Black Palm thunder(USA)

DanKung Black Palm Thunder

The DanKung Palm Thunder has been in production for a few years now and has been mentioned many times on the various slingshot forums. As a fan of small frames, I finally had to have a Palm Thunder of my own. A few email exchanges with Tim at DanKung brought quick responses with pictures and/or detailed answers to all my questions. This type of customer service helped remove my fear with an overseas transaction. In 16 days (only 12 shipping days), the small slingshot was in my hands in Canada. I’m amazed at the shipping speed but I definitely don’t expect this type of postal cooperation on every order, especially for such as a low shipping fee.

This is not my first experience with Chinese style slingshots. A few years ago I purchased the stainless steel Bat-1 and the Terminator. After that I bought a General II and Fox Hunting from DanKung. All of these frames turned out to be enjoyable additions to my collection. I found them to be well made, pocket-able, and accurate to shoot. These four frames have the polished mirror finish rather than the “black” finish found on my Palm Thunder (PT). The PT is also available in the polished mirror finish but I wanted a less shiny frame for outdoor shooting on sunny days. My previous experience with the polished frames was good but I found an annoying glare from the forks when shooting with the bright sun behind me. On some days this caused a bit of a challenge when aiming. A piece of tape or a short length of shrink tubing would have cured the problem but a black frame sounded like a better alternative and a good enough reason to order a new frame.

Design & Construction
“Dankung develops and produces many slingshots by collecting and exchanging ideas from slingshot enthusiasts around the globe. Making simple and functional state-of-the-art slingshots is their goal.” The Palm Thunder is one of their frames that happens to be a design from a slingshot fan in the USA.

The Palm Thunder shares the typical Chinese slingshot design with the rounded metallic frame, looped fork tips, and pinky-hole grip. It’s a smallish frame in comparison to many of the models sold through the DanKung web site.

The Palm Thunder frame is cast 304 stainless steel, although it does have the appearance of a traditional bent wire construction. The forks loops are rounded on the tops rather than having the dished contour as found on the Bat and Terminator designs. The forks on the PT run parallel instead of sloping slightly outwards like many of the other metal frame designs. The top of the grip has a narrow 5/8” wasp waist that allows a good finger wrap for short fingered shooters. The top of the grip also has an integrated cross piece that joins both sides together for further strength. The grip balloons out near the bottom to help fill your hand and produce an adequate size pinky-hole that can be wrapped with paracord or rubber and still leave enough clearance for your pinky finger. My black Palm Thunder arrived with black rubber fork sleeves and a black paracord wrap on the grip (no lanyard). The top part of the wrap came down a bit too low and didn’t leave quite enough room for my pinky. I untied the cord, re-wrapped and ended up with a perfect pinky hole that fits my finger with comfortable clearance.

The polished version of the Palm Thunder has the typical mirror shine and paracord grip wrapping as many other DanKung models. The solidness of stainless steel, small size, the shine, and reasonable prices were what first attracted me to these frame styles. As mentioned above, I opted for the “black” Palm Thunder version for this purchase. In pictures, the black colour may appear to be a coating but DanKung refers to it as a “special surface process technique” that does not wear off. The special surface polish gives the PT an appearance of a “bronze-age weapon”. The process used on the metal does a fine job of preventing the glare that can sometimes be a problem with the mirror polished frames. My PT is getting close to two years old, has seen many thousands of shots and the metal surface hasn’t changed in appearance at all.

The metal surface on the “black Palm Thunder” looks more like a dark grey colour than black. Under magnification I noticed that the metal is covered with tiny pock marks. These tiny pocks are not very noticeable to the naked eye and do not have any sharp edges to wear the rubber tubes. This texture is just a result of not polishing the metal to a glaring shine. Under magnification my high polished frames look like a mirror, which you may or may not find to be a desirable characteristic.

Measurements (bare frame)
Overall length = 4.6” (117 mm)
Width across frame at fork loops = 3.33” (84.5 mm)
Width between forks = 1.46” (37 mm)
Fork loop outside diameter = 0.94 (24 mm)
Fork loop inside diameter = 0.49” (12.5 mm)
Width at top of handle = .65” (16.5 mm)
Width on outside of grip = 1.28” (32.5 mm)
Width on inside of grip = .74” (19 mm)
Frame thickness = .27” (7 mm)
Total weight with wraps and tubes = 4.2 oz (120 g)

Tubes & Flatbands
The Palm Thunder came equipped with double 1745 tubes measuring only 5.0” from pouch end to fork. The black leather pouch measures 1” x 2 3/4” and comes with two holes per side. The short tubes were not long enough for my shooting style but they were easily converted to a useful single strand set.

The PT will accommodate the thin Malaysian tubes, the thicker Theraband style tubes, flatbands, and solids. The skinny Malaysian tubes can be shot single strand on each side, full doubles, or even in a pseudo taper style (partial doubles). I’m mainly a skinny tube shooter when it comes to the Chinese style frames. Full doubles or singles seem to work best for me. One of my favourite combinations is single 1745s measuring 6 ½” -7” long with ¾” to 1” loops at the forks. With 3/8” steel ammo this combination delivers 190-200 fps with a 32” draw length.

Overall Opinion
The Palm Thunder is a fun slingshot that fits well in the back pocket of a pair of blue jeans. The frame seems to be the perfect size for my hand. Shooting is comfortable with the thumb on the lower fork ring, index finger just below the upper ring and pinky in the grip hole.

The frame is now set up with 7” single 1745s that toss a 3/8” steel ball at 195 fps with my 32” draw length. The approx 3 ¼” fork width allows me to aim at the target using the junction point of the tube and fork while anchoring on the inside of my ear for 10 yard hits (sideways shooting). With this tube arrangement and shooting style I don’t seem to get the dreaded hand slaps that sometimes plague me with some of my wooden designs. Accuracy is good with the PT and it’s a fun little frame to shoot. When shooting the PT from 28’ I can smack a plastic golf ball with regularity. At 20 yards the target is a regular pop can. The Palm Thunder is a keeper!