The Davshot

I decided to make my own version of a Bigshot recently. I wanted a removable head that I could just slip on the end of my hiking stick.

I brazed the aluminum together as I don't have a welder. I'm honestly not sure what the walking stick is made out of, it seems like hickory almost. I took it out a slash pile destined to go through a chipper. It's 5' long and 1-3/8\" at the top.

I can shoot an 8oz bag and zing-it accurately up to about 80-90'. There's a lot of stretch left in the tubing, so I think with a longer pole I could go a lot higher. But honestly, I really don't currently need to go any higher than that on my first pitch.

It's quite light and nests well with my lanyard bag and other gear in the bag, so takes up very little additional room.

Looks like it does the job, nice work.
-moss

Looks good. I didn't realize that you could braze aluminum. I've accumulated most of the parts for my version. Maybe I'll make some progress on it this week.

Yup, if you google brazing aluminum you should get a bunch of info. They all make it look super easy. Well, it's not nearly as easy as I thought it would be. Practice a bit first. The biggest problem is the brazing point is so close to the melting point of the aluminum, that it's hard to keep it at the right temperature without making things worse. But is seems strong enough once you get it to work.

If I had it to do over I might have just bought one. But there is the pride of using something you made just the way you wanted it.

I set three climb lines at about 60-70' on Sunday in about 15 minutes with it. That's better than I could usually do one by throwing at that height.