For me, a golf ball is almost perfect for ammunition.  The "Pros" are that they are readily available and used ones cost very little money.  The "Cons" are the weight: at approximately 45 grams they are a little too light for my taste.  Tennis balls aren't much better at approximately 58 grams (though I haven't tried filling one with water yet.)

What is your favorite ammo and why?  What experiences have you had with other types of ammo?

I most often use tennis balls. I agree they aren't ideal, but their chief advantage is safety and the fact they don't go nearly as far as stones or golf balls can actually be a plus as retrieving them is easier. However I just spent a week in the country where I had the chance to throw a few good river stones Seeing a stone go well over 100m for the same effort that would barely get 50m with a tennis ball was very satisfying.

Definitely rocks when I can. Nothing beats slinging a rock into some dense woods and hearing that thunk... Otherwise I kinda like golf balls as they go far.

My favorite ammo out of what I have used in the past would definitely have to be river rock.
But alas, due to a cruel twist of fate, I am smack dab in the middle of a city, and am forced to use tennis balls to prevent property damage. :P

I just got back from the local sporting goods store and I found Lacrosse balls!  At a diameter of 2.5 cm they are a little smaller than a tennis ball and they weigh about 145 grams.  That's not perfect (for me) but it is pretty darn close.  At 2 dollars each they are a little pricy, but if they work out, I can buy a few here and there.  I also found (American) football shaped lead sinkers  that weighed 3oz, 6oz, and 8 oz (85, 170, and 227 grams respectively.)  Once the snow clears and I can find a wide open area, I am going to love to see how far they can go! :D

I'm fortunate enough to live in an area that was once under water (South Jersey).  Consequently there are zillions of oval shaped egg sized river stones around here.  They are generally my ammo of choice.  I like golf balls a lot too because they do fly farther than anything else I've tried.  There are lots of golf courses around here so I never have to buy them.  

Rocks. Any size or shape as long as they are around three to four ounces.

walter

Geo wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2010 at 8:21pm:

I also found (American) football shaped lead sinkers  that weighed 3oz, 6oz, and 8 oz (85, 170, and 227 grams respectively.)  Once the snow clears and I can find a wide open area, I am going to love to see how far they can go! :D

To avoid losing them, I've read of some people tying a bit of ribbon to them to make them easier to follow and find.

I dont get why people use tennis balls. i guess its to avoid property damage, but i dont sling anywhere near buildings or people, and i find tennisblls to light fo my taste. i prefer rocks, at least golfball sized, for my slinging.

You answered your own question.

stuff.
Mainly stuff i just pick up :-)

Rocks. Very dense, very smooth. Either spheroids, ovoids or spindles. Lots of all the above around my "ranges" (where I live used to be the bottom of the ocean, then was smashed up into a big mountain range , then was eroded from around 1500m tall down to the 500m mark.Then had some volcanoes make a mess all over the place.

Lots of rocks, and space. Good combination.

But I do like your "stuff" approach, CA... I think a weekly segment called "Can You Sling It?" would be great.

Fruit, veg, lumps of steel, a few lengths of old, fine chain (actually that was fairly impressive), bits of wood, darts, bones, all very fun. I tend to ritually launch the last few inches of any given cucumber (grow our own, can always cut fresh), the occasional rotten egg, not often as being freerange they take forever to go off... there's a half a sack of readymix in the shed I keep meaning to play with to make more glande shaped shots but not gotten around to it yet.

I have never (confession time) actually slung a ball. Tennis or golf. The dog eats them so by the time I see them they're a withered husk of their former selves. Yes, he really does eat golf balls. Every now and then we find some somewhere and within a week they're just shreds of plastic and a hundred metres of rubber.

Tip - don't let a rhodesian x ridgeback chew your balls, if you value them.

Well, since I don't have a ready supply of nice, smooth river rocks around the house I guess the Kitty Litter Clay Glandes that I make up would probably be my favorite ammo. In fact, it's pretty much my ONLY ammo. LOL.

rocks ans snails.

"wow, look at that escar- go!"

apologies. that was inexcusably awful.

hybrid_throwback wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2010 at 11:54am:

"wow, look at that escar- go!" apologies. that was inexcusably awful.

;D not that bad...

hybrid_throwback wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2010 at 11:54am:

"wow, look at that escar- go!" apologies. that was inexcusably awful.

I lol'ed :)

I best shoot balls of concrete. They are always same from the weight.
I have made a speziele form for the balls to myself.

But also stones I rather often shoot. Here luckily I have in the moor a lot of place to üben.
http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1259022240/15#15

Has somebody gained of You already experience with this special gulf of eggs?
I imagine, they are not at all bad for slingen.
http://www.golfcross.eu/shu_cms/download.php?vt_id=17

My favorite ammo are the clay football shaped glandes that I make. More often then not I end up using tennis balls for saftys sake though.

