available for other markets, no doubt.


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## Tree Machine (Nov 21, 2007)

The cost of the bigshot head itself is only 50 or 60 dollars. Yea, go shopping, source the heavy duty surgical tubing, find the aluminum or steel, figure out how to form the base so it'll plug into a pole, find a sewing machine, figure out how to sew the pouch and from what material you'll make it from and how you'll affix it to the rubber tubing.

You should save yourself a ton of dough.  

OR, go out and do an hour or two of tree work, or haul away a pile of brush or whatever. Call Sherrill on their 1-800 line as soon as you earn 60 dollars, order, and it will be on your doorstep in two days. In the meantime, work the rest of the day. Then work tomorrow. By the time the bigshot arrives, you'll almost have forgotten you've spent the money.

The bigshot should then allow you to access canopies more swiftly, making more efficient work of it all, eventually paying for itself in time saved and then once it's paid it own self off, it keeps giving, and giving and giving.

In my book, this is called an investment, rather than a purchase. Any other investment that guarantees this kind of returned would be swarmed on by the investors, but to complain about the price of something that's under a hundred bucks that makes your worklife easier, and then figure out how you can spend a bunch of time to reinvent a wheel just to come up with some mutant form of an otherwise affordable, professional, world-class device.....

I'm sorry. I'm painting my past, ten years ago before the BigShot was invented. Golf balls, baseballs with eyebolts, different lines, hand slingshots, bow and arrow, crossbow, water balloon launchers and yes, things that resembled a hyperdog. I've also used decoy line, good luck on rough crotches or even smooth crotches when recently rained on.

What a bunch of frickin wasted time I spent, but at the time there was nothing specifically made forn the purpose of shotbag launching. Once I got a bigshot, life changed. It outperformed anything I'd tried previously, by a large margin. Once ZingIt line came out, I could pack away the clumsy 1/8" polypropylene slickline. Once I quit using awkward pickle-shaped throwbags and spent the extra 5 or 6 bucks on the streamlined and lead dust-free harrison Rocket bags, much better. With a shotline reel for tangle-free shots, superfast rewind and compact storage, the system is complete. The choice then is 'which bag weight to use?'.

Granted, that complete system including pole, line, BigShot head and shotline reel, getting up near $200. 

Still, it is an investment, and not a really big one compared to other tools in our industry. To spend a little less money, and a lot more time to create something that will under-perform, this is called an expense, or a liability. Your choice, though. This is just an offering of experience mixed with honesty.

If you're gonna fabricate your own gear, create stuff that doesn't exist yet.


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## andrewspens (Nov 21, 2007)

*Sounds like good advice.*

Thanks for the info TreeMachine. Sounds like good advice there, learned through experience. As I have already picked up my things, I am still going to try them out, more to satisfy my curiousity. Plus, I am stubborn (blood is half german, here). If it doesn't work out, I will toss the hyperdog in my back seat for when I visit my brother or parents to play with their dogs. 
The main reason I am trying to keep things cheap is that I am trying do do some light tree work as a weekend warrior, my day job keeps me at a desk. The smell of two-stroke exhaust, the noise, and some manual labor are a nice change from the civilized work of architecture.


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## CJ-7 (Nov 21, 2007)

> I have been pondering the idea of drilling a hole in a golf ball and putting some zing-it 1.75 trough it and see how high it will go.



Lob wedge or a 9 iron?


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## Canyonbc (Nov 22, 2007)

Dadatwins said:


> I think the big shot with 8' pole alone sells for less than $125, that is not a lot for the amount of work and time it saves. Mine has paid for itself many times over.



Ya i am only part time...but there are some many different situations to where you can use it...setting lines way up...getting a bull line way up in the tree...


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## Canyonbc (Nov 22, 2007)

Rftreeman said:


> I have been pondering the idea of drilling a hole in a golf ball and putting some zing-it 1.75 trough it and see how high it will go.



i have tried a similar set up...the ball was just to small to throw easy with control. As some one else said...they can do so damage, and almost did.

I also tried a baseball...drilled in the middle...still not real good success. 

Throw weight is just a better set up. 

Just my thought.


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## Dadatwins (Nov 22, 2007)

The shot filled throwbags work better because the do not bounce off limbs as hard like a solid object. They are more forgiving if you shot is off slightly. There are still some that prefer the hard rubber throw ball but I think the softer shot bag works best.


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## Canyonbc (Nov 22, 2007)

Dadatwins said:


> The shot filled throwbags work better because the do not bounce off limbs as hard like a solid object. They are more forgiving if you shot is off slightly. There are still some that prefer the hard rubber throw ball but I think the softer shot bag works best.



Second that...

Like i said earlier i have tried other methods...and the few extra bucks for a throw bags is the way to go. 

Still every once in a while you will get on caught in a crotch.


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## joesawer (Nov 22, 2007)

You guys are scaring me. Shooting golf balls into a tree with anything like a big shot is a good way to get me to vacate the area.


