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Are you a slinger, or a person who slings? (Read 6283 times)
joe_meadmaker
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Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Jun 9th, 2019 at 10:50pm
 
I've been thinking about this question for a little while.  I may just be dancing around semantics, but I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on it.  In full disclosure, I'm aware that anyone who is throwing a projectile with a sling, is technically a slinger.  I guess I'm thinking more about a mindset.

Here's some background on what brought this to my attention.  A while back Mersa posted a video of a really nice throw (@Mersa - hope you don't mind me using your example).  Here is the link to the topic in case anyone hasn't see it and wants to take a look (http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1550922816).  He made a comment that afterward he felt he was "truly a slinger".  I thought that was pretty awesome and have been thinking on and off about the concept since reading that.

For me personally, I feel more like just a person who slings.  And that got me thinking about what would need to happen for me to feel like a slinger.  I know that others on the forum have done things such as taken part in competitions, hunting, reached a reliable level of accuracy, etc.  But I'm not sure what it would take for me to reach that mindset.

What does everyone else think?  In your own mind, are you a slinger or a person who slings?  I'm sure it will be different for everyone, but what do you think it takes for someone to feel like a slinger?

And just to note, I mentioned that I think of myself as a "person who slings".  If that never changes, I am perfectly fine with it.  I love making slings and slinging, and have no intention to stop.  Smiley
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #1 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 12:28am
 
I would say I'm a slinger now. I own that many slings, I've been doing it for that long and I feel I have some level of proficiency and knowledge (both in sling techniques and some history). I rarely go out with out at least one sling in my pocket and I'm constantly looking for good sling stones. It's more than just a side hobby for me now, it's a pretty big part of my life.
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TheJackinati
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #2 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 4:48am
 
Having started off with throws barely exceeding 80 metres, to nowadays achieving throws of ~120-200 metres... I feel like I might have become a slinger... or at least better-abled than I was as a novice...

That said, I would not be much of a slinger, currently. I focus mainly on distance and so I don't have a great level of accuracy (I do however have good timing with a Byzantine). From a military perspective against formations of men, I would be viable, from a "Duel" or "Group-on-group" engagement at close-to-medium distances... I would not be that great.
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #3 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 6:13am
 
I consider myself a persone who slings. I haven't been slinging all that much.
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #4 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 6:24am
 
Oh, I've been facing that question before, regarding other activities.
For me, the feeling of "being something" rather than "doing something" hasn't anything to do with any kind of level. It's about the way you live it.

I'm not claiming any performpance here, but I sling almost every day if space available, and in any case, imagination does the trick when I cannot sling properly.
I'm feeling quite inconfortable when I don't have a sling with me, like some kind of talisman. odd.
Checking for rocks has become quite compulsive. See: Some weeks ago, I was trying to ford a river. I'm not a very balaced guy, nor a very self-confident one. So I strated crossing with both legs and hands.
15 minutes later, some friends came back to check for me. I was still somewhere in the middle of the stream, collecting riverbed rocks... I just forgot they were waiting for me.
And braiding, and collecting clay, leraning history, ballistics, I even learned to read spanish with Hondero's book (granted, I'm french, so it wasn't so difficult as if I was, say, German, because of the similarities between latin-based languages.) And of course roaming this forum, with is a good clue of mental disorder...

So I definely do have the strong feeling I AM a slinger (at least for now...). No doubt I will follow another path someday.
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Sarosh
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #5 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 2:26pm
 
joe_meadmaker wrote on Jun 9th, 2019 at 10:50pm:
I'm sure it will be different for everyone, but what do you think it takes for someone to feel like a slinger?


for me, trying to figure out how skirmishers would think in a campaign, reading history might help you get an idea. All the duties you have to do... clean out passes for the heavy infantry, delivering messages, ambushing other skirmishers and teaching the young recruits how to kill, hunting, making camp, digging trenches, cutting timber for siegecraft, witnessing the engines of war bring down walls. Enjoying pork and wine after a battle while sharing stories of how someone saved someone else's ass....

