[glb]This is a story of the real life.[/glb]

One day, I was slinging in my school (I know, I know...) two days after I started slinging, and my accuracy was something good, but not at all.

I told my friend: "Hey, I'll throw you a stone", but I was just joking because I thought my accuracy was too bad.

I threw him the stone with much power (you could hear the sound), and it went directly to his head, then I quickly thought: "HE WILL DIE!". It was really strange because the time went really slow.

My friend quickly avoided the stone and I was really happy because nothing happened.

After that, I was just thinking what could happen to him if that stone would hit him. Also, I promised to not throw stones to the people because it is really dangerous.

Comments?

Jandro A.K.A. Ra

My first thought was, how can he do somthing so stupid!!! Joke or not; What was he thinking about??

And then I thought how dare he write something like that? If I have done such a stupid thing, I would be too embaressed to even write about it.

I´m so glad, that nothing happened!

Ulrica  //mother to two kids

Important safety tip!

Yesterday, I was slinging with my knotted-rope sling -- the one that doesn't hold on to rocks very well.  I had the perfect sling stone, brought from the landscaping in my yard.  I loaded the stone,  started off with a fast wind-up...  and the stone left the pouch.  I looked behind me -- no stone.  To each side -- no stone.  I shrugged, thinking it must have skittered off at ground level or something.   I picked up another stone.  I was about to load it into the cradle when (wait for it)  the original stone crashed into the ground, about 5 feet away from me.  It must have gone almost straight up, and high!  That's when I switched back to my braided, somewhat more secure sling.  The thing is, even when I thought it'd gone off at ground level, I was afraid to look up.  I can just see myself looking towards the sky for an errant stone -- just in time to see it up close, landing on my nose!

i usually bring a handfull of .54" lead balls with me to my spot to use at the end of a session when i feel like i'm 'good'. one of my targets is a dead tree along the creekbed.

the few times i've hit the tree (approx. 5' across @ 30yrds.) the bullet has sunk in about 2-3 times it's own diameter, so approx. 1-1.5 inches!

My long sling is notorice for slinging stone up high and behind me. I have almost hitt my truck several times becauses of the longer sling.

Some of the chalk pebbles I sling literally exlplode into fragments when they hit another rock or stone. Nasty!

On 'rogues' I usually adopt a suitable crouched position with my hand over my head!!!

When I'm slinging with my son we have a system: a rogue stone means the slinger responsible shouts 'STONE!' at the top of their voice!!!!

wrote on Jun 14^th, 2004 at 1:12pm:

I told my friend: "Hey, I'll throw you a stone", but I was just joking because I thought my accuracy was too bad.

Wow. This reminds me of what my father once said: "Never underestimate the stupidity of man kind".  :D

To Ulrica
The life is full of stories, and I'm not embaressed about it. And that wasn't stupid, tha was cool, because nothing happenned but he experienced something that not much people can experience.

To Ensfor
This wasn't the stupidity, this was my accuracy. And I'm NOT stupid, and before you say something like: "I bet your IQ is 1", that's not true, my IQ is 129.

And after doing something like that, I reflected too much about it, and it prove that God exists.

Jandro A.K.A. Ra

I've got a feeling I shouldn't be answering this, but I can't help myself.


wrote on Jun 15^th, 2004 at 10:44pm:

To Ensfor This wasn't the stupidity, this was my accuracy. And I'm NOT stupid, and before you say something like: "I bet your IQ is 1", that's not true, my IQ is 129.

So slinging a stone "with much power" as you say, at your friend is not stupid? And if was "cool" like you say, then why did you later say you won't be doing it again? Well, I think we'll let each reader of this thread decide what he or she thinks for themselves. And as you yourself have proven, intelligence is no antidote to stupidity. ;)


Quote:

And after doing something like that, I reflected too much about it, and it prove that God exists.

Say what now?

I'd ask you to elaborate, but I don't think that's a debate we want to get ourselves into...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let us be kind to our new friend Jandro, shall we.  The quotient of our intelligence notwithstanding, we have all done foolish things, have we not?  A bit of compassion would not hurt here, as we would ask the same if we too made a rash move with our slings.

