Teg wrote on Aug 19
th, 2017 at 5:26pm:
the big point about the sling as a survival weapon is, that you can take a shot at everything that is flying or moving at (near to no) investment. you will miss 99% though, but the one time you hit...
Yeah. It doesn't take too much practice to get to the point where you could, say, sling into a flock of birds and hit something. I can't hit the center of a baleric target consistently (maybe 10 - 15% of the time) from 15 meters, but I'm certainly good enough to put a stone through the middle of a flock of birds. Most of my throws are within a couple feet of my target disk.
It also takes very little time to make a sling, compared to a bow or an atlatl. While making cordage takes time, once you have some it takes a matter of seconds to make it into a sling. You'll probably need cordage in any survival situation, so the sling has the benefit that you don't need to spend much time doing something else. Even if you want to do a fancy braided one, it doesn't take much time. While the availability of ammo is pretty dependent on where you are, it's still easier to get ammo for a sling than either of the other ones.
I have a feeling that from a time perspective, a sling is pretty good. Yeah, it'll take you longer to hunt with it, but I'm not sure how much better I'd be with a bow or throwing stick or atlatl or spear than with a sling.