Picked up a sling for the first time roughly two months ago. Thanks for everyone’s help, explanations, information, and patience. Really appreciate the contributions while I learned how to use a sling!

My personal goal was to be as accurate with a sling as I am throwing without a sling. Today, I am going to say I essentially reached my goal!!

This is how I did today with a 2’ wide, 3’ tall target at 10 yards using plastic whiffle golf balls as ammo:

     Throwing by hand = 83% hits
     Figure 8 style slinging = 82% hits


This is average of 3 rounds of 24 balls throw each round, using a 29.25” seatbelt sling.


Some caveats of course: 

First let me say I have not practiced throwing without the sling at all these last two months. So throwing by hand I hit the target 83% of the time….which is the same success rate as it was two months due to lack of practice. Honestly, with steady practice I know I could do better I am sure.   So not a super fair comparison perhaps.

Second this was at only 10 yards. Not nearly as accurate at longer distances. Need to work on this.

Third figure 8 throws were at maybe 75-80% power. I am in the phase can’t throw full power and be accurate. Really need to sling it harder to honestly say the sling is as accurate as throwing by hand.

Fourth other slinging styles need a lot more work as next best style is Byzantine which only hit the target 54% of the time.

Fifth need to use tennis balls of course. That is the official ammo after all.




So thanks everyone for the help getting me to this skill level!

Hi Bandit,

Congratulations on hitting your goal!

Hey nice job! Accuracy is the hardest part in this sport.

Thanks! 

Going camping next week for 2 months and likely won’t do any slinging.

So nice stopping point milestone before my summer break.

Yes, well done, bandit. Also, don't be discouraged if you fail to meet your goal in the future. Slinging skill seems to be a day-by-day thing. Some days you have it. Some days you don't. I'm sure you've experienced this. We all do. Don't let it discourage you.

And some days(pretty much all of them) you will score perfect rounds when warming up and then completely bomb once you start keeping score. It's a well codified rule that even the ancient slingers knew ;D

Thanks for the encouragement.

Aside from your wise advice, personally being confident I can actually do it plays s big role in my success.

To that end, the above success was whiffle golf balls at 10 yards.  But I really believe I can sling accurate at short distance now.

So full of confidence, today I threw 5 tennis balls at 12 yards (still short but a bit farther) AND at a smaller 24”x24” square target.   Success was 4 hits out of 5……80%.  Pretty happy with that!

Here’s video proof:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ugKzizDJpk


Only threw a little for accuracy as I actually was working on the early power stroke Irongoober showed in his video. Great bit of knowledge and insightful technique. Check my comment in this post where I completely had it all wrong!  Lol. The below comment includes a link to Irongoober’s excellent video.

https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1782445966

bandit111964 wrote on Jul 1^st, 2026 at 6:35pm:

Going camping next week for 2 months and likely won’t do any slinging.

Sounds really nice.  Although I'd still take a sling with ya! ;)

That’s one of the things I like about slinging….easy to carry!  Always have a few in the car at all times. 

My dogs bark and go crazy, plus a lot of people around, so figure not best to sling stuff. I would just be a nuisance.  But will have a sling available “just in case”.

Last summer it was two months (Lake Placid, Toronto, Vermont, Nova Scotia, St Martin NB).

This year Vermont, then Watkins Glen.  From there either south to see family (Gettysburg, Burkes Garden VA, Savannah, Outer Banks)….or maybe north to Newfoundland, Prince Edwards Island……or maybe come home after just 1 month.

We had wanted to go out west to Rapid City SD, Montana, Idaho. But gas prices are just too high. So wife disappointed and kind of wants to come back early. How long depends on how much fun we are having.