I'm a fantasy writer (I say this even though my stories never contain magic), and I'm looking for advice about slings, bows, staff slings, staffs, and quarterstaffs.

First, I'll give you some background. My main character is female, and aged twenty-four. She is a healer, and lives in a culture where slings are a woman's weapon. She has been practicing almost daily with a sling since she was about seven, and is also proficient in the use of staff slings, and staff fighting. She is not unusually muscular, and she prefers only to fight in defense - her tribe's philosophy is that healers are supposed to save lives, and not kill.

So far so good. The problem is, up till recently (thanks to this site), all I know about slinging comes from David and Goliath, and from the Ranger's Apprentice series, which I noticed has been discussed on this forum as being massively inaccurate.

So my first questions are:

1. If my heroine has been practising with slings for seventeen years, how accurate is she likely to be? Bearing in mind that she is not a warrior, but a healer, and assuming that her main goal is accuracy and speed when she practices.

2. How devastating could she be on a battlefield? The enemies she faces are usually clad in leather armour. It's one thing to aim at a target which is stationary, but if it is a bloke running towards her with a big lance, would she have the skill to plant a stone between his eyes? Or would she be safer if she turned and ran?

3. What exactly was wrong and inaccurate about the Ranger's Apprentice series? I've read all the books, so I fear I might be heavily influenced by them when it comes to writing. If you could please explain what the problem is, I might be able to avoid such mistakes.

That's all for the moment; I've more questions, but they can wait.

To answer your first question, I believe another user by the name of Tucson-John  told us about young children in his area being able to consistently  hit coke bottles from forty meters, so i would not think headshots at 75 meters would be too big of a exaggeration.  To your second question, it would depend on the battle being fought. In a small fight or battle ( like, around under twenty combatants_ she would be devastating, even against leather armor. I assume she would be able to hit a  moving target well enough with seventeen years of practice.   As far as the Ranger's Apprentice series goes, they made the sling much easier to use than it actually is, made it under-powered, e.x,couldn't even effectively kill a rabbit, and got the form and style of throw wrong.

1.
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how accurate is she likely to be?

A reasonable guess would be "very".  Probably able to hit small targets as well as somewhat larger-sized moving ones.  Ok, say, maybe a stationary rabbit and a moving coyote.  

2.
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How devastating could she be on a battlefield?

Hmmm, lotta factors to consider.  Up close, like in a bloody great melee?  Your young missy is in a lot of trouble, methinks. Reloading is, or can be, a bit of a problem as one dodges lances and other sharp things.  Also, her wind-up with the sling can pretty easily get fouled up by darned near anything in her immediate vicinity.  Of course, if she uses the Comanche (or Figure 8?) style of slinging, maybe that mightn't be too bad... If she has a vantage point of some remove, then she might make some hay.  Also, is it just her alone or will there be a largish group of slingers?  I think that might make a difference, as one slinger, however dead-on accurate, might easily be routed by a full on crush of bad guys, but a big group of them may prove a bit more like irresistible.  As for breaking thru the leather faceguard of a bad guy: not actually necessary, I should think.  A good, well-placed bonk on the noggin can render an opponent immobile, and thence -with a quick choppity-chop -dead.  


3.
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What exactly was wrong and inaccurate about the Ranger's Apprentice series?

Sorry, haven't read that.  


Anyway: all the above is based on my limited knowledge, both bookish and practical, of slinging.  YMMV, some restrictions apply, etc.  

1. Like all sports you get to a point of reasonable proficiency fairly quickly and then further improvements come more slowly. After about 5 or so years of training it's unlikely you'll get much better. Natural talent plays a big part; lots of kids learn tennis but Roger Federers are far and few between.

My experience of hitting coke cans at 40 m is that, sure it happens, but selective memory is a wonderful thing, you remember the one hit and forget the ten misses. Anyone who could count on a killing shot at that distance would be really good.

2. In reality for an unarmed slinger to despatch a warrior who is ready for battle would be difficult but not impossible. Have a look at the controversy over David v Goliath. The slinger has the advantage of speed and may well be safe if he/she keeps out of the way.

