Slinging.org Forum - Number of Bola Weights

eaglewarrior Tiro Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 12 Gender:	Number of Bola Weights Mar 20^th, 2013 at 10:33pm Has anybody tried making bolas with more than three weights? And if you have, do you think that three is still the best or is there some good potential to experiment with more weights?
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Masiakasaurus Forum Moderation Offline mah-SEE-a-kah-SOR-us Posts: 6069 Alabama, USA Gender:	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #1 - Mar 20^th, 2013 at 10:57pm Bird bolas have up to 9 weights, and bola perdidas have only 1 weight. There's definitely room to experiment.
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Curious Aardvark Forum Moderation Offline Taller than the average Dwarf Posts: 13965 Midlands England Gender:	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #2 - Mar 21^st, 2013 at 9:00am how can you have a 1 weight bolas ? isn't that just a weight on a string ?
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Fundibularius Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Sultan of Sling Posts: 1385 Inter Mosam ac Rhenum Gender:	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #3 - Mar 21^st, 2013 at 9:36am Why not? It's like slinging and sending the sling away together with the projectile.
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Caldou Funditor Offline Moving the world... rock by rock. Posts: 779 Picardie, France	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #4 - Mar 21^st, 2013 at 9:54am Curious Aardvark wrote on Mar 21^st, 2013 at 9:00am: how can you have a 1 weight bolas ? Quite easily etymologically Una bola means one ball and when you're talking about "bolas perdidas" it really looks like you won't recover them
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LukeWebb

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Re: Number of Bola Weights
Reply #5 - Mar 21^st, 2013 at 10:27am

The did make one weight bolas known as slung shot, the olympic hammer also used in scotland, and the native americans had a single stone ball on a short line that was thrown.

As for actual bolas they have 2+ weights, the 2 weighters are for fighting, you throw them by holding one of the weights to entangle and by holding the center where the strands join to kill (makes a shotgun spray pattern and hits like a ton of bricks!) for close range fighting one weight was held between the toes and the line in the hand and then you snap it forward, would really hurt to get that in the face. A 3 weight bola will also entangle but anything with more than 3 is not used for entanglement and is held by the center where the cords are connected to each other and thrown to produce a shotgun spray, this type was commonly used for bird hunting.

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Dan

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Re: Number of Bola Weights
Reply #6 - Mar 21^st, 2013 at 4:04pm

I'm a fan of the 3 weight bola. As Luke said, you can grip it in the center for 'punching' impact or grip one of the weights at the end for entaglement.

I could see the advantage to having more weights with the 'punch' method when hunting birds. It'd mean more chances to hit your prey and more surface area you are covering.
It'd be kinda like using bird shot instead of slugs.

Ensuring your kill really means a lot when your survival depends on it.

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I was pretty good at slinging like 10 years ago.

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squirrelslinger

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Re: Number of Bola Weights
Reply #7 - Mar 24^th, 2013 at 11:19am

Dan wrote on Mar 21^st, 2013 at 4:04pm:

I'm a fan of the 3 weight bola. As Luke said, you can grip it in the center for 'punching' impact or grip one of the weights at the end for entaglement.

I could see the advantage to having more weights with the 'punch' method when hunting birds. It'd mean more chances to hit your prey and more surface area you are covering.
It'd be kinda like using bird shot instead of slugs.

Ensuring your kill really means a lot when your survival depends on it.

Totally.

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Curious Aardvark Forum Moderation Offline Taller than the average Dwarf Posts: 13965 Midlands England Gender:	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #8 - Mar 24^th, 2013 at 11:47am the two weight bolas makes great sling ammo. ALso easy to make. In a survival situation hunting with sling bolas would drastically improve your chances of bringing down game.
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squirrelslinger Interfector Viris Spurii Offline peace through superior firepower Posts: 2870 Ky, USA Gender:	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #9 - Mar 24^th, 2013 at 12:11pm Curious Aardvark wrote on Mar 24^th, 2013 at 11:47am: the two weight bolas makes great sling ammo. ALso easy to make. In a survival situation hunting with sling bolas would drastically improve your chances of bringing down game. Good idea, I will test it. ON targets, not game;)
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perpetualstudent

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Re: Number of Bola Weights
Reply #10 - Mar 24^th, 2013 at 6:09pm

I seem to recall someone on the forum experimenting with launching a bird bola from a sling. I'm not sure how well that went but if you're experimenting, it might be worth a try.

this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ect-_mPhss
argues that the middle weight ought to be lighter than the outer two weights so it spreads out. And demonstrates how well entangled the target can get.

And of course this video is from members of our very own forum demonstrating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybDJ1ItuFA

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Masiakasaurus

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Re: Number of Bola Weights
Reply #11 - Mar 24^th, 2013 at 6:28pm

To get the bola to spread each weight needs to be a slightly different weight or each cord a different length. There are 2 variations on the 3 weight bola, one with approximately equal lengths and weights for each cord that is gripped from the center and one with 2 approximately equal lengths and one noticeably longer that is gripped by the weight on the longer cord. The latter was typically used on horseback for cattle wrangling in the American southwest.

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Pikåru wrote on Nov 19^th, 2013 at 6:59pm:

Massi - WTF? It's called a sling. You use it to throw rocks farther and faster than you could otherwise. That's all.
~Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily avialable, they will create their own problems.~

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Mauro Fiorentini Forum Moderation Offline Forge your future with the hammer of your mind! Posts: 3442 Ancona, Italy. Gender:	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #12 - Mar 29^th, 2013 at 8:10am Topic added to the PW's index. Greetings, Mauro.
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Kjev Senior Member Offline Limits exist only in your mind Posts: 299	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #13 - Apr 14^th, 2013 at 9:04pm I have a 3-weight set of bolas that I've used for years, and a 6-weight set of bird bolas that I build just to see if I could.
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Fundibularius Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Sultan of Sling Posts: 1385 Inter Mosam ac Rhenum Gender:	Re: Number of Bola Weights Reply #14 - Apr 15^th, 2013 at 2:26am Excellent work!
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