The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

We were cleaning out some old junk last weekend and my wife found the slings she made me when we were first married. We lived in an apartment at the time so I mostly just got to cast stones into the bay behind our place. Well, now I have a few acres and plenty of stones so I took hold of the best of the slings and got some practice in.

I tried out the Greek style, I hadn't used it before. My reaction was pretty much "WOW!" I was getting a lot more power than with my old style, the stone took off like a bullet! It'll be a while before I can build my skill up to the point to be effective against a point target but not as long as you'd think. Right now this is my favorite throw style. I will say I was getting some serious range with an underhand throw though, 100 yards easily.

I'm going to have to make a better sling now and get back into this. If you have a place to practice and some free time I suggest you take up this sport. It's an extremely useful skill, you'll never be disarmed. The link below has all you'll ever need to know.

www.slinging.org

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

I went to a grocery store and bought a $5 hair brush. pulled out all the bristles and the rubbery circle they were sitting in made for a nice cup. I also bought a pair of leather shoelaces. long. then attached the shoelaces to the cup (on the rim) using fishing line.

the 2 oz olive shaped lead weights are pretty much a perfect projectile as far as that sling design is concerned. flies about 100 yards. I can hit a large tree at that distance. and when it lands the bark splits.

If I had 30 min a day to train with it and had an easy time retrieving those lead weights that go astray it would be good.

I do not like using rocks with this design. they get caught in it easier than the weights.

I did go to a golf course and got a bucket of balls to practice with but due to this sling not working well with golf balls either and being told not to do that by the golf course management i did not stay long.

golf balls are easy to find with those blue glasses though from sharper image.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Steel and lead projectiles, being denser than stone, can really take advantage of the power of the sling. Exponentially. When I sling a hefty rock at a half inch sheet of plywood with force it makes a dent, a metal glande does much more dammage, if I refine my technique I think it will penetrate straight on through.

I like this Belearic sling page, it has a throw tutorial, how to make a sling and other neat stuff.

http://www.mallorcaweb.net/foners/ti..._Apertirar.htm

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

I remember my grandmother telling me that, during the depression, she and her brothers would hunt rabbits with a sling. Different times...

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

That is so cool. It would be the perfect rabbit hunting weapon because you would not use up valuable ammo and it is quiet.

I ordered one and it fitting in a pocket with ammo on the ground most places really is great. Yes perfect egg shaped ammo is nicer, but I think I will try to learn with rocks.

With a sling you could travel very light and not call attention to yourself putting meat on the tiny fire.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Well I can now hit a tree at 20 to 30 paces fairly reliably as long as I use a big rock. The weight helps you feel the position of the sling pouch. I have the windage down ok but I need to work on the evelation. This is using rocks, chunks of concrete from my driveway actually, and a slightly lopsided sling. With a better sling, better ammo and some more practice I should have this throw down cold. You can cast your own cement projectiles, use fired clay or even ice if you want more consistent ammo.

The portability and weight as well as the acceptance of a wide range of found ammo types really makes a sling more handy than a bow in my opinion. Heck, you can wear it like jewelry... use it for a necklace, bracelet, headband, whatever.

I can see an abundance of non-linear applications for this weapon. It's even useful in hand to hand combat if you're familiar with flexible weapons.

I was just thinking if there is a public tennis or racketball court where you live you could sling tennis balls and they'll even bounce back to you. Maybe the golfballs would work there, too.

Infidel, out of curiosity were you able to sling the golf balls as far or farther than the guys with the clubs could hit them?

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

My money would be on the guy with a good slingshot and a pocket full of ball bearings.

We've evolved. :wink:

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

I like slingshots too, but you'd lose your money. The power and range aren't even close, and I've made slingshots a lot more powerful than what you can buy in the store and shot lead pellets with them. One is a toy, the other is a serious weapon.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

When I was a kid I used to have one of those metal framed, fold over the wrist, surgical tubing style of slingshot. Pretty sure it was the wrist rocket or something hokey. Anyhoo, even marbles had an awesome accuracy. It was hard on the wrist after awhile though cuz you kept wanting to stretch it out to the max to get even more power. (insert Tim Allen grunting sound here)

Now that I'm older I have "internally powered lead projectile" based defenses. lol

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

I confess in my go bag I have a folding wrist rocket. Its great on camping trips when your sitting around with a couple guys before dinner.

In event of SHTF it goes with me.

E-A

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

I once made a super wrist rocket type slingshot that used four heavy duty surgical rubber tubing bands in kind of an X pattern. I never measured the draw strength, but it was a lot, more like a bow than a slingshot. It had some real power but still not what you can get from a sling. If you want to up the lethality of the slingshot you can use arrows with broadheads, it actually works pretty good.

I honestly don't find there to be much difference in achieving accuracy with a sling vs a slingshot, the sling just as a little more of a learning curve in the initial throwing technique. Marbles, ball bearing and sinkers out of slingshots work well, but they can start throwing wide with less uniform projectiles. I still use mine to shoot acorns for short range fun. I like zipping them towards the unused sattelite dish on my roof, it makes a pleasant tone when struck.