3. Sorry, never read those books so can't comment.

HOWEVER

You're writing a fantasy. She can do anything she sets her mind to. Like Queen Susan in Narnia whose arrows never miss and her quiver never runs out.

captive1princess wrote on Nov 26^th, 2010 at 9:09pm:

1. If my heroine has been practising with slings for seventeen years, how accurate is she likely to be? Bearing in mind that she is not a warrior, but a healer, and assuming that her main goal is accuracy and speed when she practices. 2. How devastating could she be on a battlefield? The enemies she faces are usually clad in leather armour. It's one thing to aim at a target which is stationary, but if it is a bloke running towards her with a big lance, would she have the skill to plant a stone between his eyes? Or would she be safer if she turned and ran? 3. What exactly was wrong and inaccurate about the Ranger's Apprentice series? I've read all the books, so I fear I might be heavily influenced by them when it comes to writing. If you could please explain what the problem is, I might be able to avoid such mistakes.

1. Potentially devastatingly accurate. 17 years of daily practice is extreme, the examples of pegging coke cans at 75 meters are all reasonable, even higher would be acceptable. That doesn't mean she will make every shot, or should try to rely on that.

2. Aiming for head shots is usually not the best idea, but her aim is potentially good enough. The big thing however, is how well she can keep her cool in a combat situation, particularly when she is actually under attack. Until she has some experience, she's probably just about screwed realistically.

3. This might take a while. For one thing, slings are not easy to use, you can't use one a couple of times and just have exceptional aim. The learning curve is at least that of a bow, particularly for precision shooting. Furthermore, filling a pouch with two rocks and hoping they double the chance of hitting a distant rabbit is completely and utterly inane, your accuracy will go down. The logic behind it makes sense, but it is a classic example of the author needing more research in regards to weapons. Anything relating to arms in that series can pretty much be ignored, with the possible exception of archery.

Thanks for coming to research by the way, all of us have our stories of people who obviously didn't. However, you can't do better than practice, and slings are easy to come by around here. Among forum members, Aussie and Ratman are currently giving slings away, the Aussie sling is very modern but the styles are all fairly old.

A fantasy heroine should be at least as good as Grandfather in L W Forsyths Apache article in the Guides and Articles section.
She is rather effective on a battlefield with a sling, and several of us has shown that a slinger can have a rather high rate of fire, but if rushed (by more than one enemy, at least), she runs and keep her distance or use a hand held weapon (staff) for close combat.

Do NOT let her whirl her sling around her head untill she has buildt up enough speed to throw!
:)
timann

[edit]the examples of pegging coke cans at 75 meters are all reasonable, [/edit]
Not to put too fine a point on it - but that would be amost impossible. Hell even wth my glasses on I'd barely even see a coke can at 75 METRES. 75 feet - would me more realistic. and I suspect that's just a misprint.

so my pennyworth:

1) you would need to qualify the practice. If you want her to be extremely good she would need to practice for an hour a day - minimum. However if you make the slinging part of a therapeitic or meditative process, it would fit quite nicely.
slinging practice is very repetitive, also a good general body workput - so would fit as part of her daily routine.
She would also need to have a particular affinity for the sling. Some do some don't. As wit everything else in life there are always going to be those who are just better at some things than others. So given those conditions she could realistically be very very good indeed

2) leather armour usually only covers the torso and part of the head. this leaves arms and legs as much better targets than either the torso or the head.
A tremendous amount will depend on her ammunition. If she uses cast lead bullets or glandes, then she could be very dangerous out to about 200-250 yards. If she's just using picked rocks, you'd have to knock that down to 150 yards maximum.
Bear in mind that small darts can also be used from a sling. And wth medical knowlege they could be poison tipped - which would increase her deadliness 10 fold. A well slung dart will penetrate leather armour and a fast actin poison would make each hit a kill.
Even without poison a barb ended dart will leave a bloody and potentially debilitating wound.

It would also be a good idea to equip her with a hoopack - combined staff, utility stick and staffsling.
This could also be her close quarters combat weapon as well as a tool for delivering heavier missiles in battle or other circumstances.
A properly used quarterstaff - with the exception of a projectile weapon - is the most effective close quarters weapon there is. Not necessarily as lethal as a sword, but much more practical and effective.
Again you would need to make practice part of her daily routine.
It can't be stated too frequently or too firmly that proficiency with ANY weapon can only come with long practice and familiarity.

3) never heard of them - who wrote them ?

If the sling is going to feature to any great extent then your heroine must belong to a tribe that uses slings extensively. Otherwise it's unlikely she'd ever take one up.
On our plane of existence - for example - she'd have to be a balearic islander or member of another moniroty group known to use slings. Obviously the further back in history you go the more you'll have to choose from.

