Great question! I've been wondering what the "standards of accuracy" might be as well.

Both your accuracy examples would in fact be quite good.

To hit a standard "Coke can" CONSISTENTLY at 30 m is very, very, good! Note I said, "consistently", which means more than 50% of the time. Anyone can fluke it occassionally.

Barn at 100m isn't so hard although there the main factor is the distance. Unless you've got good ammo hitting anything distant gets a little chancey as poor quality stones veer off course so easily. Even with good stones anyone who can hit an object the size of a car at 100m (again consistently) is doing well.

To answer your second question .......... "No". Different slings may last better than others but they all wear out eventually and the ALL get dirty.

PS. Sorry to contradict you Morphy, my friend, but I've yet to see a sling that didn't wear to some degree

I do not understand these whole discus ions.

What is exact? Who is exact? How exactly is exact?

Thus one does not learn the Slingen. One learns it only by practise.
And by the a little logical think.

There is for the Slingen already Standarts. One must not invent that anew.

Maybe one catches ersteinmal to an ability to trainiern.
This to and fro jump between styles, makes no master.
Exact beherschen of a method is condition for other methods.

I had already suggested a meeting to ascertain this.

30 m a very good distance is for a Sling for the hunting.

And on jedenfall I know that I can shoot a stone really 300 m away.

Also in the antiquity were Far shots of ballistic nature. It went therefore of covering a big surface with several hundred Slingern. It was not about a single aim.

Each was present in Sollér, it knows as hard can be Balearic state kind to fulfil.
Can they state also themselves?
So before we further talk, I invite them herewith warmly to a Slinger meeting in Germany.
To floors becomes to Balearic and German Standarts. But also slingen from full run and Slinger chess will be on offer. If they get themselves a valid passport and they come across. Then we start to speak once again of Standarts.

I'm not sure how much truth ther is to this but I remember hearing on here that Roman slingers were required to hit a man sized target at 200yards. True or not I am sure it is possible, and I would consider that to be long range acuracy. Real world close range acuracy I would think would be like being able to hunt small game and consitently would require some major accuracy.

My goal right now is to just not to miss which thus far is going pretty well. I have aquired a very consistent realease time it is just the consistency in form and hand placement for the throw that I need to perfect as I work on smaller targets. Your accuracy isn't as much judged by us as it is by yourself.

For throwing at the river, my slings are made of braided nylon curtain cord, I think about 4 or 5mm.  They get wet and muddy but after a year or so, are not showing much signs of wear.  Some of the rocks are smooth, some are rough, all are muddy.

I thought I was a fairly good shot out to about 15m or so, I tried small game hunting this year and was humbled very quickly.  I think hitting a pop can at 30m for 3 of 5 throws is outstanding accuracy and is probably well below what the old timers could do.  I think that you should be able to sling almost as well as you shoot a traditional bow, slings were used for hunting small game and especially waterfowl, the main advantage is that you lose a rock instead of an arrow if you miss.

And Jaegoor is correct, pick one style and stay with it, slinging is like all shooting sports, consistancy equals sucess.

Bill Skinner wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2012 at 1:24pm:


I agree with this statement. Right now none of us that I know of are at this point. I think one big reason is this idea that seems prevalent among some slingers that since "A sling throws stones, I can therefore pick up any round river stone and with enough practice be able to have amazing accuracy."

Nope. Not going to happen. Tell me one projectile weapon that you can use inconsistent ammo and gain great accuracy? A bow is much easier to use than a sling. If it's necessary with a bow, why on earth would it not be for a sling?  

There are basically two main factors for accuracy with a sling. Pre-release accuracy which is based on form and stone weight and post-release accuracy which is based on stone shape,  and to a lesser extent (except at long ranges) wind, and release cord obstruction.

Just getting all stones or clay ammo at a decent weight and consistent weight for that matter will greatly improve control and offer the slinger the ability to actually improve on a solid foundation rather than a constantly shifting one. But if your ammo is too light, good luck getting really accurate... Anyways, I better end this, I get started on this subject and I just keep going and going...