I've been playing around with the idea of making a projectile launcher that consists of a tube housing a powerful spring and a trigger mechanism. It'd be pretty easy to find a spring with power in the 40 or 50lbs range, just not sure how efficient the energy transfer would be so I don't know how it would stack up to a bow of a similar draw weight.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

I was knocking around the idea of a super Crossbow. I have some leaf springs and found how to make the trigger mechanism. I wanted to see how far I could launch an arrow or short spear.

Seemed like a good Idea at the time but I never got around to it.

E-A

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

This is one of the best threds ever here at GIM...
I'm crackin' up picturing Infidel whipping golf balls at a driving range!

I'm getting a sling dammit.:yippee:

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

This is what I am making right now. http://www.slinging.org/14.html
Tennis balls are a lot easier to see to practice with

here are some very impressive ranges recorded

http://www.slinging.org/ranges.html

Record range is close to a 1/3 of a mile

eat that

=============

If anyone thinks about using a self powered weapons system then go for an "Atlatl"

http://www.flight-toys.com/atlatl/Pa...tlatl_hunt.gif

http://www.flight-toys.com/atlatl.html

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

The atlatl is a good weapon, too. I played around with a very crude improvised version as a kid after my mom described one to me. While mine wasn't up to par I could readily see promise. The the bow and the cestrosphendon the atlatl is also a credible threat against kevlar vests.

Well, I just finished my new sling, and it is the heat!

It is three feet long, plus the pouch. The thongs are qaurter inch braided nylon rope, the pouch is made from a supple but tough leather cut from a tool pouch in a roughly diamond shape and 4.5 inches long. I left tabs at the ends of the pouch so I could attach a D ring at either end of the pouch by folding over the tab and using a copper rivet to hold them in place. Then I attached the 1/4 inch braided ropes to the D rings and used a cable stop at the end of one of the thongs as a grip knot. I tied a knot for a finger loop in the other end.

It was dark by the time I finished this sling but I decided to try it out anyway. Unfortunately I have no idea what the range is like beyond the fact that I managed to throw fist sized rocks across my pond without splashing in the water, so that's at 50 yards right there. I have no doubts that daylight will show those rocks going 100 or more yards. This is the longest sling I can use for the Greek style throws and it works well for the helicopter whirl style. In fact I find this sling to be much more accurate than the last I used, I hit a tree at 30 yards on my first try with the helicopter throw. I attribute the accuracy to the improved symetery but also to the heavier stones, it is easier to feel them at the end of the sling and slinging is much like throwing a rock, you just have to kind of feel where and when you should release.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

As seen in the picture, a lone pre-teen Palestinian slingman holds off an Israeli tank in a Middle East version of the Mexican standoff.

That's true grit.

Attachment 25323

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

It is confirmed, my new sling has a range in excess of 150 yards with a chunk of concrete half the size of your fist. I hurled another chunk of concrete that weighed a bit over 1lbs a distance of 100 yards without any difficulty.

I realized two interesting points regarding sling ballistics. One is that at 30 yards I'm a better shot with my sling than most people are with their pistol. Another, the sling is capable of delivering its ammo beyond the optimal effective range of the M4 or M-16 firing the M193. With the right grenade, pipe bomb, molotov or similar enhanced area of effect munition I could see why Palestinians would be willing to take a risk engaging troops armed with rifles, especially after you factor in terrain and the relative silence of their slings which add to the element of suprise and make retaliation more difficult. Even mere rocks will inflict very nasty wounds at those kinds of ranges if they hit an unarmored portion of the anatomy. You could expect the rocks to embed themselves, even break bones. Generally though the rocks would be more of an act of defiance or harassment.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

All right, my range is now about 200 yards with a simple concrete chunk. I now have to be careful to keep my shots on my property. My accuracy is getting better slowly, I am plenty good enough to turn away a mob at this point.

Slinging pwns! I want to get out to the beach soon and try throwing the denser, more uniform beach stones. I bet I could really launch them out to sea!

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Soon REV127 discovers Rock Tumblers and begins to develop the perfect ammo...

:wavey: glad to see somebody having fun and outside interests. Good luck REV127

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

QWAK,Somthing you may want to try is geting a 50 cal round ball lead mold.

Casting uniform balls is simple and you could use old wheel weights as your casting material.

Most likely with the concistent size,shape and weight your accuracy would improve dramaticly and the impact power would be greater than with an odd shaped stone.

the DUCK

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Rev - ever considered pyramid sinkers as projectiles?
How would they fly?

http://www.blueoceantackle.com/pyramidsinker.gif

Or the Hatteras type:

http://www.ecvn.gov.vn/home/Thuan%20...n%20Nguyen.JPG

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

:smile: stick to rocks

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

The egg shaped sinkers would fly like madmen. I haven't tried slinging one because there's no way I could recover it in the woods and I don't want to spread lead around my environment but based on previous experiences and current results I'm guesstimating 300 yards would be within my reach. This is backed up by the results the folks at www.slinging.org are getting. That hatteras style would almost certainly fly point forward which may add a little range over other shapes in lead, it would definately have enhanced penetration.