She would also most likely carry 2-3 slings or different length and - possibly - design.
A short sling -12-18 inches is short enough to be effective indoors and in confined quarters, as well as being effective to 100 yards.
A medium length sling always close to hand for general usage and a longer sling for distance bombardment. The advantage of the hoopack is that it is very easy to fit or change the sling attached to the forked head. So as long as she uses a sliding finger loop and a small fixed loop instead of a release knot,  each sling could also be attached to or removed from the hoopack in very short order.

IN case you were wondering, yes I've given some considerable thought to writing slingers into fiction - so all I'm going to tell you is the basic stuff :-)

so lots of practice and a natural affinity for the weapon.

IF you look at the standards set by the ancient balearic slinging mercenaries (and aussie or ratman should know where the link to the article is). That is what your heroine would need to have as BASIC skill.

Like any elite athlete or warrior, almost anything is possible with sufficient skill and practice.

What you will find on this forum and the internet in general is a vast body of those who believe if they themselves cannot do a thing - then that thing can not be done by anyone.
It's total nonsense but a very popular form of nonsense. So ignore them :-)
I know a short man with a basic sling and a rock picked up from the ground can sling that rock 440 yards.
Because I've met the man and seen him with a golf ball outsling a golf courses driving range.

With technique, practice and natural skill almost anything is possible.  

You can be good with any 2 of those attributes, but to be extraordinary you need all three.
So within those bounds your heroine can be as good a slinger as you want her to be.  

Well said, Curious Aardvark -all of it.  

I think I would do a search here and look at the UTube videos.  There are some excellant examples on staff slings, speed slinging, and the kestros.  Look at Jaegoor in period costume, notice how he doesnt carry a lot of stuff the sling can tangle on.  Also, there is a major difference in the size of your projectiles used for hunting small game and the much larger projectiles used in combat.  Also, you would carry a lot fewer for hunting or rambling than for combat.  For combat, you would have as many as you can carry, you can throw 15+ per minute, you would like to have somewhere where you can place reloads so you can replenish your ammunition.  Slingers were used as a scouting/screening force, as a supporting arm/artillery force and as a harrasing force.  Usually, if they got overrun , they ran or got slaughtered.  Bill    

Ranger's Apprentice is innacurate simply because the sling is made really weak- 2 rocks barely able to kill a rabbit. also, it would be almost impossible to sling 2 rocks and make them go remotely in the same direction, though we're working on it ;). i'm not a good slinger but with a reasonable toss i've dented thick wood. the worst thing you can do is follow deadliest warrior, which is well....just......****.

to me some logical reasoning would be enough to realise a 3-4oz rock traveling at approximately 125mph is going to ruin someones day.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fonermenorqui#p/u/3/ELYea2UDfeY

a blurb on the current balearic champion slinger proving that David could be killed by Goliath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2atj_FM0AjA


This is a good style for fighting. It is fast into action so your enemies have less time to duck or raise a shield. It needs very little clear space around you. You can sling on the run.

Ammo choices are:

Carefully selected smooth round stones about three fingerwidths across. Not as easy to find as you might think.  Rivers are a good place to look.

Quarried stone hammered into a rounded shape. Needs a lot of work, suitable for serfs/slaves than respectable young women. Could be found stockpiled at a garrison or walled town.

Clay bullets rolled by hand.  These can be air dried in one or two warm days but for serious use these should be fired hard. Takes time, is messy, but all the pottery infrastructure will be in place in any small village. Difficult to make on the road.

Almond shaped lead bullets cast in a fired clay mold. This is serious military ammo, as used by the Romans and Greeks. This is dense enough to penetrate an unarmoured body. Flies 50% further than stone ammo.  Would be easy to make for someone already melting and casting lead, like a fisherman.

The best choice for your heroine is the first option, maybe finding some of the lead ammo along the way if you need an upgrade.  

Here are a few different throws strung together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0bgqxnxUOg

You catch the pouch with your left hand and reload it with your right hand. A small bag on your right side can hold a lot of ammo.

Slings can be nearly silent or make a powerful whipcrack when used, it depends on whether or not you leave a hanging tail at the end of your release cord.

