Before the first shot

Eye protection with a slingshot

A slingshot sends a steel ball off at the speed of a thrown stone, and the nearest thing to the pouch is the face of the person holding the frame.

Source on this page

American Academy of Ophthalmology: Sports Eye Safety

Read 12 September 2026. Quoted word for word below. This page is general safety information, not medical advice. An eye injury is a job for a doctor the same day.

Eyewear comes before the first shot

Every kit here is a projectile launcher, whatever the packaging calls it. A band can snap, a pouch can slip, and a ball can come back off a hard target. The American Academy of Ophthalmology puts the case for eyewear plainly:

“The good news is that most serious eye injuries could be prevented by wearing appropriate protective eyewear.”
American Academy of Ophthalmology, Sports Eye Safety, read 12 September 2026

Protective eyewear is not part of any box in this range. It is a separate purchase, and it belongs in the same bag as the frame.

Ordinary glasses are not protection

This is the part people get wrong, because glasses feel like a shield and sit in exactly the right place. The Academy is blunt about it:

“Regular eyeglasses do not offer proper eye protection and, in some cases, can make an injury worse if they shatter.”
American Academy of Ophthalmology, Sports Eye Safety, read 12 September 2026

Polycarbonate lenses in a wrap frame rated for impact are the thing to look for. Reading glasses and sunglasses are not.

Slingshots

The frames in the range

All slingshots

Wrist Slingshot with Flashlight

Wrist-braced frame with steel ammo

6 launching bands
Removable flashlight

4.2 from 1561 ratings

$24.85

Choose a Pack on Amazon

Wrist Slingshot with Flashlight, Black

Wrist-braced frame with steel ammo

6 launching bands
Removable flashlight

4.2 from 1190 ratings

$25.85

Choose a Pack on Amazon

Where these injuries come from

Eye injuries are a sports story more than a firearms story, and air powered toys sit in the middle of the list:

“One study found that basketball was the leading cause of sports-related eye injuries in the United States, followed by baseball, softball, airsoft rifles, pellet guns, racquetball, and hockey.”
American Academy of Ophthalmology, Sports Eye Safety, read 12 September 2026

Two of the seven causes in that sentence are projectile toys. A slingshot belongs with them, and so does the caution.

Before each shot

Look at the band before you load anything. Latex perishes long before the frame does: it goes tacky, then chalky, then it lets go at the pouch knot while you are drawing it. That is why the bands in this range are sold on their own, and why a frame outlives several sets.

Check what you have behind the target as well as the target itself. Steel ammunition ricochets off wood, brick and metal, and the rebound goes back along the line you were standing on. You want a backstop that absorbs rather than bounces, and you want nobody standing level with the pouch.

Bands