I have been in my freshman semester at college these last few months and between classes, ROTC, working out, studying, and some sleep, I don't really sling as much as I'd like. Actually, about once a month compared to every day over the summer. Now that I am on break for thanksgiving, I had a pretty good slinging session today and I was surprised to find that I hadn't actually lost any of my slinging ability. After a few shots I was dialed in and maintaining groups like I did over the summer with a tennis ball and a 4oz quartz rock between 7-20 yards.

I know this isn't the same way with shooting so I assumed I "ingrained" slinging into my head over the summer so I couldn't forget. Kind of like throwing a football or Frisbee. What have your experiences been with this?

My experiences have been similar. There have been times where I have not been able to sling for months at a time. As a rule I am "dialed in" within the first dozen or so shots.

I'm the same as Bill.... Just not as accurate!
I also find my distance shooting suffers from lack of practice.

Hi Tint!  How's the family?

Congratulations.

Congrats Tint!

----------------------------

As to the original post:
Odd thing is, I also used to lose any skill with a sling rather rapidly in the past. However my experience has been the complete opposite in the last year. from about summer of 2013 to July of 2014. That was the point where I had decided to apply training elements from archery, and settle on only one particular style, focusing entirely on form and accuracy. I had loads of structure and consistency, and I trained that way for roughly 30-45 minutes on a near daily basis for about 10-12 months, or so.

Fast-forward to today. After moving to Oregon, I have only had about two slinging sessions in the last 6 months. Much to my surprise, my accuracy not only didn't suffer much, but it also came back ridiculously quickly! It was at the point where halfway through, you couldn't tell that I had barely even looked at a sling in that time period!
IMHO slinging truly is like riding a bike, once you take it past a certain point. You just need to have actually drilled accuracy, rather than just expecting it to come as you loiter about on the plateau of erratic practice and no structure.
(Not saying that's somehow "bad" or undesirable. Some only care about those instances where they chance upon a cool spot to flick rocks into a lake or field--and that's perfectly okay. )