Speedwise, I have been timed at eight shots in thirty seconds. No fancy tricks like holding extra ammo ready in the hands, just reloading one shot at a time from a pile of ammo on the ground. From a pouch would be about the same. I beat two good archers when I did that, and they were using fancy speed techniques.

The staff sling is best for very heavy ammo, fist sized rocks that would knock a fully armoured man off a horse or smash a door down with a few shots.

Quote:

1. If my heroine has been practising with slings for seventeen years, how accurate is she likely to be? Bearing in mind that she is not a warrior, but a healer, and assuming that her main goal is accuracy and speed when she practices.

Very, most likely. Actual figures can vary, but Xenophon describes in his "Anabasis" that Cretan slingers with lead bullets could match the range of Persian Archers (and keep said archers at a respectful distance, because otherwise Xenophon wouldn't have made it home to write his book).


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2. How devastating could she be on a battlefield? The enemies she faces are usually clad in leather armour. It's one thing to aim at a target which is stationary, but if it is a bloke running towards her with a big lance, would she have the skill to plant a stone between his eyes? Or would she be safer if she turned and ran?

The effect on a battlefield depends not only on individual ability, but also on training as a soldier and tactical ability. A lone woman on a battlefield where thousands of men charge at each other is probably roadkill, no matter how good she is. A female soldier in a proper unit of slingers (trained to shoot on command with a hundred others and to retreat behind a screen of pikemen when the enemy attacks) could be effective.

She would probably be far more useful in a guerilla war on familiar territory. This would be small units fighting other small units, with lots of ambushes and hit-and-run attacks. Personal ability would count here far more that on a real battlefield.


Quote:

3. What exactly was wrong and inaccurate about the Ranger's Apprentice series? I've read all the books, so I fear I might be heavily influenced by them when it comes to writing. If you could please explain what the problem is, I might be able to avoid such mistakes.

I don't know that one.

How about you come to my place with an army of leather aromured soldier in 17 years and find out? ;D

I think she'd really good and a force to reckon with in battle.

I am also writing a story featuring slingers. The protagonist's best friend narrowly missed a crow at a hundred feet. He's in his late teens, not a dedicated pro, and didn't aim particularly carefully. He was on a rampart about a hundred feet/thirty metres from the bird. I think that's probably a pretty good indication - your character might be able to a bit better, maybe actually kill it from just over a hundred feet. As you say, she's been practising for seventeen years but it's not her primary skill. In the simplest terms, she should probably be able to hit a target with a diameter of about a foot from just over a hundred feet. In my opinion. :P

WirocuDurotrigon wrote on Nov 28^th, 2010 at 9:25am:

In the simplest terms, she should probably be able to hit a target with a diameter of about a foot from just over a hundred feet. In my opinion. :P

That seems a reasonable accuracy measure for a very good slinger. A Balearic standard target has a black centre cicle of 50 cm (20') dia. and even their champions don't hit it every time at 30 m.

Slings are far more powerful than most people realize but accuracy is also much more difficult than most people percieve.
17 years seems like a good period to master a sling but don't write of all head shots have several torso shots thrown in as well as no slinger is able to acheive "sniper" accuracy. Slings will kill just as easily with a hit to the upper torso as they will to the head.  

Thank you all for your advice; very interesting. I'm only sad that I don't have a fast Internet connection - it takes me about half an hour to download a two minute YouTube video.

About my heroine's background:

She lives on a plain, in a large mud-brick city on a river delta, in a semi-arid climate. It would seem that river stones and clay bullets are easy to come by - she practices her slinging in a field outside the city near a river, usually in the early morning for about two hours, and uses her slinging partly for defense and partly to work off her frustrations.

Her personality is of a practical sort, rather reserved. She certainly isn't the fainting sort, although she does not like the sight of blood. (Strange trait for a healer, but then I hate the sight of blood, and I wanted to be a nurse).

In her culture, women are usually expected to master at least the sling, because their tribe is constantly being invaded by other tribes (who are after the precious water supplies). This attitude is not so prevalent in the city where she lives, because the city is in the centre of the tribelands and has not yet come under attack. Women who are particularly skilled in the use of slings are sent to the army, where they fight from the rear, usually protected by trainee warriors who aren't deemed ready to join in the battle.

My heroine has already spent a few months in the army as part of her training. In fact, she was promoted to a chief healer specifically because of her prowess with weapons, her experience in dealing with surgery on the battlefield, and her skill with herbs, and - thank you for pointing that out, curious_aardvark - poisons.

