The Carolina Slingshot Man
Russ Chastain 04.16.19
This video is a little different, and chances are you’ll love it for that. It’s an old episode of a show called Carolina Camera, featuring an old country boy named Rufus Hussey, whose claim to “fame” is his ability to make and shoot slingshots like a champ.
This video was made when he was 65, which would’ve been 1984. He would live another decade before passing away in February 1994.
Rufus calls himself “The Bean Shooter Man,” without much bluster. He’s a man who knows his own abilities and would rather show what he can do than talk about it. He can toss a can (or a walnut, or even a quarter) into the air and shoot it with his slingshot while it’s still up there. Not bad at all… and while his skill may not be seen as terribly practical these days, when he learned it at age 10, it was a matter of survival for his family.
Rufus turned 10 in 1929, when times were tough for most Americans. In a family of 13 with only one shotgun between them all, for Rufus to contribute he needed to find another way to slay his prey, which were mostly rabbits.
He definitely became skilled, and in 1952 he began making and selling slingshots and demonstrating what could be done with them to “revive the art.” In the video, he shoots Japanese beetles off of plants without hurting the leaves and cut weeds in two, predicting which way they will fall.
He made his own slingshots using forks from dogwood trees. He makes one for the camera crew: number 4,156!
He certainly seems to be the best of his time, but when asked he just says, “I’ve not been challenged lately… I’ll let you decide that.”
Something tells me Rufus Hussey would have made a really good survivalist.
