The Slick Shot: Making the Big Shot Easier to Use

The Notch Slick Shot [BF1.1] is a new trigger attachment that makes the Big Shot throw-weight launcher easier to load and adjust, use after use. The attachment combines a moving trigger with a webbing system that uses mechanical advantage to reduce loading effort for busy arborists who set line after line.

Anyone who has used the Big Shot to place lines in the canopy knows how straightforward it is: You draw down the loaded pouch, aim, and launch the throw weight and throwline into the canopy. But then you do it again. And again. Over repeated shots, that loading effort adds up.

“The Slick Shot is a new way to address that concern,” says Kris Huff, director of products for Notch Equipment. “We think arborists will love it.”

In the beginning, there was the Big Shot

The original Big Shot came to life in the mid-1990s. That’s when Tobe Sherrill started climbing trees to better understand the gear he sold through SherrillTree, the tree-care supply business that would later launch Notch Equipment. He soon faced a familiar challenge: getting a throw weight through a narrow opening high in a tree.

Sherrill knew arborists had tried slingshots and even crossbows to reach the canopy, and now he could see why. Then inspiration struck. While helping pack customer orders, he reached for a Jameson wire raiser—a metal hook that snapped into a pole ferrule—and saw another use for those poles.

“The idea just popped into my head,” Sherrill says now. “I knew immediately what to do.”

He developed a slingshot head that snapped onto poles many arborists already owned. Finding rubber tubing with the right thickness and length took more work. He tested tubing of different thicknesses at the football field at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, launching throw weights across the field to see how far they would travel and how the tubing would respond. He soon made his decision, and the Big Shot was official.

Sherrill remembers taking the first 100 Big Shots to a trade show in Baltimore around 1997. He sold every one. Nearly three decades later, the Big Shot’s basic design remains mostly unchanged.

Getting more control with the Big Shot Trigger

Around 2017, Notch introduced the Big Shot Trigger, which made the system easier to use because it held the loaded pouch in place. Arborists could take their time lining up a shot without having to maintain the draw. And they could simply pull the trigger to release the pouch.

Those ideas reached Notch through its customer service, sales, and product development teams, and through conversations with arborists in the field.

“Arborists love to tell us what they think we could do better,” Heanssler says. “And we listen to what they say about their experiences.” Over time, the team had a clear list of improvements to pursue: less effort to load, easier adjustment, and a trigger that felt better in the hand.

How Slick Shot makes loading the Big Shot easier

With the Slick Shot, the trigger slides up the pole to meet the pouch. The user connects the pouch to the trigger, then pulls down on the webbing. Mechanical advantage reduces the effort of drawing the pouch down the pole. A progress-capture cam grips the webbing to hold the tension when the user stops pulling.

Arborists can then add tension without unloading and repositioning a fixed trigger. The moving trigger also passes over the ferrules that connect pole sections, accommodating the sectional poles many arborists favor for transport.

The team also worked on how the safety and trigger feel in use, making them more comfortable to operate.

Perhaps best of all, Notch designed the Slick Shot to work with existing Big Shot fiberglass pole systems—so arborists don’t need to buy a whole new unit.

Perhaps best of all, Notch designed the Slick Shot to work with existing Big Shot fiberglass pole systems—so arborists don’t need to buy a whole new unit.

When longtime Big Shot users try the Slick Shot, Huff hopes the response is, “Oh, yeah. This is better.”

Time and testing get the details right

Making that experience straightforward has taken more than four years of design and development. The goals were simple but challenging: The trigger needed to move over pole connections. The lower attachment needed to be durable and easy to set up. The cam and webbing needed to work reliably together under load.

Dante Coco, a product developer on the research and development team, joined the project in its later stages and focused on refining the progress-capture cam. This meant working with field testers—working arborists—to refine the system and make sure it could hold and release consistently. As testers shared their feedback and experiences with the system, Coco revisited the cam-tooth profile, refining the combination of tooth shape, webbing material, and weave to improve the system.

“This really is a product developed from the hands and feedback of real arborists,” says Coco.

A foundation for the future

For Big Shot owners, the Slick Shot difference is practical: less loading effort, easier adjustment, and more comfortable operation. By refining a tool you already know, Slick Shot leaves you with more energy and attention for the line you’re trying to set.

Solving real problems for arborists is a practice Sherrill established with the first Big Shot—and one that’s built into Notch’s DNA.

“With input from the field, we saw a better way to do something,” Heanssler says. “And that’s always what we want to provide.”

Frequently asked questions