Generally healers fight to protect the wounded from enemy warriors who might want to finish the wounded off. This is what happens in a particular incident in the story; she is rescuing the wounded commander from the battlefield, and having to fight off enemies in order to get him to safety. Which, incidentally, is one of the major turning points of the novel.

Does she fight alone? No. She always has at least one healer and a shield bearer with her - on a battlefield, no healer ever goes anywhere alone. Naturally, the other healer would also have at least a sling, and the shield bearer would have a short sword.

If enemy warriors ever got close, the healers would revert to their staffs, and/or daggers, or simply leave the wounded to be killed.

Now, my heroine isn't unusually strong - what about the staff sling, and the staff? Would she be able to wield a quarterstaff, or does she have to leave that to a knight in grubby armour?

No, staffs are usually pretty easy to handle for any one for example in japenese cultures many women would use a naginata because it had greater reach than a sword and was easier to use. My sister, who is very small statured, has used the staff for a while now and is easily able to fight people much larger than she is but it is always good to have a back up knife just "in case" or for utility uses for a doctor such as cutting bandages or amputating  ;)  .

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Women who are particularly skilled in the use of slings are sent to the army, where they fight from the rear

Not very realistic. It's too easy to hit friendly soldiers in the back of the head - all it takes is a tiny error. In ancient armies, slingers would be deployed in front of the army before the battle joined. They would shower stones/bullets/etc on the enemy before the infantry moved in. They might also be placed on high ground to the side of the main battle which would give them a significant range bonus and an advantage if it came to hand-to-hand fighting. The ancient Britons often built extra ramparts around the gates of their towns to maximise the efficacity of their slingers and enable them to shoot into the flanks of any advancing enemy that wished to attack the gates.

@captive1princess "Now, my heroine isn't unusually strong "

Unless you are going for world class distance
the sling is not about strength ... it is about proper technique ...

I'll relate a Martial Arts story ... in the olden days, once apron a time while I was a M.A. student; we weren't very skilled and our instructor decided it was time to introduce board breaking. The first thing he did was drill and exercise the class until we barely had the strength to stand.. the break was a side kick technique ... when performed incorrectly we didn't have the strength to stand and most of us fell in a heap.  Performed with good technique and flow; the board parted like it was not even there.... The instructor then pointed out it's not strength ..it is correct technique.

Sling is about correct technique ... strength has very  little to do with the result.

I agree that slinging nicely has to do with technique,and mind focus,and has little to do with strength.I observed that my farthest casts are not the ones that i want to sling with extreme power rather than smooth just right technique.As far as accuracy goes,I've read that ancient army slingers who trained from a very early age were able to hit their enemies heads at 70m.I believe that one with 17 years of practice could do that in combat situation.She could take out,using his sling and good ammo, 5-10 enemies attacking her with melee weapons from a distance.

WirocuDurotrigon wrote on Nov 29^th, 2010 at 10:55am:

Quote: Women who are particularly skilled in the use of slings are sent to the army, where they fight from the rear Not very realistic. It's too easy to hit friendly soldiers in the back of the head - all it takes is a tiny error. In ancient armies, slingers would be deployed in front of the army before the battle joined. They would shower stones/bullets/etc on the enemy before the infantry moved in. They might also be placed on high ground to the side of the main battle which would give them a significant range bonus and an advantage if it came to hand-to-hand fighting. The ancient Britons often built extra ramparts around the gates of their towns to maximise the efficacity of their slingers and enable them to shoot into the flanks of any advancing enemy that wished to attack the gates.

And don't forget that infantry literally means young and inexperienced. She'd probably be up front having to constantly watch out for the neophytes while the more experienced soldiers stand at the back of the formation and issue orders that most of the infantry have no idea how to do.

Armor bearers (aka shield bearers) were usually skilled soldiers who's job was to be a walking, shielded armory and know how to fight with every weapon they carried as well as give them to their charge when needed. I'd give the shield bearer the same, or even better melee skills as your protagonist.