also the training might have fun parts, read de re militari , training twice a day for noobs and once for veterans. long marches under the hot sun ending with a swim in the river.

of course the bad thing is taking orders.

like a kid plays pirate, I play slinger that's when I feel like one Tongue
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #6 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 3:44pm
 
Depends on what I wear and where I am. If I wear a shoulder bag with projectiles, a sling repair kit, more slings in the bag or around my neck or on my belt, my hat and a staff, on a hike, I definitely feel like a slinger. When I am sitting behind a pc, not so much
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slingingrocksforfun
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #7 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 4:15pm
 
Interesting question!

When you master an instrument you can call yourself painist or guitarist or is that only when it is your profession?

As well as sling i play some blues harmonica. An old saying " it takes you ten days to learn the basics and ten years (a lifetime?) to master".

Similar with slinging, ten months of learning the basics and a lifetime to master, if ever. So i would not call myself a slinger.

However, i love my playing bluesharp and i love slinging stones at targets.

Getting in the zone, focused but relaxed, timing, tension, release, observing the trajectory to target and wallop. Satisfaction. Love it.

So, I'm not a slinger yet but I'm enjoying trying to get there.

SRFF

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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #8 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 4:23pm
 
Ich verstehe die Frage nicht. Slinger? Alles nur blabla.
Freunde nennen mich Jaegoor 😂
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slingingrocksforfun
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #9 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 5:00pm
 
Interesting question!

When you master an instrument you can call yourself painist or guitarist or is that only when it is your profession?

As well as sling i play some blues harmonica. An old saying " it takes you ten days to learn the basics and ten years (a lifetime?) to master".

Similar with slinging, ten months of learning the basics and a lifetime to master, if ever. So i would not call myself a slinger.

However, i love my playing bluesharp and i love slinging stones at targets.

Getting in the zone, focused but relaxed, timing, tension, release, observing the trajectory to target and wallop. Satisfaction. Love it.

So, I'm not a slinger yet but I'm enjoying trying to get there.

SRFF

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joe_meadmaker
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #10 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 5:05pm
 
I love all the different points of view on this.  Very interesting.

@Jaegoor - I'm not surprised the question is having trouble with translation.  Let me try to explain it another way.  Frondeur had a very nice interpretation.  The question was whether people feel that they are only participants in an activity, in this case slinging.  Or if it has become a more significant aspect of their lives.  I hope that is more understandable.

Although I think everyone on this forum would consider you a slinger, Jaegoor Wink
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #11 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 5:19pm
 
I've been slinging for nearly half my life now,when I started it was just a tool I used to keep the squirrels from eating all the pecans before they were even ripe,now it is a lot more, whenever I see a rock I think how far can I shoot that.in conclusion yes I am a slinger!
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #12 - Jun 10th, 2019 at 8:45pm
 
Even though I don't sling as often as I used to due to mostly to a less cooperative pack of dogs I consider myself a slinger.  It has become a part of who and what I am.
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Jaegoor
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #13 - Jun 11th, 2019 at 2:49am
 
Ich hatte es verstanden. 😁
Ich sehe mich nicht als Slinger.
Manchmal stört es mich sogar darauf reduziert zu werden.
Ich trainiere auch viele andere Waffen.
Freunde nennen mich Jaegoor. 😂
Dieser Name sagt viel mehr über mich aus.
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Re: Are you a slinger, or a person who slings?
Reply #14 - Jun 11th, 2019 at 6:54am
 
I can safely say I'm a slinger Smiley

A serious chunk of my life and money for the last 15 years or so has been spent on slinging in one form or another.
For the 20 or so years before that I'd have said I was someone who slung.

Once you've spent 2 days up a hillfort in march, in horizontal rain, sleet and snow putting in over 1200 throws - I think you can say you're a slinger Smiley
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