It's finally Spring!

I've already done some slinging at the summer cottage but to be honest it was pretty cold most of the time and I had to keep drying off the rocks I was using because of all the snow so today was the first day of proper slinging and boy did I find a good spot. Lauttasaari, an island just outside the centre of Helsinki, has perfect sling stones and beautiful views. I spent about 2 hours out there after work, got sunburnt, my arm is going to kill tomorrow but I am one happy slinger.

I also got to try out this new sling and it's great. I was hoping to make a fairly chunky sling but it ended up really quite slim and after wetting it down it's super flexible. Really great to use and some of the best braiding I've done. I also tried some of the leather dubbins on it that I posted about a little while ago and it does seem to have helped hold the loose fibres down and it's so smooth it looks rather snake-like. The picture is before wetting and coating it. I've found it's very good for Bealeric style.

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Lucky guy!

I'm stuck in a city with pop of 1m+ so not much slinging for me for the near future...

It's a fair way from home for me but as I've been going there every day anyway and I will be for the next 4 weeks, it makes sense to take a sling or three (this new one, the alligator sling and the one you sent me :D) and spend some time out there. I need to be a bit better prepared next time; water and sunscreen for sure.

Very nice!
If the sea level starts to rise around Finland, we know who to blame :D

“Hey! Who put all those rocks in the water?!”

looks cold ...

Yeah I think I will legitimately have to change up my slinging spots now and then because every stone of a certain size is going to be going for a swim in the next few weeks :D

There's still a bit of old frozen snow and some sea ice but it was fairly warm. Not sure exactly but at least plis 10C in the Sun. The wind of the sea could be a bit chilly but when slinging with a jumper on I was more than warm enough.

Beautiful area and sling. You're a lucky man!

Was out there again today for 3 hours. Sun burn on my sun burn despite the sun cream but worth it. I had a fair few people come up and ask me what I was doing as well. It's funny because everyone says Finnish people are very quiet and don't talk to other people but I've had people asking me about slinging on the beach and asking me about nålbinding on the bus and train. When I was doing my first Finnish language course we had a joke "Finnish people don't speak... to you".

Even in the 70s older and younger Finns knew sling. For today's Finns it is unknown.

I've been surprised because most of the people asking have been older (but then I was out in the middle of the day on a Wednesday so...) but I also had one couple, I guess in their 30s, who knew what a sling was but had never seen one being used in real life. They were really interested and I would have given them a sling of I had any to give away. Next time I'll remember to bring some spares. But yeah most people have known what it is which I wouldn't have guessed honestly.

To this date I've only had one single person who knew what a sling was- most of the others are completely baffled, but usually quite interested!

Very cool slinging spot.

Thare's nothing quite like a pebble beach for slinging :thumb: 

Nice find

I've had to have a break because my arm needs a rest and I keep burning my face but I'll be back there on Monday :D

I envy you.  Where I live, the closest gravel beds are 35 miles (60km) away and the gravel is smaller than the first joint of your little finger.

Plus, as it's on the banks of the Alabama River, it normally requires a fairly long muddy walk to get to them.

OTOH, I get a long relaxing walk and I can get rather muddy while slinging rocks at stumps and logs out in the river, so I generally have a rather good time.

Plus, there's the wildlife.  All sorts of ducks, geese and other birds, I see Bald Eagles and Ospreys fishing almost every outing.  'Gators, bears and feral hogs are there, too, so I stay alert, nothing like something out there that will eat you to make you pay attention to nature.   ;D  I also see raccoons, squirrels, opossums, and all sorts of other smaller critters on a pretty regular basis. 

And the fishing is rather good, too.

There are a lot of birds around Lauttasaari particularly at this time of year. It's nice to have so much nature around but it's also meant I've had to patiently wait for various swans, Arctic terns, ducks and the various other sea birds to get out of the way before I can let loose. It also didn't help the last time I was there that they kept flying with their backs to the Sun so a few times I only saw them after I had thrown. Luckily didn't hit any of them but it really showed me that hunting birds with a sling is a definite possibility. They really didn't care how much I spun the thing round my head or the big splooshes as the rocks hit the water.

You guys are lucky. When I go down to the river we get big, noisy, very angry pelicans. They are not small and not scared of anything. And they will eat your fish if youre not careful.

;)

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;D

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Mein slinger Paradies.

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Wow that does look great Jaegoor

Although good sling stones are very abundant in southern New Jersey I don't have a beach with piles of them.  Your spots really are slinging heaven, kto and Jaegoor.

Kick wrote on Apr 14^th, 2018 at 3:01pm:

There are a lot of birds around Lauttasaari ...

(By the way, one of my friends lives in the Lauttasaari.)

If they like slinging they should look out for me down on the beach :D The weather has been pretty bad the last two days and on Monday I had a (very boring) meeting so couldn't go but hopefully this week I'll be back there.

I think he has never thrown a sling. And he did not know that I'm a slinger.

My rocky beach is about two miles up the river. (5KM ish)  The majority of rocks are about the size of the smallest joint of your little finger or smaller.

It's about 5 meters wide and 40 meters or so long.  So, I can throw all the good rocks into the river in about an hour.  The good thing is that every time the river floods, more rocks get put back.

It's at the base of a chalk bluff, all sorts of fossilized oyster shells wash out.  Sooner or later, with a lot of luck, I'll find a shark tooth.  Not a Meg, wrong age of chalk.  And it's really good fishing for three species of large mouth bass, striped bass, white bass and hybrids.

Start of the week went back to rain and misery and cold so today was the first day I got back out there. I'm definitely better at distance throwing now with some more practice under my belt. I got 120m(ish) at the summer cottage on the frozen lake but I think today I managed to get about 200m or at least close to it on the one shot. That's just guesswork on my part but it went bloody far. I'm still not all that consistent but when everything falls into place those stones really go.

I also took along my "Barbarian" sling which I've showed off before and it did pretty well for such a long sling. I also took the Tibetan sling and yeah, it's just not made for distance. Real fun to use but couldn't get more than 60 or 70m. My sling I posted in this thread before was on great form today; the crack from it was echoing around the bay and it's just so smooth to use. Unfortunately, a few slightly odd shaped stones took their toll on the pouch and the release side has taken some damage. I'm going to attempt to whip it with some cotton thread and hope it doesn't mess with the dynamics of the thing too much. I still have a lot of material left and already started on a new sling anyway so I can soon have another one if this one fails.

Also put picture: a good stone place. :)
I collect the rocks in the lower right corner

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Now that's a good ammo pile :D