Final thought, what is the slinging tradition of your town based on? Are there roving bands of sheep outside the town which need to be protected, with the local slings made from wool? Would the protagonist need to travel very far outside the city walls to get more fiber to replace her sling, or is there a garden-whatever inside the city walls? Maybe the slings are made from leather and it takes time to replace a damaged/lost sling because the leather must be cured first. Does your protagonist know how to cure leather or twist cord, or is there someone else with the knowledge of how to do that and she barters with/buys from them? How available is the material that the slings are made from, can you onlyget it during a certain season? Since the sling is the dominant weapon there must not be any tall trees in the area, but is it a bog (with sheep, or maybe moss) or a desert (and the fibers need to be imported) and is the terrain flat (so that invaders can be seen from a long way away) or is it mountainous (surprise attacks) or hilly (so that slingers can attack from the tops of hills)? Terrain will affect what the slings are like and how they are used.

The staff or bo was used to foil muggers or assassins while screaming for help.  If a woman expected a fight, she carried a naginata, which is a sword on a pole.  Think halberd.  Quarterstaffs are big and heavy, 50mm and well over 2m long.  I only saw ONE female win a fight against a man using pugil sticks, she got in a lucky hit with the bayonet against the side of his neck, he helped, he didn't take her seriously.  Usually, one swing, even if blocked, knocks the woman off balance, sometimes it tore the weapon out of her hands, there is a lot to be said for upper body strength in hand to hand.  A woman of moderate build in fair physical condition going up against a man of moderate build in good physical condition will usually lose.  He has longer reach, more stamina, and he outweighs her by 15kg, most of which is in the upper body.  She would basically have to use a staff as a blunt spear to keep her opponent away from her, targeting the face, throat, solar plexis and groin, most which will be covered by armor.  If she uses her staff like a quarter staff, she will shorten her reach and put herself inside sword range.  Bill

Bill Skinner wrote on Nov 29^th, 2010 at 2:05pm:

he has... more stamina...

More strength, maybe. Longer reach, sure. More stamina, doubtful. More testosterone and larger muscle mass do not make more stamina. And truthfully, a smaller fighter can be of slight build and be "stronger" than a taller and more muscled fighter because of the relationship between cross-sectional density and strength (strength increases at a slower rate with increase in cross-sectional density). Simply put, a larger fighter has to overcome the mass/size of their own muscles giving the slightly built fighter some advantage in stamina but about equal strength, although sometimes the smaller fighter will actually be stronger. A great example of the relative strengths is when a shorter, smaller person does more pull-ups ( better stamina) or when a smaller sumo wrestler flips a larger sumo wrestler (greater strength). I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but I stick by the science.

[edit]I forgot to qualify something. With the sumo wrestler reference, I studied an real life example where a large sumo wrestler couldn't flip someone who was slightly larger than himself and was flipped in his next match be a wrestler almost half his size. As for the pull-ups, you would expect a more muscled person to do more pull-ups precisely because he has more muscles, but it is the smaller, wiry people who can do more pull ups.[/edit]

Bill Skinner wrote on Nov 29^th, 2010 at 2:05pm:

The staff or bo was used to foil muggers or assassins while screaming for help.  If a woman expected a fight, she carried a naginata, which is a sword on a pole.  Think halberd.  Quarterstaffs are big and heavy, 50mm and well over 2m long.  I only saw ONE female win a fight against a man using pugil sticks, she got in a lucky hit with the bayonet against the side of his neck, he helped, he didn't take her seriously.  Usually, one swing, even if blocked, knocks the woman off balance, sometimes it tore the weapon out of her hands, there is a lot to be said for upper body strength in hand to hand.  A woman of moderate build in fair physical condition going up against a man of moderate build in good physical condition will usually lose.  He has longer reach, more stamina, and he outweighs her by 15kg, most of which is in the upper body.  She would basically have to use a staff as a blunt spear to keep her opponent away from her, targeting the face, throat, solar plexis and groin, most which will be covered by armor.  If she uses her staff like a quarter staff, she will shorten her reach and put herself inside sword range.  Bill

maybe a light javelin or spear then? heck, it's fantasy, make the weapon up. justm ake sure it's based off of other real world combat situations (ancient of course) so that it's plausible.

She sounds more like a combat medic than a doctor.  It sounds like her job would be to retrieve, patch up and stabilize the wounded and send them to the rear for the actual doctors or experianced healers to work on.  She would probably triage them, patch up and send back the lightly wounded, stabilize the seriously wounded and evac them and set the ones who won't make it to one side.  She should have stretcher bearers around her, plus there should be weapons from the fighting lying around.  Maybe a cut down pike?  All they have is a sharp point and the shaft is heavy enough that a horizontal strike would do damage, even through armor.

