It is back to the question, which I admit I haven't seen well answered, of projectile velocity.

Thom Richardson (article on this site) slung at specialized equipment (for measuring the velocity of bullets), and got pretty low velocities (around 30 m/s)-- but admits that he didn't sling very well, and also that the difficulty of slinging  at the equipment kept his shot velocity

So higher than 32 m/s. But how much higher ? On YouTube, a guy seems to record 38 m/s. Here, people seem to think 45-50 m/s pretty easily reachable-- but often by measuring departure cracks and arrival smacks, which is not hugely reliable.

An experiment would probably be pretty easy to set up (filiming a slung projectile passing by two upright markers, for instance), but I haven't seen one yet (and apologies for not carrying one out myself). 70 m/s seems high. MrBoss's 111 m/s makes one wonder how it's measured; in any case, it does not represent the speed achieved by a man slinging with a "normal" length sling.

I would say:

40 g lead bullet
velocity at 50 m/s
50 joules

10 times less KE than a .45 (but probably still enough to penetrate the human body). Oh, sorry, I see Aussie's made this point already. I agree with him.

I use 150 g of lead balls for the wide shooting. I shoot this with a Sling of silk and with a "run length" of 1 m.
How to me is own, I shoot with a retention Toggle.
Even observers are not to be seen in the situation these balls in the flight.

May I add that mrBoss also claimed pretty outrageous distances ( further than the current world record I remember), and those claims have  to my knowledge never been proven. I would take his claims considering sling speed with a grain of salt.

Even without the cash to make that "necessary trip" you could give a demonstration under less ideal circumstances too demonstrate this alledgedly world record breaking talent. I seem to remember that board members in your area have offered to witness such an event, until then I stay sceptical. Don´t take it personal, but claims that you can break an actual world record don´t mean zilch until you back them up with some actual proof of such competence (like slinging near the world record without actually breaking it, f.i. under less than ideal circumstances).

Who signs those??

Mr. Boss wrote on May 18^th, 2010 at 10:52am:


Your legal system in the US will probably be a bit different than ours so you will have to do some investigation for yourself. Here a person who wants or needs to, can sign a 'statutory declaration' stating that something is true, which has the same weight in law as giving evidence in court (ie. you could be charged with perjury if the declaration is false) I'm sure you will have something similar.

If you were to get someone of standing in the community such as a school principal, police officer, medical practitioner, etc to witness you slinging and accurately describe the experiment and how they measured the distance there could be no argument. I suggest you use GPS as the units are now quite common and give a very high degree of certainty over so long a distance.