Pocketshot vs Black Widow vs Weirhauch HW45 - Slingshot or Air Pistol for Survival?

Hello there, welcome back. Before this video properly starts, I just want to kind of explain that I'm not actually going to be reviewing any of these particular things that I'm going to show you in this video. This is purely looking at them from a survival tool point of view. How useful they are and whether I would actually include any of them in a bug out bag or something like that. So with that in mind, here's the video. In this video I'm going to be taking a look at three different tools for a bug out or survival sort of situation. Now there's a nation of videos on YouTube of people packing a bug out bag and they explain why they take certain items. They're going to be different depending on which sort of environment you want to be bugging out or surviving in. But in this video I'm purely just going to be looking at tools to help you harvest food. Well, tools according to the manufacturers that are going to help you to shoot rabbits, pigeons, etc, etc. Now the first of those things is a Barnett Black Widow catapult. I think everybody I know that lives in the country had one of these at some point. And there'll be hundreds of people now watching this saying, I had one of those when I was a kid. Well, I've got one now. I had one when I was a kid as well. I also had the Diablo, which I didn't like as much as the Black Widow. I'm sure if you've had any sort of catapults this is the one you would have started with. Reasonably powerful, but is it accurate enough to actually shoot some dinner? Now the second thing we're going to be taking a look at is that, which does indeed look like a, but this is actually called a pocket shot. This is a US made official pocket shot. It's got a cap which comes off, it's got like a ring that you hold and it's got a latex pouch and into that pouch you drop a ball bearing. You grab a hold of it just above the ball bearing so that you're not actually squeezing where the bearing is. Pull back and release. And this might look stupid, it might sound very loud as well, but it sends out that ball bearing at an incredible speed. Now you're probably thinking this isn't really comparable to the Black Widow because this hasn't got any sort of handle or wrist brace. That's the Black Widow, handle, wrist brace, pocket shot, none of the above. Well, the purposes of testing properly, the full kit, I bought myself something called the Hammer, which is a handle with a wrist brace, specifically designed for the pocket shot. And what that does, it gives you more control. It allows you to hold it steady, either standard or gangster, or how I hold it, which is about 45 degrees. I can't get away with holding it straight. I can't get away with holding it at a 90 degree angle. I tend to just hold it at a 45 degree angle. I find that works best for me. So that's reasonably comparable, apart from the fact that the actual latex rubber is entirely different. Totally different system. Same sort of handle, same sort of wrist brace. So it should be as accurate. Pocket Shot is available with various pouches. That's a standard pouch, which is black. You've got a pro pouch, which is blue. And you've got something called an arrow pouch, which is like a reddish orange colour. I'm only going to be using it with the standard pouch. If you want to see people using other pouches with this particular thing, just click the related videos that come up down the side of this video. I'm sure there'll be some from Pocket Shot themselves, and also from the people who they've sent Pocket Shots to, to test. I bought this. This has not been sent to me. I bought the Black Widow. That has not been sent to me. And I bought the next thing, at considerable cost. That has not been sent to me. That is an HW-45 from a company called Viroc, which is a German company, and that is a 177 air pistol, Weihrauch Kocken. The reason it's called a 45 is it's like a homage to the Colt 1911 .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol. Obviously, this is just single shot air pistol, but it looks quite similar. Now the only modification I've made to this particular air pistol is I've changed the walnut wooden grips that go down the side to a Hogue rubber grip which wraps around and that gives me a much more comfortable hold on this particular air pistol. This is just below the legal limit at approximately 6 feet pounds which doesn't sound like much but in the 177 calibre that will send the pellet out at roughly 600 feet per second which is very fast. Now you've got to take the ammo into account as well. This little tin has got 500 177 air pellets in. Try fitting 500 ball bearings into that space. It's just not going to happen. Now with these catapults, you've got the convenience of using small stones and other ammunition in here. With the air pistol, you're kind of limited to using air pellets. How accurate little stones out the bottom of a riverbed are going to be out of these is anybody's guess. As far as I'm concerned, any sort of consistency is only going to be got from using ball bearings with these two fellas. Right, I'm going to get a long range shot from where I'm standing. To where I'm shooting to, just to give you some idea of the distance. The distance is roughly 7.5 metres, approximately 25 feet. Now all three of these potential survival tools that we'll be testing today will be shooting at the same type of target, which is roughly 5 inches square with a little squirrel on it. Sellotaped to the front of my steel air rifle target thing there. Let's see how we get on. Okay, first up, we've got the Barnett Black Widow catapult. We're going to be shooting 10mm stainless steel balls. Now, each of the things we're testing are