The reason I included the sling bow as an option was price as well as general functionality. You are right that the rubber tubing has a limited and unpredictable lifespan, however the learning curve can be useful when it comes time to use an actual bow and arrow. Especially for instinctive shooting, which is how I take 10-20 yard shots.

Most SHTF scenarios are short term with a max of 4 weeks. Hurricane, tornado or other natural disaster. In that situation, even short term economic collapse, the sling bow is light, portable, fairly concealable and most of all inexpensive.

In a long term, Situation X deal. It can still be handy while out and about and not necessarily hunting but tending to a target of opportunity in hunting. Deer would be the largest animal I would try to take with it and I know that I will have wasted meat unless I smoke it and use it for barter, since it is just me. However my deer hunting would be for bones, leather and sinew more than meat in the first place. The arrow portion steps you up from just squirrels and rabbits to groundhogs and raccoons.

It does one other thing exceptionally well in a long term situation. It is a functional hunting weapon while you are constructing a proper longbow. Sure, you could make a bundle bow fairly quickly out of natural material or even modern tent poles and duct tape. But you still have to carry that around in addition to other gear if you are having to hoof it out of Dodge. And it is a lot less suspicious and hands free with a slight bulge in a cargo pocket than a bow slung over your shoulder or carried in your hand.

When the rubber tube does break: you still have a small leather patch, a partial rubber tube for a straw or small cordage and nice piece of steel that can be heated, re-bent and then sharpened into a two pronged spear point for example or a variety of other uses.

Most people seem to forget what I said earlier in this thread. The more moving parts in your weapon, the more things that can break and the harder it will be to fix which which are probably the most important factors in a SHTF scenario. An airgun especially should be out of the question imo because of both of those points plus the fact that you cannot fashion your own ammo as easily as you can with a bow or crossbow. Then it comes down to crossbow versus bow. Between these 2, physical strength is another factor to consider. Most people would have a rather hard time shooting a 100+ lb longbow compared to a similiar draw crossbow. A crossbow is also far easier to transport in most cases. However, the bow has it's own advanted in it's rate of fire. If you're hunting anything that can fight back, that rate of fire could save your life if you missed the first shot.

true but if you were injured or something than it would be hard to use bow or crossbow, also the most powerful bow i can shoot is eighty pounds, and when it comes to a crossbow i can probably load twohundred pounds, and you cant put a scope on a bow.lol.

i just got tubing for my slingshot and moded it for arrows... omfg it is soo friggin awsome.. im goin huntin with this thing.

because i use insulation in the silencer chambers to absorb the noise and i am afraid that if i put it on a .22lr that the insulation will burn,, i have not tried it but maby i will give it a try tomoro and see what happens, asfor the air gun that shoots arrows, i have one, its just a ball vaulve on a 2 inch pvc pipe with a bike tire vaulve, and a barrel and a wad to propel the arrow out, its neat but is long, i gota fill it with air which takes like 50 pumpsfrom a bike pump or air from aircompressor, witch i would need with me, but it does have power.

i tried that with an old .22 pellet gun, it was only about 650fps, but still the dart didnt have mutch energy, and it tumbled in the air becayse i coodent have fletchings of fins to stabilize it, that wood be kool if some one found a vid or a link explaining how to do it better, i also have messed arround with home mede ballistic knives, i went to home depot and got everything i needed for it.. it was bassically a home made blade with a round handle that fit in a pipe with a spring at the end,it had a screw in the handle of the blade that when loaded would hang up on the pipe and when released it would fly about 20yards it would mess someone up if you shot them with it, and with a under hand toss action it will penitrate all the way through 3/8in. ply wood, problem is it is almost imposable to hit anything, i coodent hit a deer with it, not even at four yards.