sir , the way you stated , he is a friend of mine , hit me like Walter Brennan singing about Old Rivers, , and watching this video makes me wish he was a friend of mine also , 🍻
That's what's called a gifted natural. No 100 dollar aluminum slingshot. No draw length calculations and special rubber bands or ammo. Just Pure talent.
You only need 50$ really for a decent on. Also you’re still calculating your draw lengths since elastic is used regardless. More power gets you better hits when hunting.
Technique over technology, grip, anchor points, reference points, consistency and repetition. The most impressive part for me was that he used natural rocks as ammo that alone introduces a ton of variables that can effect accuracy.
An old man who can hit a quarter in mid-air with a sling shot. There are untold numbers of skeet shooters who could not do that with a shotgun. Just incredible. Genius-level shooting. Rufus is now one of my all-time favorite people.
Well said. The world is losing men with character everyday, and fewer are being produced. Certainly makes you want to cherish the old timers and learn a thing or two while we've got them.
Country folks like Rufus are getting more rare with each passing year. To have someone like him as a friend would mean a life long friend that you could be depended on for anything. Rufus reminds me of my Grandfather, simple but smart, hardworking and honest. Not too many people like him around anymore...live long Rufus....keep them Japanese Beetles at bay!!
This man is so North Carolina. It is people like him that made me decide to stay here after I left the Army. Meeting my wife and her family here didn't hurt. She passed away young but I have still never considered moving.
This was one of the very first RU-vid videos I ever watched. It gives me so much more nostalgia than I anticipated it would. I was a kid and life was more simple.
@grumpy old fart lol two really smart Christian old men calling each other names and having a pissing contest online... boomers get off the internet and reread your Bibles, pride comes before the fall
@grumpy old fart let's not start being dishonest, too... you're not proudly boasting of Christ or your faith, you are shamelessly boasting of and using as a bludgeoning tool your "superior intelligence" and career choices... it's kind of pathetic on both sides.
grumpy old fart Do you even know who the 144,000 are? They are the 12 tribes of Israel, and 12,000 Jews from each tribe will spread the gospel to all corners of the earth. This will happen shortly after Tribulation begins, and then they will be martyrs later, as the beast will order them killed. You know very little of our Lords teaching, and I can only assume you are a Jehovah witness, as they believe in the annointed 144,000, which is just untrue. Quit spreading your BS, because I have a pretty strong BS sniffer on me!
Remember Mr. Rufus well. He would come to Bennett to have corn ground at the feed mill my uncle owned. I worked there part time in the summer and on weekends and whenever he came in it was a real treat. The old guys would set around drinking coffee and telling tales. Some of the farmers would bring children and grandchildren to the mill. Rufus would bring out his bean shooter and everyone was in awe at what he could do with something so simple. It was a special time and place. Blessed to have been a part of that time and place.
Thank you for sharing. That makes me excited to go to our local mill this year - it will be my first time. I'm so honored to be getting into farming community and all I can say is I'm ashamed I didn't see how precious it was sooner.
@@manofkentcatapultsgunsando5069 How cool! Can't wait to see your video you doing all those things you described using random stones as your ammo and duplicating everything Rufus did in the video. Let me know when you put your video out.
At 67, I took my first wood carving lesson today. The first thing I thought about making was a slingshot. I got the idea after watching this vid several years ago. God, would u tell Rufus he left a legacy? Thank u. And thank u Rufus.
I have my Paw-Paws first slingshot that he made me from dogwood when he retired in 1977 after working 46 years at JP Stephens in Boger City, NC. His story was similar, but not quite as skilled. That slingshot is my most prized possession that money can't buy!
We used to make our own as kids back in the 1950's The red rubber inner tire tubes (before the advent of tubeless tires) was the preference. Back when life was simple and beautiful, (No internet, cellphones, video games, tablets etc). I remember those times very well.
Yeah but it wasn’t for the internet I would have never learned about this dude . People can say what they like but technology has made the world a better place .
For anyone wondering how he actually aims without looking, it's a very simple but honed technique. He's what's known as a "Gunslinger" and he has never forgotten the name of his father.
I know this is a bit late but one reason they are probably curving is if they are flat or flatish, if they are then they will curve like a boomerang or frisbee and they also make a really cool noise as they crack the air. They’re good for making cool sounds or hitting something round a corner I suppose but are just a bit too inaccurate for most other things.
He reminds me a lot of my Grandaddy, I miss him every day. Grew up shooting slingshots just like them never was that good though, yes Mr. Rufus U were the best sir.✌
I am in complete awe. What a cool guy. So polite, so modest, so genuine. Awesome to have seen this talent. His family was lucky to have a shot like him when times were hard. How disrespectful of the rude commenter(s)--this is a genuine gentleman--rich, poor, or speaking with perfect diction or not.
There is something to be said about this kind of mastery. I've mastered one or two things, but not quite to this degree. What I've mastered others could likely duplicate. However, very few people in the world would ever be this good at a slingshot. Amazing.
