Sam can certainly relate to that. He understands why someone grabbed a stool leg, but at the same time he was still holding out hope that he'd find something better. He wasn't going to hold out much longer though, hence the knife. He wasn't sure he'd do very well with a slingshot though either. Sure, he felt better with a ranged weapon than anything, but he certainly didn't have Hawkeye's accuracy. It'd probably be useless to give him something like that.

"Sounds promising," Sam says. "Haven't seen very big birds though -- maybe in the woods."