As title

For me its one of the things that give my life more reason to live & combats depression.

Slinging motivates me to earn more money.

I want a nice rural place where I can live in peace, I already work from home, so that is settled.

My dream in life is attainable - a rural house, clean air, clean water, a small car to get me from a to b, to work from home definitely, and have slinging property.

I've reached about 3.5 of these goals so far, air could be better. But that should go on par with the rural house..

So yes, slinging is very important in my life

A few years ago, just as I was getting into slinging, I was talking with my girlfriend and talking about hobbies. I felt I didn't have really any proper hobbies. My dad has cycling, her dad has golf, some people have other sports (watching or playing or both), some people have art etc. and I was starting to think maybe slinging would be my "thing".

Well all these years later, 30+ slings owned, slings recieved from around the world, slings I've made and sent off around the  world, new skills learned and new knowledge gained... I think I made a good choice.

I almost always have a sling on me and often more than one and I never pass up a slinging opportunity. It's really become an important part of who I am and I can't see myself not slinging.

After 13 years on this forum it's become a huge part of my life.
for the 20 or so years before that it was just something I'd learned and did  occasionally while walking the dogs.

Since then it's taken me to wyoming, the balearic islands and various places in the uk I'd probably never have seen.

Not to mention being the principle slinger in a book, the only person in history to have built, attended and organised slinging events on 2 continents and 4 countries.

I've met a huge variety of people, some I count among my best friends.

Now if I could only earn money from it - things would be perfect :-)

It used to BE my life basically, hahaha. But now I have little time to do it and find myself just wanting to do something easier with my free time. But I still feel a draw to it. If that makes any sense.

Many may think that I'm just clowning around with slings. But slinging is important.

I feel for me it's like learning chess.
First you see others play or are introduced to it.
If you learn to move all the figures and the rules you can say you know how to play. Then you keep learning, you might become the best of your friends , the best in the world, but to get there you must keep on playing, game after game , sling after sling , win or lose ,hit or miss.
You will never ever forget but if you don't practice you will become rusty. To keep progressing is to be a slinger. You can't just say it you must do it to become better.
So for me the importance of slinging in my life is built in the past and a strong keynote in my identity. As long as I am able I will sling.

For me, slings are a tie to the past.  I like slings, longbows, swords, making mead, etc.  As I'm sure many others do.  When making a sling or a bow I think about people that may have been doing it hundreds or thousands of years ago.  And what these objects would have been for them.  "Thousands of years ago" isn't a concept I can fully wrap my head around.  And so I find it fascinating.

joe_meadmaker wrote on Dec 11^th, 2018 at 1:51pm:

For me, slings are a tie to the past.  I like slings, longbows, swords, making mead, etc.  As I'm sure many others do.  When making a sling or a bow I think about people that may have been doing it hundreds or thousands of years ago.  And what these objects would have been for them.  "Thousands of years ago" isn't a concept I can fully wrap my head around.  And so I find it fascinating.

Very good point. When everything comes together and I manage to throw super smoothly and land the hit just where I was aiming it can feel like I've fallen back in time. I love it.

@ Joe  :thumb:  Making cordage out of plant fiber also sends me back in time. Gathering, extracting the fibers, drying and then
reverse twisting and or braiding. Most ancient people did the exact same thing. Love it  :)

Very good question and a great way for us to learn more about what motivates us a slingers. 

Very important.

In my calendar, I keep track of exercise, creativity, and work. Slinging often falls into both the creativity and exercise sections.

Weather permitting, my daily exercise routine includes locating rocks on my walk, stretches, stick twirling and swinging, all as warm-ups for slinging rocks for distance.  Feeling a well-timed release and watching a rock sail through the air can elevate the spirit.  As Joe_Meadmaker said, I think about my ancestors, who most likely used a sling to protect domestic animals and in battles.

Making slings and researching sling history are creative endeavors.

My avocation is experimental anthropology, especially archery's antecedents, including slings, kestros, baton de commandement, atlatl, and pathfinder arrows.  How did these leverage and momentum based weapons evolve into an enduring stored-energy weapon?

Very important though I haven't done it much lately. Hiking in the mountains with a sling or bow is/was among my favorite things to do. I also enjoy mushroom hunting so hiking, slinging and mushroom hunting form a perfect combination of hobbies I can do all at the same time. Life is just better with a sling.

For me slinging is cathartic. Between my high tech day job and my e-commerce side business, almost everything thing else I do affects people’s lives or costs thousands of dollars (at least).  The most consequential result I might get from doing something wrong with my sling is that I get some dirty looks from my dog when I accidentally throw her ball over the fence.

That last part made me chuckle a bit on the inside. What sort of ecommerce business do you run? If you don’t mind me asking.

Drakolith wrote on Dec 12^th, 2018 at 10:45am:

That last part made me chuckle a bit on the inside. What sort of ecommerce business do you run? If you don’t mind me asking.

We just sell random things through Amazon. Basically we buy things locally and resell them online for a small profit. We’re a very small player, but it’s a good enough business that my wife can work from home and we even have a part-time employee that the business supports.

First of All Have a nice day all of you fellow slingers
For me, slinging is a new madness. You see, I am deep in targeting. Hunting also. So, this weapon, with the non existing ability to use sights, with the demand of personal accurate motion in order to make it work simply  stroke my heart, the last years. I have made a lot of them, in order to find the one that is good for me. Now I am proud to say that from 10 metres I FINALLY start to get a consistency in targeting. And if somebody of you is kind enough to teach me how to use the camera to record it, I would be able to present it to you. A very small progress for most of you, but for me is a progress high as a mountain. Yeah, this pre-ancient lethal dance, has taken my mind away from my shotguns and slingshots.