I have seen competitive slingshots, but this man is truly gifted. His eyesight must have been perfect. I hope he had a great life and is happy where he is now.
Chubbeth's Thunder but a child in a room with a phone & tv and a child in a room with a slingshot & see who comes out smarter, you wouldn’t even know who he was if you wasn’t on your phone watching your idiot box
A tv isn't necessarily an idiot box. It depends on what you watch. Cell phones on the other hand are annoying as hell. Everyone's a damn zombie walking around with those fucking things.
@@foretell6819 seeing as most of the real world now days is communicating through emails and phone calls id put my money on the kid with the phone.... plus having a slingshot does not mean you know how to actually use it...hell even if you did does knowing how to use a slingshot actually make you smarter?......no it does not having a slingshots not gonna teach you how to fielddress a rabbit to eat it let alone cook it safetly its not gonna teach you how to sew to make a pounch out of the fur but you know what can? a fucking cell phone with acssess to every book known to man
Very true. Based on my own experiences it's a state of mind like no other & feels incredible, almost narcotic-like yet the complete opposite of impared. You are aware of everything you need to be. This man has used slingshots for so many decades he can comfortably relax into "the zone" & let his subconscious do most of the work while he focuses on the target. He is absolutely incredible & I'm really happy this news team took the initiative to find & record this man for posterity.
Not really. This is called intuitive aiming and some people can just do it better than most. When I was a kid, I just sort of figured out that I was crazy accurate with rubber bands. I would shoot flies that got into the house, make little targets for myself, that kind of thing. Never once did I practice. Being in the zone is just being in the zone. You don't know it until you've felt it and it's really hard to describe to other people. X-factor, pizazz, brain fire, and a whole slew of other names are getting at the same hard-to-describe feel.
I grew up about an hour away from this man. My grandpa and I drove down to his house, had to be about 1986-87. My grandpa must have seen him on this show or Carson. He bought me and himself a beanshooter. I still have it. Serial # 6413.
Amazing shooter.....no one would even attempt doing accuracy shots using rocks instead of the perfectly round ammo we have today. Very inspirational to watch him do his magic.
I just love this good ol' boy. Nice and gentlemanly, not a real braggart. Even more amazing is how his rig is simply the fork out of a tree, not a more sophisticated Wrist Rocket. Plus, he is simply using irregular shaped rocks for ammo. I feel sorry for anyone who attempts to pull off a home invasion were he at home. I'm sorry to hear that Rufus is gone now, though. I hoist my beer to the old boy.
I have no idea how I got here, but it reminds me of my childhood. We used to search out the perfect branch, cut a slit on both top sides, use old inner tubes for the rubber and an old piece of belt for the pocket to put stones in. I could hit nearly everything ...lots of practice with an endless supply of rocks!
In his first shot you can well see how Rufus Turned The Pouch with his thumb nail facing the ground. I credit my friend Ryan for discovering this important fact for accurate safe shooting. The fellow doing the interview says that Rufus does not aim the sling shot.
He inspired me to take up my own beanshooter. Got a ways to go before I could pick off a quarter, but I do all right keeping the crows and the squirrels out of the garden.
@a1seus lol I do believe you are correct, that was about as much fun as they could have back then , lol hoop and stick , I had to ask my grandpa about that
Legend is that the dog at the end is a dog that he accidentally killed, thinking it was a coyote trying to kill his family's chickens, when he was a kid. Every time he's been videoed it shows up somewhere in the footage.
It was by the blood of patriots the Constitution was formed and if necessary it will be by the blood of patriots it will be defended. Think 2nd Amendment.
Or cut you a branch and make one. I make them out of branches, melted and formed plastic, glued-up thin plywood, all sorts of hardwoods.... it’s almost as fun as shooting them. Give it a try, or buy one if you must (I do that, too)
When I was a kid my older brother and I would find an old inner tube for the rubber and also to make a rubber band to hold the rubber on the wood fork. We would take an old razor blade put tape on one side so we wouldn’t cut ourselves and cut the inner tube into the strips we needed. We would go out the the hills and find the fork on a branch cut it and clean it up. Then we would find an old leather shoe and cut out the tongue and use it to make the pouch to hold the rock. We shot just about anything that would move hahaha. I recall one time my brother even killed a fish in shallow water with it. That was what seems like another lifetime ago.
Seriously, anyone have an explanation of how he can hit with such precision without aiming? The physics seems to lack a significant variable. Pretty incredible. more imressive than sniper records.
He can feel the tensile force vector along the bands very precisely without looking, the eyes are then free to perform target acquisition without manual reference. His accurate kinesthetic sense was further developed as a childhood survival mechanism.
I had a buddy i use to shoot. 22s with you could flip a aspirin in the air and he could hit it. He always told me to point not aim!! But that was back when 22 shell's were 50cents a box
Great interview, i like hearing about colorful characters, I used to shoot pool and heard stories and once seen an old interview of a guy named Utly puckett of fort worth tx. Crazy how these folks come from humble beginnings and made it this long into a quite sordid society
