Bullseye slingshot
The Bullseye slingshot is a custom aluminum weapon owned by Bill Denbrough, given to him for his birthday the year before the summer of 1958. Its instruction booklet claims that "in the right hands, your Bullseye Slingshot is as deadly and effective as a good ash bow or a high-powered firearm," and warns that the owner should no more aim one of the twenty ball-bearing slugs which came with it at a person than he would aim a loaded pistol at a person. Bill is not very good at it yet, but the booklet's caution seems merited: the slingshot's thick elastic has a hard pull, and when you hit a tin can with it, it makes one hell of a hole. After much practice in Derry Park, Bill can hit the paper target which also came with the slingshot maybe three times out of every ten tries, and once he got a bullseye. Almost.
The Decision to Use Slugs Instead of Bullets
After the confrontation at 29 Neibolt Street, where Bill's father's Walther pistol failed to stop the werewolf, the Losers' Club reconsidered their strategy. Bill, Richie, and Ben had spent heavy library time researching how to make silver bullets, and Ben had the silver: four silver dollars that were his father's. But Bill got nervous, thinking about what kind of shape they'd be in if they had a misfire with some kind of monster coming down their throats. When they saw how good Beverly was with the slingshot, they ended up using one of the silver dollars to make slugs instead. The decision was made that Beverly would be the one carrying the Bullseye, and no one suggested that a silver slug might not stop a monster; they had the weight of what seemed like a thousand horror movies on their side.
The Making of the Silver Slugs
On the night of July 23rd, 1958, the seven Losers gathered in Zack Denbrough's workshop. Bill had set up a Monopoly board in the dining room to make it look as if the game had been going on for an hour or more. Ben Hanscom took charge of the operation, using a cut-down mortar shell as a makeshift crucible, a blowtorch, and the bearing molds Bill and Richie had purchased from Carl Kitchener at Kitchener Precision Tool & Die for fifty cents each. Ben heated the base of the mortar shell until the silver dollar melted, then poured the molten silver through a homemade funnel into the molds. Beverly held the funnel steady, wearing one of Zack's work gloves. The process was repeated for the second slug. Ten minutes later it was done. Ben later clipped the molds open with a chisel along the cut-lines, and two small silver balls fell out. In one they could faintly see part of a date: 925. In the other, wavery lines Beverly thought were the remnants of Lady Liberty's hair. The slugs went around the circle, each of them looking closely at both, marvelling at their roundness, weight, actuality.
Beverly's Marksmanship and the Confrontation at Neibolt Street
Beverly's skill with the Bullseye was established during tryouts at the dump, where each of the Losers took ten rocks and shot the slingshot at ten cans set up twenty feet away. Richie got one out of ten, Ben got two, Bill four, Mike five. Beverly, shooting almost casually and appearing to aim not at all, banged nine of the ten cans dead center. The tenth fell over when the rock she fired bounced off the rim. On July 25th, 1958, the Losers returned to 29 Neibolt Street. Bill handed the tin Sucrets box containing the two silver slugs to Beverly. She slipped one into the right front pocket of her jeans and socketed the other in the Bullseye's rubber cup. When the werewolf exploded out of the drainpipe in the bathroom, Beverly's first shot missed by more than a foot, punching a hole in the wallpaper above the tub. As the werewolf lunged at Ben, a clear coldness fell over her sight. She drew in a deep breath, tracked left, and fired. The silver ball struck the werewolf high up in the center of its snout, missing the right eye by less than half an inch. The creature screamed in pain and fear, blood gouting from the wound in a high-pressure torrent, and it turned and dived back into the drain. Beverly had pulled the sling back again, her fingers closed over the cup, hiding its emptiness, and the werewolf believed she had another shot. It fled.
The Slingshot in the Final Confrontation
Twenty-seven years later, when the Losers returned to the lair of It, Beverly still carried the Bullseye. In the final battle under Derry, as the Spider advanced on Bill, Richie ran forward and seized Its tongue in the Ritual of Chüd. Eddie Kaspbrak then leaped at the Spider, triggering his aspirator into one of Its ruby eyes, and the creature's jaws closed, ripping his arm off at the shoulder. Eddie died. Bill and Richie pursued the wounded Spider, and Bill plunged his hands into Its body, lacing his fingers together over Its heart and crushing it. The Spider collapsed. The Bullseye, which had been the instrument of their first victory, was not used in the final kill, but its role in the summer of 1958 had been decisive: it had proven that the monster could be hurt, and that belief—the belief that silver could stop It—was the foundation of their eventual triumph.
