Big Shot mod for rec climbing

Burrapeg

Burrapeg

Been here a while
Location
Puget Sound
I found that ordinary 3/4 inch NPT sch. 40 aluminium pipe slides smoothly inside the usual size of our fibreglas poles, so I chopped up my Big Shot pole into chunks no longer than the Big Shot head and which all fit with it into a short carrying bag less than two feet long. Here is a photo. I have a DIY trigger and MA cocking mechanism also.
RecBigShot.webp
 
Nice and very interesting. I'm thinking of black plasti painting mine to make it more stealthy, but I really like how your mod also shortens it all up.

Does it weight a lot more?

Could we see your trigger up close?
 
WaitakKauri said:
Nice and very interesting. I'm thinking of black plasti painting mine to make it more stealthy, but I really like how your mod also shortens it all up.
Does it weight a lot more?
Could we see your trigger up close?
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The short pieces of aluminium pipe did not add much weight at all. Here is a shot of the trigger up close. There are two ball bearing shivs for 3/8 inch rope, for a 3 to 1 tackle for cocking the Big Shot, with a trigger above the top shiv. I will try and get a photo of the rig put together and cocked.
Trigger.webp
 
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Burrapeg said:
The short pieces of aluminium pipe did not add much wewight at all. Here is a shot of the trigger up close. There are two ball bearing shivs for 3/8 inch rope, for a 3 to 1 tackle for cocking the Big Shot, with a trigger above the top shiv. I will try and get a photo of the rig put together and cocked.
View attachment 53265
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I'm impressed
 
Nice idea Stew. I'm looking forward to seeing the video. I guess it would depend on the condition of the bungee and the weight of the throw bag and line, or I'd suggest adding notches on the pole to indicate relative launching distance. It might also be cool to add a scope to better identify targets, or use a self recoiling Shakespeare reel, or something similar to deliver and retrieve the throw line. I like using the unmodified Big Shot and finding true inner peace and serenity, right before a successful launch.
 
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John@TreeXP said:
. . . I like using the unmodified Big Shot . . .
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Well, aside from simply being a hopeless tinkerer, I was concerned about being seen hiking on BLM or state park land carrying a giant 8-foot slingshot! This one now all fits in a 2-foot long green bag. I will try to get a photo or short video this weekend of the thing being cocked, to show the trigger I made.
 
Burrapeg said:
Just took a photo of the Big Shot assembled and cocked, to show the trigger and cocking MA. You pull down on the aluminium lever to fire, either by hand or with a lanyard. I have enough of the short extensions for a total length of about 9 or 10 feet of pole if I need a really long shot.
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That's great that you can fit the pole into a nice 2' long bag, but does that include the top "y" too? There's definitely growing room when it comes ways to refine and improve launching devices like this. Managing throw lines is also another area where things like Shapespeare reels can work well. I'd be very interested in a nice, compact, fully integrated throw line system using a modified big shot, paired with a dependable throw-line retrieval system that better mitigates tangles, more so than say a throw line cube.

I've used a big shot on a Redwood with a fishing reel and fishing line, which reached about 125'-150', but it didn't have a trigger modification and the pole was a generic broomstick like piece of wood. When the target was slightly out of reach, I placed the big shot's pole on a conveniently located tree stump and pulled the elastic down past the pole's base in order to make the shot.
 
John@TreeXP said:
That's great that you can fit the pole into a nice 2' long bag, but does that include the top "y" too? . . .
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Yes, the Big Shot head itself is the same length as the short sections of poles, and everything fits in the bag. I might try your idea of the fishing reel mounted right on the Big Shot pole. I have several of the self rewinding fly reels and they hold over a hundred feet of stout braided polyester line considerably bigger than fishing line.
 
Burrapeg said:
Just took a photo of the Big Shot assembled and cocked, to show the trigger and cocking MA. You pull down on the aluminium lever to fire, either by hand or with a lanyard. I have enough of the short extensions for a total length of about 9 or 10 feet of pole if I need a really long shot.

View attachment 53272
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Ah, now I understand. Really good and I like the built in MA.

Thank you for sharing this.
 
Thanks for the kind words, lads! Hardest part of the whole mod was sewing the damn bag, trying to remember how to route the thread on the sewing machine, load the bobbin, adjust tension, etc. Complicated buggers. My late wife was the expert on that part.
 
Bob Bob said:
@Burrapeg- How did you secure the 3/4 inch NPT sch. 40 aluminium pipe inside the fiberglass poles? Epoxy? I'm not seeing any through bolts.

Do the pole sections fit tight enough to still use the assembled pole for a pole saw set-up?
. . .
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5-minute epoxy. The fit is smooth but probably not tight enough to pull a pole saw. You would need some way to lock them that would not protrude and snag the rubber of the Big Shot.
 
One cool thing about having a number of these short sections, which I have found since using this, is that you can customize the total length of the pole on the spot, in short increments, depending on how high you want to shoot and how far back you are pulling the rubber.
 
Bob Bob said:
That's what I was thinking. A 6-7' combined pole length will probably work for most trees in my area, 9-10' would probably be needed for the Pacific North West along with a fishing reel set-up.

One more question: What was the length of the 3/4 inch NPT sch. 40 aluminium pipe sections you used to join the poles?
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They are about 12 inches long, that is to say, roughly 6 inches into each piece of pole tube.
 
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