going to have 10 shots, only 10 shots. We've got four that hit that 5 inch by 5 inch square target. One, two, three, four. That is not very good at all. Now, when I show you the state of that steel target, you'll see that it's got enough power. It's easily going to drop a rabbit if you hit it in the right place. Accuracy is a big issue. Okay, next lot of 10 shots will be with a pocket shot with a standard pouch with the hammer handle attachment, which also has a wrist brace. That makes it as near as possible to the Black Widow. There was one fairly accurate shot, which was that one. We've got two at the top here, that one just glanced the paper, that one went through, just went through the top of the paper, and then that one got the squirrel at his feet. Again, only four shots within that 5x5 square, which is not very good. Okay, final test, Weihrauch HW45 177 air pistol. Now this is going to be shooting by far the smallest projectiles, but they are going to go the fastest. The catapults are roughly 250 to 300 feet per second, shooting the either 9.5 or 10 mil ball. I think it's a 10 mil ball. That's still pretty fast, and you've got a lot of weight there as well, so it's got a lot of destructive power. That there is the 177 pellet. Absolutely tiny, but that's going to be moving at approximately 600 feet per second, which is very fast. So here we go, 10 shots, same distance, using the HW45. All 10 not only got in the 5x5 square target, they also all hit the squirrel. Most of them clustered around here, which is pretty much just a kill shot. It's certainly going to drop it out of a tree. The rest of them are a disabling shot, but you're still probably going to get something to eat out of those shots. Hell of a lot more accurate. It obviously hasn't got the raw hitting power, but it's not all about power. It's about accuracy. Not sure if the camera's going to focus on that, but that is what's left of our air pellet. It's completely flattened. Obviously, it's made of lead, so it's a lot softer than the steel, but it's gone into there so fast, it's just created a lead pancake. Now, you need about three foot-pounds of muzzle energy to kill a fully-grown rabbit with a headshot. This has got six. Obviously, it's not going to have six when it hits the target. It's going to easily have enough to drop a full-size rabbit. All of those shots or within the kill zone at seven and a half meters roughly 25 feet. This is going to give you breakfast or lunch or an evening meal. Now there's obviously a cost to take into consideration as well. Barnett Black Widow with a couple of spare elastics was under 20 English pounds which is about 24, 25 dollars. That's the cheapest option. Next option was the pocket shot and it normally doesn't come with all this Stuff, I bought all that extra. pocket shot by itself with two standard pouches and two pro pouches which i think is what it should come with i'm not sure whether it does in america but certainly does in england where i got it from that was 24 or 25 english pounds this hammer thing had to be imported because as far as i know there's no english people actually making them that was a further 30 odd 40 pound or something so by the time you get all of that into consideration it's about 75 quid which is damned expensive this attachment on the bottom here is for a flashlight that would enable me to hunt at night this is the one i've had from a previous video uh it's by Oolite this actually comes as part of a lamp and kit it's a very good fitting very good lamp and kit i'll put the link to it in the video description that's an expensive setup considering the inaccuracy And the weight of all the projectiles that you've got to carry about. Now, I'm not impressed with either of these. Yes, they've got a lot of power. And if you're messing about with them for a long, long time, you can get fairly accurate at a reasonable distance. But in a survival situation, you literally might be getting one, possibly two shots when you go out hunting. You're not going to be constantly blasting shots off at a target. I would say go for the Barnett And the pocket shot people are going to absolutely want to crucify me for that. Okay, bonus test. Cheap Chinese copy of the pocket shot. 10 shots, 25 feet. Let's see how this does. Well, it did just as badly as the other two catapults. One, two, three, four. At best, our squirrel would have a broken tail. These things are not survival tools. It says they're not toys, and the power of them seems to indicate that they're not toys either. But really, the inaccuracy of them. Means, really, they're nothing more than toys, as far as I'm concerned. Just a little quick note on power versus accuracy, or power and accuracy. Power without accuracy is no use whatsoever. If you've got a static target and you've got to fling 10, 20 balls at it to hit it, the target's not just going to stay there and let you shoot it. After the first shot, chances are it's going to be away. That first shot has to count. That's where accuracy comes in. And it doesn't take much to drop a squirrel, a rabbit, a pigeon, any other similar sized game to eat. Accuracy is paramount. See we've got some real dents in here off those ball bearings. All the catapults have got a lot of power but the accuracy is atrocious. I just realized after I've shot the first part of the video explaining how much everything cost, I didn't tell you how much that was. I think it was around about 240 English pounds which is about Is that $300 or thereabouts, when I bought it? Pretty expensive, but if your life depended on it, I would rather spend $300 or 240 pounds to eat. Now, of course, you can get a wide range of air pistols much cheaper than that, but to me, this is the only one that I would consider