Geo wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2010 at 8:21pm:

I just got back from the local sporting goods store and I found Lacrosse balls!  At a diameter of 2.5 cm they are a little smaller than a tennis ball and they weigh about 145 grams.  That's not perfect (for me) but it is pretty darn close.  At 2 dollars each they are a little pricy, but if they work out, I can buy a few here and there.  I also found (American) football shaped lead sinkers  that weighed 3oz, 6oz, and 8 oz (85, 170, and 227 grams respectively.)  Once the snow clears and I can find a wide open area, I am going to love to see how far they can go! :D

I have the same preference;  Lacrosse Balls are excellent and can be used indoors (Indoor Soccer fields etc). Go to LacorsseMonkey.com and they sell them by the gross.  Brings the price down considerably.
 The sinkers are great but I find once I launch them very few ever come back....  And I tend to stick to the smaller ones (3 oz) though I am sure that the bigger ones work well too.
best
Mardonius

Never thought of Lacrosse balls - what a great idea - ~5 oz of rubber in a relatively small size.  Should be a great projectile.  I found out you can get them inexpensively on eBay (in the US) for about $18 delivered.  Just go to www.ebay.com and enter "dozen lacrosse balls" in the search box (without quotes), then sort them by price plus shipping.  I ordered a dozen and look forward to trying them out.

Those things can bounce like nothing else though! Once in elementary school we were playing a game called wall ball with one. Some kid got nailed in the eye and had to wear a patch or something for a while. Be careful if you're slinging them against walls.

Et Cetera wrote on Jan 27^th, 2010 at 6:02pm:

Those things can bounce like nothing else though! Once in elementary school we were playing a game called wall ball with one. Some kid got nailed in the eye and had to wear a patch or something for a while. Be careful if you're slinging them against walls.

I was going to offer the same caution. I've slung one against a brick wall and had it come back over 30m before it stopped on grass. They're as bouncy as golf balls and about 3 times as heavy.

Quote:

Go to LacorsseMonkey.com and they sell them by the gross.  Brings the price down considerably.

Wow, thank you Maldonius, at a dollar each (by the gross) that DOES bring the price down considerably!

Also, anytime I practice, it is against a high chain link fence (e.g. an empty tennis court or the back stop to a little league field) where I can set up my targets and hang a tarp behind them.  The tarp helps considerably in regard to the balls (whatever ones I happen to be using) bouncing; though it doesn't stop them from rolling all over the tennis court!

Rocks of all types tho the best ones are smooth and rounded

Metal projectiles. :D

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OOOOOOOUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!   :o :o :o

No one mentioned the balls that you make from flour or sand and balloons - Rusty balls(?)

Indoors - marshmallows and wool balls
Outdoors - tennis balls, golf balls, clay balls, and rocks

still experimenting - Nerf Vortex Aero football

Wow. Now you're talking Timpa. Man that wheel barrel must weigh a ton.

Wheelbarrow tire sunk into the soil. Wheelbarrows are no longer moved. :)

:D Savage! I love ball bearings too. about 30mm . But cast lead biconicals are hard to beat. Clay is also very good, and more eco and budget friendly. Good riverstones,of course. Density and aerodynamics FTW

This is an old thread! Ya, I like lacrosse balls but they are so bouncy I lose them quickly
I think my most frequent ammo are rocks from the railroad tracks and they work out pretty decent. They're not all perfect but a lot are pretty decent haha
I think my favourite ammo has to be crab apples and quinces. Sometimes they are on the light side but the splat makes it a pile of fun.

I'll be back in a few days to answer whether ice balls work out well. Results so far are promising...

I live right next to a dead railroad which hasn't had the tracks removed, so there is a ton of clinker. There's loads of them that just happen to be rounded, so they make really good ammo.

Hey I never came back to this post! Well I posted it elsewhere but ice balls make for fantastic ammo. Cheap, eco-friendly, very easy and you can make loads of them in only a few hours. They end up being the perfect size and weight and are great to smash against targets. Highly recommended.

Ich bin sehr neugierig darauf. 😁

Kick wrote on Jul 17^th, 2019 at 6:42am:

Hey I never came back to this post! Well I posted it elsewhere but I've balls make for fantastic ammo. Cheap, eco-friendly, very easy and you can make loads of them in only a few hours. They end up being the perfect size and weight and are great to smash against targets. Highly recommended.

I second this :D

I have 2 molds which will make 12 ice balls,  It's become part of my routine to put a dozen in the freezer every day, and sling them over the weekend.  I weighed a couple recently (the ones I use are 2.5 inch) and they are around 110 g, so a nice weight.

The only drawbacks are it needs to be winter, or you need to be slinging close to your freezer ;)