Hi and welcome,
I would say that the sling would easilly beat the sling shot in distance and power. But with accuracy a beginer could pick up a sling shot in the morning and by the afternoon he would be able to hit his/her mark or close. With a sling it takes a (long)while for the hand eye cordination to be able to hit accuracy wise.

yeah i feel a sling beats a slingshot in distance and the power that you can put behind your projectile..never the less a slingshot is easyer to learn its the challenge that makes the sling more fun imo..

maybe forty feet would be my guess.  really depends on the slingshot.  if you are using a real slingshot, with tire innertube rubbers, or industrial strength rubbers like they sell commercially, you can get far more distance than a small child's version that i had several years ago, with relatively weak rubbers.

As far as the energy that kills you, kinetic energy. This depends on the mass of the projectile as well as the speed. So, say a sling and a slingshot both fire 300m. The sling, which shoots much heavier ammo is far more lethal.

The best bands for slingshots, I find, are surgical rubber tubing at the hardware store.

I've used both slings and slingshots, and I constantly have to teach people about the difference, but anyway...In terms of distance and impact force imparted, the sling almost certainly the undisputed champ. With a slingshot, you have more control over the shot and its subsequent placement and can more closely approach the optimal 45 degree angle for a distance shot, but the type of ammo you can use is very small, and the small ammo does not have the momentum that a large, heavy sling stone does and hence is more affected by air resistance. I've never heard of anyone being able to shoot a slingshot over a quarter mile before, while I have heard of at least two people accomplishing sed distance with a sling, which for me, settles the matter. I own a slingshot, and I am okay with it, having only used it a few times (rubber tubing broke and snapped on me, almost hit myself in the face while pulling back for the shot) but I own five slings, and I use them every chance I can get. If it came to small game hunting I would go for a slingshot instead of a sling ("Hey, wanna see if I can hit the squirrel up there with a sling?" *WHOOSH-THWACK EEEEEEEK* "What squirrel?") But any other time, just give me a sling, give me a rock, and give me some room.

MammotHunter,

Do you hunt mammots or is it just a way to make Mammoth Hunter shorter? 

Quote:

I wanted to have MammothHunter as my name, but since the username could only be of a certain length, I thought, well, mammoth in french is mammut so I could do mammot-Hunter, and since I loved atlatls predominantly at the time, more so than slings, which has changed, it was a way of showing my allegiance to the atlatl, which was used to hunt mammoths and other large mammals. I used to have 3 atlatls and 9 darts, but since I joined slinging.org I got rid of 2 of the atlatls and 8 of the darts, and now I have 5 slings and several dozen pieces of self-manufactured and collected sling ammunition, and that's just in my truck glove compartment! I'm a full convert to slinging, now! Don't think you could hunt mammots with the sling, but I would be among the first to try!