SAFETY

• Slingshots are NOT A TOY! Children need to be supervised when using a catapult / slingshot, especially but not limited to, the rifle type

• Always wear eye protection, safety glasses are highly recommended.

• Inspect all parts of the catapult / slinsghot before each shot for signs of wear or damage. Do not use until any part that has been damaged has been replaced.

• Beware of the possibility of ricochets, look first! especially if shooting around hard surfaces.

• Be aware of your space limits – where will a miss end up?

• Do NOT hunt with stones (see below)

The Law. (UK BASED – NOTE No wrist braced slings in Germany, total ban in Holland.) 

Slingshots or catapults are ‘toys’ and only classed as offensive weapons by ill use or bad location. The Offensive Weapons Act 1996 says, “any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him (or some other person)”

There is not yet, any restrictive legislation in the UK. To help keep it that way, only use on private land, get permission from landowners to shoot on their property. Only shoot appropriate vermin species or game in season. Make a safe catch box in the garden and make sure the angle of shot has safety backing.

The law on hunting with a catapult can only be inferred from that to do with all field sports. With the major given that stones or pebbles are utterly forbidden to use to hunt with, as that constitutes ‘stoning an animal to death’ and is specifically mentioned in the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996. That it had to do with hurling rocks rather than shooting pebbles is irrelevant. DO NOT HUNT WITH STONES.

Catapults can take small game at reasonable distances, provided the user is skilled enough and the catapult itself along with the projectile, is suitable, just like the law says about airguns.

The quote below is taken from a publication on www.parliament.uk.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations she has received on the use of catapults as offensive weapons; and if she will make a statement. [255843]

Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 10 February 2009]: The Home Office has received both public and ministerial correspondence on the use of catapults as offensive weapons. The law is clear that if someone is carrying a catapult with intent to cause injury he may be liable to prosecution under section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 which makes it an offence to carry an offensive weapon in public without lawful authority or reasonable excuse.
The above means that Catapults were not added to the offensive weapons list and it falls down to the intent of the individual and scenario to determine if the catapult in question is an offensive weapon, although this doesn’t mean that police officers will not default to the Prevention of Crime Act 1953.

This from DEFRA, a summary of the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996.
This Act makes it an offence for any person to mutilate, kick, beat, nail or otherwise impale, stab, burn, stone, crush, drown, drag or asphyxiate any wild mammal with intent to inflict unnecessary suffering.

Exemptions apply when:
A) the attempted killing of any such wild mammal as an act of mercy if he shows that the mammal had been so seriously disabled otherwise than by his unlawful act that there was no reasonable chance of its recovering;
B) the killing in a reasonably swift and humane manner of any such wild mammal if he shows that the wild mammal had been injured or taken in the course of either lawful shooting, hunting, coursing or pest control activity;
C) doing anything which is authorised by or under any enactment;
D) any act made unlawful by section 1 if the act was done by means of any snare, trap, dog, or bird lawfully used for the purpose of killing or taking any wild mammal; or
E) the lawful use of any poisonous or noxious substance on any wild mammal.

A “wild mammal” means any mammal which is not a domestic or captive animal within the meaning of the Protection of Animals Act 1911 or the Protection of Animals (Scotland) Act 1912.
A person guilty of an offence under this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both. Additionally, provided that where the offence was committed in respect of more than one wild mammal, the maximum fine which may be imposed shall be determined as if the person had been convicted of a separate offence in respect of each such wild mammal.