Ivan has been making slingshots, shooting slingshots, hunting with slingshots, and teaching others how to shoot slingshots all of his life. There are a couple of stories of his early experiences with slingshots under the new feature, Flatbanders Corner.

Ivan lives in Rock Falls, Illinois close to the Rock River where he has spent many hours during what is known in Archery as "stump shooting". This is a type of shooting where you practice by shooting at leaves and twigs floating in the water, cans laying along the bank, and other types of small targets. This helped Ivan to develop his shooting skills that place him at the top of slingshot shooters.

Ivan is a member of that dedicated group of slingshot shooters known as, Flatbanders. This group prefers to shoot slingshots using only flat bands or straps on their slingshots. It works for them because at least two of these shooters are among the top shooters in the country at this time. They use a variety of straps from rubber bands to sheets of rubber that they cut out their own straps. Ivan is also using the flat surgical straps that hospitals and doctors use to take blood samples.

Whenever Ivan is out along the canal, Rock River or in the woods shooting his slingshot he is also keeping an eye out for slingshot forks. If he finds one that is not quite big enough he will mark it will a piece of cloth or something so he can harvest it when it is ready. He makes his slingshots out of any kind of wood that has a good fork. Lately Ivan has made me several slingshots out of mulberry and box elder.

For years Ivan has been giving his slingshots to people at work and church. He also teaches them how to shoot a slingshot and gives them ball bearings to shoot. It would be impossible to count the number of people he has taught or the amount of enjoyment made possible through his efforts.

Ivan has participated in the slingshot tournaments at Dixon, Toulon, and Multi-Lakes. He is always in the top shooters and has won several events at each tournament.

In 1989 and 1990, Ivan hosted his own slingshot tournament during his church's school fundraiser. This proved to be quite successful, but came at a time when it was hard for him to take time off from work. Then in 1997, Ivan held a fun shoot during the church's annual Father and Son celebration.

Over the years Blue Skeen and Ivan have become close friends as they engaged in friendly but serious completion, exchanged flat band materials, given each other some of their handcrafted slingshots, and shared stories about their slingshot experiences.

Ivan's Slingshot Tournament Wins:

WSDR INTERNATIONAL SLINGSHOT TOURNAMENT

1980: 3^rd Men's
1981: 2^nd Men's, 1^st Coonskin Cap
1982: 1^st Men's, 1^st Silhouette
1983: 1^st NCA, 1^st Coonskin Cap

SUMMER NATIONALS SLINGSHOT TOURNAMENT

1981: 2^nd Ill Men
1982: 2^nd Ill Men
1983: 2^nd Ill Men
1984: 2^nd Standard Round
1985: 1^st Class B, 5^th Standard Round
1986: 1^st Class B, 2^nd Speed Shoot, 1^st Hillbilly Shoot
1987: 3^rd Class A

MULTI-LAKES WINTER NATIONALS SLINGSHOT TOURNAMENT