My sling will handle small ammo but to really make use of the power I'd need more than .50cal lead roundballs. .75 or larger would be best. I seem to be getting the best range with concrete chunks around half a pound. I don't even want to know what it would feel like to be hit by a rock or metal sphere weighing half a lbs and traveling twice as fast as a pro pitcher's fastball. It would be like being punched in the face by Chuck Norris.

I'll definately start making egg or football shaped slingstones from native clay or cement soon. I might even try hurling one lead sinker when I'm at the beach, just to see what it can do.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

http://www.google.com/search?q=SPLLAT+MUNITIONS

http://www.slinging.org/galleryimage...ra%20civil.jpg

A militiaman throwing a grenade with a sling in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) - Hondero

http://www.slinging.org/galleryimage.../image009s.jpg

Bedouin man scaring away predators, source unknown

http://www.slinging.org/galleryimages/media/news4.jpg

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

QWAK,You could try tieing a 1 foot piece of floresent enginear tape to the big lead sinkers it works fairly well for finding arrows and could act some what like fins on a dart adding some stability.

That piece of tap would almost glow in the woods.

the DUCK

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Not a bad idea, I think I'll try it out on a rock first.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Its crude but simple no cup just a leather "pouch" the weight of the stone holds it in there unless
the stone is realy odd shaped .like REV Im impressed with the power that can be generated and I know with practice a person can become very accurate
wish I found more time to practice range is easily 150 to 200 yards
the stones that work well for me are about 1/3 of a pound and as round as I can find them.I just pick up likely stones while Im gardening etc and save them for practice time.can easily throw heavier stones 1/2 pound but I find
I get a better trajectorie with the "lighter" stones and they dont tear my fingers off to quickly

they also seem to be easier to consistently aim

http://www.damoc.com/images/sling.JPG

also with regard to better slingshot ammo when I was a kid I used to make
lead "pyramid"shot by pouring lead into inverted pyramids cut into potatoes it had
a much better penatration than round ammo and because of the weight
did not lose to much accuracy.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Tennis elbow or should I say Sling Shoulder a possibility?

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

I don't have any problem with my fingers but if you somehow manage to drop the stone out of your pouch during a shot the energy will have nowhere to go but back into your arm. I feel it in my bicep mostly, it is sort of like when you do too many reps with a dumb bell. This probablem can be completely eliminated by have a big enough pouch, picking ammo that fits correctly and having halfway decent form.

I hurled a chunk of concrete half the size of my fist at a sheet of half inch plywood from a distance of about 30ft today, it made a serious dent. I bet the right steel or lead shot could penetrate.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

.45 slugs work pretty well (uncased of course)

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Well, the learning curve really isn't that bad. I hit an 18" wide standing dead pine today from 40 yards away after 3 near misses. At 12 yards I could hit a head sized target with a fair degree of regularity, all the shots are good enough to hit the neck or torso. This is still with odd sized, irregularly weighted and variously shaped concrete chunks.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

Well well well! I was at my local independent eclectic new and used bookstore (the very best kind), when what should I see but The Sling: For Sport & Survival, by Cliff Savage!! It's from (who else?) Loompanics, and can probably be found online somewhere. Sadly, Loompanics is defunct. :bear_sad:

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

If you bought it let me know what you think. I've been thinking about getting a copy but I hear that much of the book is devoted to weird 80's Red Dawn-style paramilitary strangeness. I've heard the best part of the book is lifted from an article in some scientific publication or other and describes how to calculate sling velocity and other neat tricks.

Re: The Sling Is A Mighty And Impressive Weapon
 

For six dollars how could I NOT buy it?

There's nothing "Red Dawn" about it. It's not a dry treatise, though; the author clearly enjoys it. Given what you've already learned most of it will be review material. It's not a bad book to have, though.

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Well, I started to wear out the pouch on that new and improved sling from hurling 1lbs+ chunks of concrete and using an underhanded throw that caused the pouch to drag on the ground. I've constructed a new one that is a little shorter, 30 inches to the middle of the pouch. This is aproximately the distance from the end of my arm to the center of my chest when holding the sling which I read somewhere was the optimal length for general use. It was dark when I tried it out so I don't know what the effect on range and accuracy will be but I'm definately getting more velocity, plus it really sounds like a panther to me, much moreso than the last sling. While I was at it I bought a bag of creek stone for improved ammo.

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The creek stone is both denser and more uniform in shape than the concrete chunks. I threw one with the new 30" sling and was amazed. The stone weighed about 5oz, flew with a much flatter trajectory and would have easily gone twice the distance of a similar concrete chunk if it weren't for the trees in the way. It covered 100 yards in two seconds which would mean and average velocity of 150fps and 109ftlbs of energy on target at 100 yards. The stone would be going about 100mph when it hit at that range.

To put this in perspective, a 148gr .38 special at 710fps muzzle velocity has about 165ftlbs of muzzle energy and only 105ftlbs of energy at 100 yards. Of course the sling stone has that energy spread out over a larger area but that'll sure leave one hell of a welt!

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I've promised myself never to use my sling again.

Ever since i accidentally killed that giant guy named Goliath....

:sad_m: