i am now in teh same boat as you.  i just recently switched to a longer sling, and the helicoter/45 degrees style.  the only real advice i can think of for this style is practice regularly at least twice or three times a week if possible

Like siguy said pratice is the only way.  Try to feel the rock leaving the target rather than just focusing on the result.  Feel what's happening and adjust to the misses.

I just read Ralph Craig's article, and immediately went outside to try it.  I was using my usual sling, which is sized for the Apache style: it reaches from my hand to my shoulder, so it is shorter than the slings Craig described.  And I was using a tennis ball instead of a rock.  Even so, my first cast was very close to my target.  Subsequent casts were either dead-on or wild, as I tried to figure out why this style works.  Still working on that.  But it does work!

I have used the helicopter style for years and I find if I  think of releasing the rock earlier than my body thinks I should, it heads towards the target.  If I wait until the sling is aiming at the target then it has a tendency to pull to the left (me being right handed)

Thanks for the replies...and also-what is the most historically accurate style of slinging. And what length of sling do you use with this style???
Derek

I agree with Dale as far as the culture is concerned. The recent history of the Figure-8 is particularly fascinating, maybe not too much more digging would throw up a common origin for the style?

I wonder if even in antiquity there was a 'one true style' even among a single group.

If one looks at the styles used by herder nomads in various parts of the world, do they have a uniform style within a region? Can we point to a 'Tibetan style' or 'Andean style'? Do they use different styles for different purposes, ie. for driving off predators and pursuading herd animals to come back? If so which ones?

In the latter case, I suppose the Peruvian and Bolivian shepherds might be presumed the direct descendents of the Inca, so might offer clues to the Incan style. It would be very interesting to document how these groups actually do sling before it disappears!

P.W._Smith,

The only solid information I have for you concerns sling ammunition.  Archaeological digs in Israel continually turn up sling stones that actually are stones (often shaped by tools) or that are made of baked clay.  Real stones are more durable; clay is more readily found.  I do not know if the Israelites (or Philistines or others, for that matter) used lead or other metals.

I have no information, but do have some speculations, concerning the slings themselves.  Throughout the world, slings have been made from materials at hand: leather, animal hair (wool or similar), or plant fibers (grasses, jute, hemp, dogbane, or similar).  I would expect the slings wielded by the Benjaminites (mentioned in Judges) or by David (the books of Samuel) to have been made from wool or goathair, possibly with leather for the pouch (or to cover the straps of a split pouch, as is done in Mallorca today).

Again, these are my own speculations about the slings.  If you need definitive information, you may need to find someone who lives in the Middle East and who knows of a good museum.  I have had no luck searching on the web.