bang up to the legal limit, very, very well made, and when I had one of these years ago, I must have put tens of thousands of pellets through it, and I think I only replaced the spring once. Lasted a hell of a long time, the power kept good for ages. That's what prompted me to get another one in my adulthood, and I haven't regretted it. Okay, we've got the accuracy, or lack thereof, tests out of the way. We'll have a summary. Barnett Black Widow catapult, cheap, just as inaccurate as any other catapult. I suppose it depends on the user, but for an average Joe like me, this is not accurate enough to hunt with. Powerful enough, certainly, to drop a rabbit at a reasonable range. Not accurate enough to do it humanely. I would not consider that to be a survival tool. Pocket shot with all the trimmings. I wouldn't consider that to be a survival tool either. It just simply isn't accurate enough. It's much more powerful than the Barnett. And in a moment, I'll show you just how long it takes a steel ball to get from here to the middle of the pond using the Black Widow and the Pocket Shot. You'll see it gets there a hell of a lot faster, but it just doesn't have the accuracy. Again, it's a nice thing to mess about with, but it's not a survival tool at all. I know the manufacturer of Pocket Shot is going to absolutely hate me for saying that, but you know, even if I'd had this slot sent for nothing, I still would have said exactly the same. I have to report things as I find them, and I've had this for a month, month and a half. I've used it every single day. I've ripped through loads of pouches and it just hasn't got the accuracy. I'm sorry, just not accurate enough to be of use in a survival situation at all. The last thing we looked at, pretty much the Rolls Royce of spring air pistols. HW45 from Weihrauch. This is what I would choose if I was making up some sort of bug out bag It's compact, it's powerful, It's very accurate with a little bit of practice. Certainly you don't need as much practice to get very, very accurate with this as you do to get a little bit more accurate with any catapult. That is gonna be able to hunt your squirrels, rabbits, pigeons, other small game at sensible distances. As with all hunting, it relies on the skill of the hunter, not necessarily the tool that the hunter's using. So bear that in mind. If you've never hunted anything before and you go out expecting to find food in a survival situation, you're probably going to starve to death. If you've got the capability to know where the animal is going to be at certain times of the day, where it breeds, where it feeds, how to get close to it, you're going to eat. That's going to help you. That is a very good survival tool. And I know there'll be a lot of people in America saying, oh, I'll just take a .22 pistol. In the UK, we don't have that option, unfortunately. We're kind of limited. Wait, wait, very limited in the firearms that we can get. We can get rifles, we can get shotguns, we can get reasonably large calibre rifles as well in single shot bolt action. But we certainly haven't got the choice that you fellas in the US have got. If we don't want to carry an air rifle or a full-size rifle around, That's as good as we're going to get, believe it or not. There's probably a load of people in America laughing at me now, carrying an air pistol around, but it's a useful tool, a very useful tool, accurate, powerful enough, and it's certainly going to outperform any catapult in the hands of pretty much anybody. If you want to hunt at night, that's a tiny little flashlight which recharges using a USB. And in another video, which I'll put the link to in the video description, I'll show you how I attach that to my air pistol to enable me to hunt at night. Not that I do hunt at night, but if I did want to hunt at night, this little fella on the bottom of here gives me that capability. Okay, where are we? That is where we're going to be aiming for, just in front of that little platform there. First up, Barnett Black Widow Catapult. 10mm stainless steel ball, roughly 35 yards. Although, that's probably nearer 40 yards at the end of the pond there. It's a good distance. You'll not see it on the film there, but that just went . Real arc. Didn't travel very straight at all. Next one, pocket shot, standard pouch. That flew a hell of a lot straighter, and it got there much quicker. Now, in the name of science, we'll use a fake pocket shot with the standard, really badly made, crappy, ordinary pouch. Under two pounds delivered from China. Let's see how quick the ball gets there from this one. I would say that was somewhere in between the pocket shot and the Black Widow. And lastly, HW45 .177 pellet. The pellet from this got there so much faster at short ranges which you're going to be hunting at. So much more accurate, so much more deadly, so much more useful. Hope you've enjoyed this video. If you have, hit the thumbs up, share it anywhere you want, and I shall see you next time. Thanks very much for watching. That got there unbelievably fast compared to those slingshots or catapults or whatever the hell you want to call them. So much more accurate, so much more deadly. That was quite deadly as well. I think I'll cut that bit out. Now if you're still watching this, you're going to be in for a treat because I'm actually going to give the Black Widow away. And I'm going to give the pocket shot away with the hammer handle and the wrist brace and all the spare pouches I've got. I think I've got about six spare pouches. That's worth a hell of a lot of money. I'll be doing that secretly in a video coming up in the next six months or so. So watch closely and you'll be in with a chance to win. Thanks very much for watching. See you next time.