Wow-- don't let that thing go when warming up...

That's only 2lb?  It looks heavier.  Your sling might be smaller than I thought though.

I was thinking, these guys lobbing the 1 lb rocks were iron age soldiers, they were probably stronger than most of us.  Also, I'd bet they knew a max size for a good sling stone and used it.  My guess is that after 1lb your range starts to drop off.

I've noticed that larger rocks are easier to aim, because they move slower.  I use fairly big rocks, Maybe 1/2 lb, because those are what's around at my spot. If the rock is smaller than an egg, I have trouble.

Unless someone beats me to it, I'll try to get photos or video of me slinging different size rocks next time I'm at the beach.

Quote:


lmao - I tend towards a squashed troll description myself. And no i don't wrestle - stopped all that kind of thing when I was a wee sprog as people just kept getting hurt and I don't like hurting people who haven't pissed me off

But david does have a point, I do a lot of specific training to keep my joints strong, if you are planning on slinging heavy rocks - start small and work your way up gradually. The kind of stress a sling loaded with a heavy weight puts on your joints is not to be lightly dismissed.
Lobohunter - I believe has slung a 5lb sledge hammer head, maybe 7lb can't remember exactly.
Lobo is a six and a half foot tall professional blacksmith with a penchannt for extreme long distance mountain hikes. He's not built like average people and I'm not either (just a foot shorter than lobo lol)

Anyway I've made the artillery version of my standard 'infantry' sling.

To put this into perspective the small white pouch will comfortably hold a tennis or baseball and I've used such pouches for slinging rocks up to about 2 lb for bilbo. Because if it's not big and doesn't land about 3 feet in front of him - he never finds the bloody things
And even then it's touch and go lol

I've kept the big sling pretty short, as this is initially about how heavy a stone I can sling, rather than how far I can sling it.
It's almost bang on 20 inches - which is about the length of a balearic target sling. But the pouch is large enough to take some pretty hefty ammo.
It uses a shaped 2 finger leather sliding loop and 8mm paracord rated to 250kg. Should do the job.

Now I just need to find some bigarsed rocks to throw and sort out something to use to weigh them

I'm thinking the byzantine style as it seems quite well suited to hurling big rocks, not alot of elbow work and great use of bodyweight, waist and forward momentum. Plus you initially start by 'pulling' the sling upwards which is always easier for moving large weights.  Should suit heftier ammo. We'll see  

yep - works well too.

I'll try and remember to take the camera and some sort of weighing system with me tomorrow.
But we had fun tonight.

Didn't sling anything under about 1.5 lb. And the pouch can balance some pretty big and awkward shaped rocks. And because they were big and didn't go very far, due in part to bouncing off and sometimes through trees - bilbo actually found most of them !
He was having a great time. And for those who don't know just how excited bilbo gets when he sees a sling.
watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Hu9HaEvgk

One thing about hurling 2-3 lb rocks hard into a woodland - when they hit dead birch trees they pretty much just keep going

Going to have to weigh the biggets rock I slung (I know where it landed and even if he'd been able to get a grip on it (which he couldn't) bilbo wouldn't have been able to lift it). I'm pretty sure it was over 5lb, but one of the problems with habitually lifting heavy weights is you kind of lose the knack of gauging smaller weights.

I can definitely feel the strain as well.  No damage but I know I've been slinging.

Might even make up some longer cords for the pouch as it's a bit too short for a confortable fig 8 - one of the advantages of the loop attachment system, one pouch can be fitted with as many lengths of cord as you like and fairly easily switched.

Actually one other reason bilbo had fun today, he caught a baby rabbit this morning.

paracordslinger wrote on May 2^nd, 2011 at 8:42pm:

Oh come on. Meat is absolutely necessary in the canine diet, and shows up frequently in the human diet. Rabbits are not endangered, in any danger of becoming so, nor do they have any need for a particular hunting season due to breeding rate. They are a perfect food animal, and moreover they aren't horribly treated the way most major food animals of the grocery store variety are.

Wayfarer wrote on Apr 30^th, 2011 at 4:10pm:


Ok, there we go.  I assumed it was rope, which would have made the slug and pouch huge.  2'' * 3" makes more sense.  I thought you had like a ten pound slug in a pouch like 6" wide.  So "smaller" referred to the pouch. And that means the pouch really thick too, say, 4mm or so. I daresay your sling could function as a melee weapon, given it's rugged construction. Also, nice finger loop.

Right
Took camera, bodged up weighing sling and old fishing scales with me.

The big rock was a tad over 5.5 lbs.
The shape wasn't really conjucent to anything fancy, ie: didn't want to risk any sideways forces on the rock while it was near my head, so just used a basic underarm throw.

I don't think you'd seriosuly throw anything much heavier with a sling. A denser more compact shape would really help. But as far as human bone, sinew and joint strain goes - I'd say 5-6 lb would be the sensible limit for anyone not capable of qualifying for the world's strongest man competition (no I'm not even close on anything except maybe the viking log lift).

That said if you were attacking a fort and some bugger inside was lobbing 5 lb rocks at you, we're talking serious damage. You could maybe catch one on a shield but if it hit anything else, you'd be in some serious trouble.
With a better shaped rock and slightly longer sling I reckon I could get 30-50 yards - so you'd seriously only use something this size from an advantage of height.

end of part 1
(lol)

How did you knot that pouch ?