I been slinging for a little while and wanted to start using light weight objects, like pebbles.

The problem is even with a light weight sling the power and control seems lacking.

Heres my design idea tho i cant test it for a bit....

What if we weight the pouch, this would allow us to generate more power and we lean into the throw. We all have felt this "power" when we do that final spin before release.

Ok, although this would allow us to "throw" the sling hard/faster, would it send a pebble flying at much greater speed?

I really wish i could get around to testing this heh.

Id love to hear and results if this has been tried before.

I see, well maybe ill get around to trying to build one myself. Try some ideas that seem dumb at the start, maybe ill learn something

I have a golf ball sling with some solder strips wrapped with electrical tape attached to pouch adjacent to retention cord. This sling (50 inches) is too long for something the weight of golf balls. The weights were added after the fact to increase tension and help orient the pouch. This particular sling worked as though the golf ball was heavier and did not have any side effects caused by the added balast.The major usage of long slings will be heavier ammo and less arm problems.

My advice, if your arm is in good shape experiment with increasingly shorter sling cords until the right combination of tension/weight is arrived at for you choice of ammo. As documented by many forum members, the shorter slings give easier accuracy.

Tom

Think power, when you sling multiple rocks at once, your just distributing the power that could send 1 rock flying far into 3 or 4 that wont go nearly as far.

Also finding the cight combo like tom said with sling length + ammo weight is a very good thing to find. Unfortunately if you like to sling rocks, its a bit more difficult to achieve. I would guess that slingers back in the day probably had their own favorite length + weight.

the lead strips are probably the way to go. I was thinking the small strips of lead weights that go in the bottom of net curtains. Strung together, small and very flexible you could line the inside of a double layer pouch with them. Just haven't managed to get any yet :-)

But always good to know I guessed right about there not being a problem with weighted pouches, nice one thomas :-)

The sling wouldn't be inefficient, same efficiency as normal sling with heavier projectile.

Why ?
Well small stones and rocks tend to be more numerous than large ones - and in my case I've got 2000 reasons (paintballs :-) which are a decent size but very light. A small weighted sling would be brilliant for slinging paintballs - they fly well if you can impart sufficient velocity without pulling muscles.

And as thomas says - lighter things like golfballs in longer slings.

There are lots of reasons - check out the compound sling thread - this is another way to sling lighter missiles with greater velocity.

[quote author=curious_aardvark link=1177996216/0#12 date=1178206108]The sling wouldn't be inefficient, same efficiency as normal sling with heavier projectile.

Why ?
Well small stones and rocks tend to be more numerous than large ones - and in my case I've got 2000 reasons (paintballs :-) which are a decent size but very light. A small weighted sling would be brilliant for slinging paintballs - they fly well if you can impart sufficient velocity without pulling muscles.

And as thomas says - lighter things like golfballs in longer slings.

There are lots of reasons - check out the compound sling thread - this is another way to sling lighter missiles with greater velocity. [/quote]

I have been thinking about this since I posted the question last night. I wondered whether someone was going to suggest that lighter projectiles would achieve higher release velocities but needed heavier slings to achieve that velocity. If so then I think the logic is flawed.  You arm accelerates the total mass of sling and projectile as a unit, you cannot feel what percentage of that mass is projectile and what percentage is the actual sling. Therefore at the point of release a heavy projectile in a light sling will be moving just as fast as light one in a heavy sling for the same total mass. However after release a greater percentage of the energy which your poor overworked arm has imparted will be in the projectile and available to carry it further, as opposed to being wasted in the sling.  What percentage of the energy you are expending is actually doing something for you? That's what I mean be an inefficient sling, not a poorly designed one.

Another example; imagine you are throwing a ball by hand say a distance of 20 yards or so. It takes a significant amount of work. But most of the energy you expend just goes into getting your arm moving because the ball weighs only ounces whereas your arm weighs several pounds. Think how easy it is to do the same task with your sling. Just give it a little underarm twirl to accomplish the same throw. Your arm has barely moved so the energy you expended is much less but the ball has travelled just as far as when thrown by hand. The sling has made the process more energy efficient.

When it comes to throwing paint balls of course you have no choice, the weight is determined by the nature of the projectile. For  this application there may not be a practicable alternative but such an inelegant solution as artificially weighting the pouch just doesn't sit right with me. It's like driving around with your aircon on full in mild weather because the heater tap is stuck open. Better to find a way to turn off the tap and then you can turn off the aircon as well. I will just have to work on that one for a while.


Compound slings! Now there's a minefield in the making if ever there was one. But however effective they finally turn out to be they are not efficiency reducing devices like artificially weighted slings. The notion is that kinetic energy is stored in the weight and is then transferred to the pouch to achieve extremely high release velocities. To do this the speed of the weight must dramatically reduce prior to release of the projectile which transfers the kinetic energy to the pouch. If it doesn't do this then it is just dead weight. I bow in deference to the real engineers who will make this work.

[quote]However after release a greater percentage of the energy which your poor overworked arm has imparted will be in the projectile and available to carry it further, as opposed to being wasted in the sling.  What percentage of the energy you are expending is actually doing something for you? That's what I mean be an inefficient sling, not a poorly designed one.
[/quote]

Try it :-)
By which I mean get one of your pouches on a decent cord with something as light as a paintball in, or a pingpong ball, or a malteeser. Trying to get the sling up to speed takes stupid amount of effort that puts weird strain on your muscles. The closest analogy I can use is that of going to punch something and missing, very easy way to pull a muscle.

A weighted pouch won't make the sling heavy - all you need is to add a few ounces so that the pouch reaches the speed it would with a normal weight stone and requiring the same effort. You actually end up using a lot less effort than you would with the lighter weight, so it's all more efficient.

The only way you can understand is to try slinging malteesers :-)