I've just figured out how to use the video feature on my wife's digital camera so I took it down the beach this morning for a trial (please bear that in mind when you see the clip!).

I've only this week been trialling this overhead single-wind-up move for close accuracy shots. Something 'clicked' this morning (and I don't mean my shoulder!!!) I was shooting at a metre tall blue plastic fishing crate washed up on the beach and hitting it 3 or 4 times out of ten at 10m, and maybe 1 in 20 times at 20m. This is way better than results with my usual underarm throw!

Check out the clip ... its not a very powerful set of shots, however. When not being filmed I incorporate a slight body twist and use nice weighty pebbles. A hit on the crate is rewarded with a lovely BOOM that echoes across the beach, and the crate either spins on its axis or it teeters a few times and then falls onto the shingle.

Fun! If I can get up nice and early tomorrow I'll have another bash at the crate.

http://users.bestweb.net/~hesham/slinging/paul228.mpg
http://users.bestweb.net/~hesham/slinging/paul228.mov


(Any buffering problems, just right click and Save Target)

Mithras

   Very nice clip. You are using a fairly long sling here, Is that the normal length for you. Enjoyed to post.


WalkingBird

Mithras
That is a nice video! You folks out west have it made with all those rocks laying around.
Johnny

yah awesome video and  i agree with johny about the whole rocks just lying around lol! nice!

wrote on May 1^st, 2004 at 8:44pm:

Mithras That is a nice video! You folks out west have it made with all those rocks laying around. Johnny

Hi! I'm actually on the beach there, and on the east coast (of England!). A little seaside town called Bridlington. Lots of rocks!

WalkingBird: what sling length do you recommend? I intend to use that leather sling for my Roman re-enactment, it is nice and long (about 60" total length) and great for range. Do I need something shorter for accuracy?

Mithras
 In a general sense, most slingers use a shorter sling for accuracy and a longer one for distance. What ever works for you is the only "right" answer. Having said that I'll share with you that I own several in different lengths, but when trowing at targets for me the best length seems to be between 24 and 28 inches from toggle to pocket. Some recommend a length from the fisted hand with the arm hanging at the side to 1 to 2 inches off the ground, and this works very well as a starting point length.
  Anyway it was just an observation, and not a criticism.
  By the way, are you in an area where black flint is common? What sort of stones are you throwing?


WalkingBird
Who is cuirous about just about everything.

I'll knock up a shorter sling soon. Distance is great, but accuracy is much more impressive!

The beach is covered with lovely chalk pebbles, round and bullet shaped, plus many other types of stone pebbles, sand-stones, shales, granites, ironstone ... basically the whole gamut (I did geology in college...).

Flint is never in regular aerodynamic shapes, so I pass (its chalk cliff though, so there's heaps of it kicking around - and lots of neolithic and bronze age flint tools in the fields on the cliff tops, last year I picked up two flint arrowheads!).