A woman with decent upper body strength should be able to draw and shoot a bow of around 30 to 50 pounds.  That is good for hunting or unarmored opponents.  If she wants to shoot more than that, it would take serious work to do it.  Most war bows were much more than that, the Mongols and Huns used recurves that pulled 80 to 100 pounds, the English longbowmen shot 100 to 140 pounds.  Technique with the heavier bow is critical, most people can draw the heavier bows once or twice, actually hitting something you aim at is something else.  The English and the Huns pulled to the corner of the jaw, the Mongols to the center of the chest, the further you draw the bow, the more effictive it is.  Both the Huns and the Mongols were noted for using women warriors, so it was done.  Bill  

I reckon people are underestimating women fighters in this topic personally. Remember most modern women have had a far easier life style than those of medieval women who would have had alot more physical labour and most likely would have been a good bit stronger. They obviously wouldnt be as strong as the men, but definatly capable of using a quarter staff and I would have thought a 100 pound bow (the english longbows actually went all the way up to 200lbs, but bear in mind this left archers deformed with a hunch in their back through the pressure). Through Dark Age re-enactment, some of the women fighters are the best fighters we know, perhaps they do think more and rely less on strength, but the point of a weapon is to reduce the need for personal strength and to deal more damage with less effort (than fists etc.)

Slinging wise, 17 years of practise is definatly good, but with this practise, would her range vary, or would she just be practising hunting with it (ie a far shorter range and no need to ever have to aim far). By 17 years I would expect her to be pretty good though. As you have put it though, the culture isnt overly relient on its slings, unlike the ancient Balearics, and so I would probably rate her less than an ancient balearic slinger, but in reality, everyone is less than them ;)
There was the boast of one Roman general, that the standard he required for 'basic' slingers in his legion was to consistently hit a man sized target from 200 yards. Obviously this is a boast, but from the texts, this seems very reasonable for slinging specialists, and some could easily surpase this, by aiming for the head every time at that range. Again, this is a stationary target, but the idea still stands.
Damage wise, leather is pretty much one of the best things to stop sling stones in my opinion, but a lead glande i reckon would still pierce it, as they act pretty much the same as arrows. Still wouldnt do you any good to be hit with a rock while wearing hardened leather, but chances are any damage isnt likely to be fatal (internal bleeding etc) perhaps just broken ribs or severe winding.

Nemo

Hmm. Just as well the novel hasn't progressed very far yet; I'll reconsider fighting methods.

The terrain is quite flat, by the way, and apart from warfare, slinging is used against wild beasts (some are completely fictional), to protect the ox/buffalo - like creatures that provide meat.

The leather armour isn't much - a cuirass and leg greaves (just speaking offhand, I'll check my sources for proper names).

As for slings, leather is the preferred method, but I'm checking on other materials as well.

I think I will cease with the negative vibes and concentrate on what she can do.  What is the enemy's primary distance weapon?  If it is bows, there have been several comments on sling verses bow.  If it is javelins, a slinger will eat them for lunch.  If they don't have any, their only hope is to rush the slinger and hope that someone will still be alive to close with her.  Have you looked at the South Pacific warclubs?  They are made of a dense wood, some are around 2m long and have fantastic carvings.  They are used as a walking staff most of the time, in a fight, those carvings act as points and edges.  If the enemy is not wearing gauntlets, a strike to the hand or forearm will cause great pain, probably disarm him, and possibly break bones, probably if it hits the hand, even through gauntlets.  

FWIW  The most decorated branch of pretty much every armed force is the medics and corpsmen.  They are suspposed to run away and leave the wounded, Geneva Convention and all that, the enemy will take care of the wounded, all he has are defensive weapons, etc,etc...the fact is they don't abandon the wounded.  They do things like take on guys with automatic weapons while all they have is a pistol, jump on grenades, things like that.  Bill

Idea I got when I thought about another thread, which mention riot police, some with shield and short baton, other with long staff.
Okay, shield bearer with short sword cower one or two healers with longer staffs (or still using slings).  they can use spears too if they do not mind the blood, but as healers they may prefer to avoid blood shed anyway.  The longer weapon(s) are carried by the shield bearer when not needed.
This is only done in dire need, tactical withdrawal is first option, as healers is not to be wasted, and work as shield carrier may be a part of the military education/work for future leaders or something such.
timann