Nice philosophical question. At one point it was what I was doing to keep my sanity intact. Working full time while carrying a full Public Health Graduate Degree, slinging was how I kept my mind off work and school. Later after I graduTed, sling was how I kept my mind off of work ( My then company had lied to me about how much my salary was going to be).  Left that job eventually and life went into a nose spin. Just sort of faded out of it while I worked on more important stuff. When I was a traveling g contractor, I did meet up with two forum members (Sling badger and Morningstar) for some slinging related fun. Lost both of my ranges due to family drama. That was kinda the death knell for me and my slinging. I am starting to come back, but I don’t think it is going to be as important to me as it was back when this forum was just getting started.

   I used to sling and make slings more than I do now but I still consider slinging important.  Why?  Totally independent of modern technology or manufacturing I can quickly make a viable weapon completely on my own.  It's like money in the bank.

I hear you Rat Man. Philosophically, there’s something liberating about knowing you could make a deadly weapon anywhere and any time... There’s absolutely nothing wrong with dangerous people as long as they are trustworthy and honorable  :)

In the Chinese culture there is a famous writer named Louis Cha. He wrote fictional stories based on actual historical events and captured pretty much the entire Chinese reading audience since the 50's. In one of his many successful books, the Condor Heros, there are characters who were martial arts masters adept in throwing pebbles with deadly force as weapons. That's kind of our version of superheroes in the ancient east. These Condor Heros ended up fighting the Mongolian army in a final epic battle. The story ended with an impossible throw from the main character. Killing the Mogolian general and pushed back the ultimate invasion for decades.
As a teenager, I used to sling and imagine myself training to be one of the Condor Heros (although the characters didn't use slings. They threw with empty hand and chi power)...still do I guess :D
In other words, slinging is very important to me. It lets me escape reality and opened a portal for me to enter a world of imagination.

Back then before slinging, I wasn't a confident young man, I didn't have much merit to credit myself other than the occasional mediocre piece of art I did in the past. I didn't have merit, people tended to steamroll me in any sort of competition. Not to mention I had an abusive toxic friendship which dragged my self esteem down to Hell. I didn't really know who I was or what my "point" was, but then I took up slinging after reading a clearly embellished article in a class. I always knew what a sling was supposed to be, but as everybody else thought it was some kind of joke weapon, but after reading the article about its merits in combat, I began to become interested in making and using them. When my technique refined I was impressed by the power of beauty of such a deceptively simple device. Needless to say I take the weapon way more seriously these days and get a little pissy when I see people using them idiotically.

The sling made me more confident, I could create cool looking things that practically only I could use, rather enchanting really. It encouraged me get stronger, and think more critically. Also Dark Souls is a pretty great asset to who I am today for similar reasons. I figured out for myself that life isn't (or shouldn't) be a massive competition, it's okay to lose, as long as you improve upon your defeat, whether you stay with it, or figure out something else that's more tailored to you.

There's nothing more enchanting than watching a stone fly far through the air at incredible speeds in which you could not achieve by a hand's throw alone.

I also forgot to write that competition is mostly for fun, but yeah.

I find slinging to be a great stress reliever.  When my mother was in the final stages of her terminal illness, I used to sling almost every day. 

I still find it relaxing.  I don't sling but about once or twice a month, it's been very wet for the last 6-8 months, my gravel beds have either been washed away, covered in silt or were under water when I got there.   

Bill Skinner wrote on Jan 21^st, 2019 at 4:53pm:

I find slinging to be a great stress reliever.  When my mother was in the final stages of her terminal illness, I used to sling almost every day.  I still find it relaxing.  I don't sling but about once or twice a month, it's been very wet for the last 6-8 months, my gravel beds have either been washed away, covered in silt or were under water when I got there.

   Agreed. When my late wife was fighting cancer I found making slings a great stress reliever.  I don't know how many I made to stay sane (sane for me anyway) but to this day there are still way too many slings around here.

Quote:

but to this day there are still way too many slings around here

Is that even possible :noidea:
Found a couple of bags of them recently :-)

Not as important as it once was but still something I enjoy and wish I could do more often.

Back when I lived in NYC making slings and throwing rocks into the east river helped keep me sane. Actually I made slings for my groomsmen. Since movingI've had less opportunity to sling though much of that is fatherhood having less time. But I'll teach my kids to sling. And periodically I'll make more slings.

perpetualstudent wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2019 at 3:50pm:

Since movingI've had less opportunity to sling though much of that is fatherhood having less time. But I'll teach my kids to sling. And periodically I'll make more slings.

I know that feeling well... having young kids both inspires you to do more with your time and keeps you from getting anything done! 

Sadly, my reason to go outside and sling tennis balls every day is now gone. My beloved golden retriever passed away a few weeks ago thanks to a sudden and aggressive cancer. My goofy dalmation/poodle mix is a great family dog, but he’s a defective fetcher at best. He chases the ball, but then he drops it halfway across the yard before walking up to me and asking me to pet him. Chasing and retrieving tennis balls was one of my golden’s favorite things in the world, and I still like it, but slinging is just not the same without her. 

So sorry to hear that NOC.  Absolutely heartbreaking.  You definitely have my sympathy.