Awesome.
When I was 11/12 we had phase of making Chinese arrows out of 12 inch lengths of dowel.
Bloody lethal.
Heh, I used to do that, with any straight stick available, usually with nails stuck in the end…
Used to go mud-twanging too, a mate lived near a sloping field which had a layer of thick blue clay at the top, and a line of trees with an old pig-sty hidden inside, bordering the main London-Bristol railway line.
We’d find long, sturdy sticks, which were fairly bendy, put big lumps of nice thick clay on the end and hurl them at each other from hiding places. Not much fun if you got hit, but the loud bang from a kilo of clay hitting the tin roof of the sty was very satisfying. Ninja raids with smaller sticks and plum-sized lumps of clay were carried out, too; those bloody stung if you got one in the head!
Trains pulling out towards Bristol were considered fair game for small blobs of clay, they made a satisfying splat on the windows if you were lucky… 😉