slinging for food
 

Has anyone here tried a sling?

"his Mescalaro tribe had been using slings for centuries for hunting or combat and could kill a deer or warrior with equal ease."

http://www.slinging.org/22.html

Re: slinging for food
 

Photos

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

Re: slinging for food
 

have used one they are extremly powerfull impressive weapon but I would
need to practice much more to use it reliably as a hunting tool.
right now i would be happy if i could reliably hit a car at 40 yards

Re: slinging for food
 

For some reason i thought this was going to be a post on how to profit from the cocaine industry.......

Re: slinging for food
 

Is this the method you use?

"Without hesitation and without moving a step, very quickly swing your arm and sling up from behind you and over the top in an overhand throw while attempting to keep your arm as straight and long as you can for airspeed."

Re: slinging for food
 

no tried a couple of different methods 1 swung sling around in a horizontal
circle normally several turns before release

the other way was about the same except i did only1.5 rotations i feel this
was the best method as i feel i lost the instinctive with to many turns

the circle was not fully horizontal but a little ofcenter

if i had something heavy and trying for very long distance i would alter my circle much less horizontal more of a release on upswing

Re: slinging for food
 

Pretty cool stuff john.

Re: slinging for food
 

I sling. I can hit a man-sized target at 50 yards with a fair degree of consistency and an area target at 200 yards which is the limit of my slinging area. At 20 to about 30 yards I can hit something the size of a pie plate.

Lately I've been looking at blowguns, though. It looks like .50 caliber+ and 4 feet long or so are the best. I've read of others who can blow a steel dart through half inch plywood at close distances and accuracy is good.

As a weapon I love the sling for a great many reasons and under the right conditions it will make a good hunting weapon. I think the blowgun will work out better for small game though, since it seems they are a little easier to control and the action of firing isn't as wild and hairy as letting loose a shot from a sling. I think it'd be real neat to incorporate a blowgun into a walking stick.

Now if I was going after badguys or something like a big turkey, small deer, things like that then I'd want a sling. The nice thing about the sling is the ammo is freely available almost everywhere, it's got a bulk/weight to power ratio that's pretty much unmatched and you can just about always improvise one. Heck, they can go right through metal detectors and even the more rigorous security screenings if you're at all clever.

I sling with the Greek overhand method, fwiw. I find I get the best power and accuracy with the least amount of flailing about with this method. The stone will tend to go where your shoulder is pointing. Start with a short sling, heavy rock and throw conservatively. Ramp up the power you put into the throw after you've gained accuracy.

Re: slinging for food
 

I've used them, made a few. Never actually hunted for food using one though.

I think the sling is most useful when you want to throw something beyond your arm's natural throwing range. There are many techniques, including varying the length of sling you use depending on what you're doing, but for hunting you probably don't want to stand there twirling your sling for too long. I'd hang the sling over my shoulder, loaded and ready. Then a quick arching swing, almost horizontally will deliver a whipping, powerful blow. Delivering that powerful blow exactly where/when you need to, however, is much harder, whether using this or any other technique, and requires years of practice. Good technique makes a big difference, be careful when first learning to use a sling. Hitting the wrong target (sometimes their own face or head) with either the ammo or the sling is dangerously common among noobs.

However, for low-tech hunting of pigs, rabbits or other small prey, I'd probaby stick to a throwing stick or a few choice river stones and knife. Although this means you have to get closer to the prey, a simple, one-momvement throw gives you a better shot at actually hitting something, since your prey will react the moment it senses you. Either with a sling, stick or stones, once you actually hit your prey, quickly move in for the kill, as usually a good hit means only a broken leg/wing or a stunned animal.

I've only hunted in the way described above (direct throw, no sling) when no other source of meat was available. I do not support hunting for sport.

Re: slinging for food
 

how big are the pigs where you could hunt them with a throwing stick:D
back in oz we were a little squemish shooting them with a 303 unless we had some good distance between us or a good tree ive rapidly climbed a tree on 2 occasions.
in all fairness the aboriginals had boomerangs that could break a mans leg

Re: slinging for food
 

question what do you call a boomerang that dont come back?







answer A stick:D

Re: slinging for food
 

Well, these were not wild boars or anything like that, but rather farm-type pigs that had probably escaped. A small group of them was tearing it up on a beach in SA near where some friends and I had been climbing.

I was also using large river stones rather than a stick. I hit a small-medium sized one, probably about 130 lbs, right on the left side of the head. It sounded cracked, and he stumbled for a second or two as I started to run. Then he squealed and tried to run but again stumbled, and I was on top of him with my knife.

2 of my best friends were there with me, but they were just standing there with their mouths open and their own stones untrhown, still in their hands.

It was very, very good.

Re: slinging for food
 

SA South Australia?
if so ever done any climbing in VIC

probably of topic sorry

Re: slinging for food
 

Sorry mate, South America. Haven't been in Australia just yet, although I'd really like to visit the Grampians (sp?) and Mt. Arapiles. There seems to be a lot to do down-under!

Re: slinging for food
 

dont forget mt buffalo if you like longer climbs

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Wow. That looks like fun, thanks for the tip!

http://www.climbing.com.au/crags/guide.php?page=buffalo

Re: slinging for food
 

Thanks GW. :wink:

Feel free to toss info about throwing sticks, blowguns and the like in here too.
http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?board=other

I have a nice boomerang that I used to toss at a park 20 years ago, then the rangers came whirling out and said I'd need to stop as it was scaring the crows.

Re: slinging for food
 

I was going to add...

If you like the sling you should also look into the manriki gusari as there is interesting crossover between these two weapons. The sling is primarily a missile weapon but it is effective in hand to hand combat as well. The manriki gusari is primarily a hand to hand weapon but can be throw as an effective missile weapon and the action is very similar to that of the sling. Both are also very cheap and easy to construct using materials available at any hardware store, another reason to learn them. Being able to construct effective weapons for a few bucks from commonly available and unbannable materials - even improvised from scrounged materials - is a tremendous survival advantage. Do be careful with the manriki though, it isn't at all like a nunchuck and it can quite litterally explode a person's head, yours included, if you aren't careful. Most make a training manriki from a rope with big knots at the ends. It isn't completely harmless but at least it won't pop your training partner's melon, or yours.

The sling can be adapted to close quarters combat instantly by using it as a flexible weapon for blocking and trapping, throws, all kinds of entanglement tricks. These are good skills to learn because they can also be performed with any number of other common objects like belts, towels, bandanas, t-shirts, any length of chain or rope, etc. You can also load a stone into the pouch and wack a badguy upside the head with it directly, or depending on the design of your sling you can make it a little more solid by tying a quick knot just at the pouch and thereby snugging the stone in semi-permanently.

You can check out some of these types of manriki techniques on YouTube.

http://youtube.com/results?search_qu...&search=Search

and

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=manriki