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## Tree Machine (Nov 22, 2007)

*ready,*

aim...


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## Themadd1 (Nov 23, 2007)

I get the whole idea of an investment, personally I use this thing called my arm and momentum to throw my line into the tree. If I cant throw my throw line over a branch why cimb the tree. After a few months my fingers formed nice calouses on my finger where the line used to burn my skin. 

I am the type of person who likes to take things apart and rebuild them. I have no problem putting together my own sling shot design, tweaking it and either making it strong or destroying it. Dont bring your car over to my house and say can you help re-inforce ?????, you might get it back weighing in over CDL or it might never run again. 

When I was a kid my parents would give me a toy and within a week it would be in pieces on the floor so I could figure out how it worked. 


The point, sure spend the money on the big shot, or use your $(%*ing arm. Or if you want take one apart make it better and then sell it on arboristsite.com.


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## Tree Machine (Nov 23, 2007)

I totally get you. Call us tinkerers, fabricators, innovators or inventors. We like to dissect things and put them back together. We're unable to get a new piece of gear without thinking, "How can I modify or improve it?" 
Some call it a talent, some would consider it more an illness.

But the BigShot is different. First, the shot above, under the wires, over the 2-story house, avoid the copper, nail the highest crotch at 70 feet, this kind of 'throw' is not possible without a great deal of flat-out luck, the trajectory needs to be pretty much a shallowly arced straight line. But with a BigShot, this one was kids play. It wqas a challenging shot and I rated it a par three, but sank it in one. I can now pull a rope and move on to my work. That BigShot may have just paid for itself with it's magnificent ability.

There's not a real abundance of inexpensive arbo tools that do what they're supposed to, time after time after time, increasing your efficiency or abilities and income. For $60, all I can see is a slam dunk.


the madd1 said:


> Or if you want take one apart make it better and then sell it on arboristsite.com.


All I can see is a lawsuit. That would be called _patent infringement_. One may want to look at what that looks like before one would go that direction, but I have no authority on how you conduct business within the tree climbing community. 

Personally, I embrace any ideas about improving something.

At the same time, I can take a hard-toothed garden rake and bend over the metal parts, attach pouching and tube and I have a slingshot. Yep, there is that choice. If I was saving any money at all, or making a better product, I just can't see any other reason for reinventing something that's already been done (and done very well).


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## Tree Machine (Nov 23, 2007)

Besides, you will STILL always throw, if the crotch is more easily throwable.
You just pull out the BigShot for those more special instances.


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## Themadd1 (Nov 23, 2007)

I am just throwing out ideas. I am not planning on stealing someones product... If you cant think of a good idea, take some one elses good idea and make it better. This seems to be half the products out there on the market. 

Just like that throwbag you use, sherrill didnt invent that idea, patent it or anything, they took someone elses throw bag, and made it "better". Just an example because I saw it in your picture. 

How many trees do you need to climb that you cant reach with the good old throw bag and string.? I had a climber once who used a big shot on all kinds of jobs. It still took him a few shots to get the bag where he wanted it. If you aim well with a big shot you probrably throw a line just as well. 

I dont think I need one in my personal bag of tricks, but maybe someday I might run into a tree I have to take a few more minutes on getting into the tree.

Does anyone notice this problem out in the field? Guys who throw into almost every tree, and have to get their line up to the top, even though they could toss the line in lower and climb, use a ladder, or some other means? It just seems like some guys get stuck into the same routine take more time, etc...

Happy Thanksgiving


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## joesawer (Nov 23, 2007)

I never felt that I needed one until I came to CA. I often wanted and could have used one before, But I never needed a 18' flip line back east either.


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## (WLL) (Nov 24, 2007)

Themadd1 said:


> Watch those golf balls and your background. They could do some damage. Build your own big shot, you just need to bend some aluminum tube, and hook it up with some rubber, and a sling of some sort. I cant imagine it is very hard to do. You will need some metal working skills, and a sewing machine.
> 
> Actually I am not sure if it is aluminum or steel? I havent used one yet. Just go to your local supplier and take a look at the structure and go from there, I really cant imagine they are that hard to make.
> 
> The rubber tubing they use has to be available for other markets, no doubt.



The rubber tubing they use has to be available for other markets, no doubt. its rubber medical tubing. saw it on mith busters


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## 3yrclimberARK (Dec 15, 2007)

I have a big shot and use it often. While playing with my kids one weekend I ran across a couple of decent substitutes. 

Option 1: A kids bow and arrow with a weighted head and a fishing rig works rather nicely. Hang ups can be a problem. You can put this set up together for about 30 to 50 bucks. 

Option 2: A potato gun loaded with a sock. Just drop your throw ball in on top of the sock, take aim and fire. I know it's redneck as all get out but you'd be surprised with the accuracy and height. Plus it's fun. I put mine together from the local hardware store for less than 40 dollars plus a can or two of 99 cent hairspray.


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