That said,  a sling is like a gun in some respects.  First, never point it at something you don't want to hit; it might just happen.  Most of us have hit something with a stone from a sling and know that the potential for damage or harm is great.

Let us then, as wise and aged slingers, warn our young and inexperienced friends of the dangers of underestimating the power of the sling.  And the dangers of overestimating our power to prevent calamity when misusing the sling.

jeff <><

wrote on Jun 16^th, 2004 at 8:43am:

Let us be kind to our new friend Jandro, shall we.  The quotient of our intelligence notwithstanding, we have all done foolish things, have we not?

Of course we have, me included. :) But we don't learn from our mistakes unless we recongize them as such, that's all I'm saying. :)

Maybe we can learn from other's mistakes too. I am sure everyone here has a story were they did something unwise with a sling (or other weapon).

Somebody once told me that it's not important what mistakes we make, only how we react to them.  Don't know if that's true or not -- guess it depends on the mistake -- but like my friend, the pilot, says:  "Any landing you can walk away from counts as good."  I think Hollering at Jandro about how stupid it is to sling at people is kind of redundant.  Sounds like he's already figured that out.  No blood, no foul, no attempts to replicate results.

Okay..
But he wanted reactions and comments, and that was what first comes to my mind.

/Ulrica

I wanted comments but not those comments that make people feel bad, you know what I mean?

And, if you didn't know, I alredy recognized that that wasn't a good action. Why did you think I said to not do it again.

And for Enfors, I'm not doing that again because someone could get hurted, but think on that: The same thing happens to you, and you don't get hurted, how do you feel?

Jandro A.K.A. Ra

Aw, shucks, folks -- Group hug!?  C'mon, group hug! ;D ;)

No mudd SLINGING either.

While we are on the topic of dumb things:

I am a real dog lover. Our Golden Retriever is part of the family, but he makes such a good target in the back yard I can't resist. I only use tennis balls and do not sling real hard. He has fun running around avoiding them if he can. Well, one day he was about 35-40 yards away and I knew I would not hit him so I let one fly real hard. Yep, I nailed him right on the end of his nose :-/ He jumped a mile and spun around trying to see what just bit him.  :o

He told me he still loves me but, now when he sees my sling he gets right up to me so I can't sling at him. ;D

Well, I have a really good one.  Not about slinging, but maybe better.

It seems that one day when I lived way out in the country I was on my back porch with my .22 rimfire target rifle.  I was, of course, shooting targets that I had set up way out in the back.  Well, I see this shadow on the ground moving very fast.  It came from behind me and was moving straight ahead of me.  I looked up and saw a very large Turkey Vulture (wingspan in the 8 foot range, and very heavy bird.)

Birds have incredible hearing.  We have a bird here called the American Robin.  It finds worms on the ground by hearing where they are.  Most birds have this kind of keen hearing.  I wondered to myself, "Self, I wonder if that vulture could hear a bullet whizzing passed it?"

By this time, the vulture was about 50 meters away and at least that high off the ground.  I pulled my rifle up and got the vulture in the scope, crosshairs right on the bird.   I lead out in front of the vulture about 3 or 4 meters and fired a shot.

Of course, you know what happened right?  POOF!  Feathers flew in the air as the bullet grazed the bird's belly.  It wobbled in the air wildly for a few seconds the flew off unhurt.

It is illegal to kill a bird of prey in my state and I fervently abide by the hunting laws.  Boy, did I ever feel bad.  I told my wife and she said, "I can hear you explain this one to the game warden, 'Honest, warden, I was not trying to shoot the bird; I just aimed at it and pulled the tirgger.'"

She was right on.  I did something stupid and it almost ended very badly.

jeff <><

P.S.  Before anyone flames me for hunting or such,  be warned,  it would be an unwise thing to do. >:(

Jandro,
Glad you learned this without anyone getting hurt.

The scariest thing I've ever had happen with the sling was a couple of years after I started.  I was at the lake with my family.  A great time to chuck a few.  My 10 year old daughter was about 50 feet to my left.  (Well out of the line of fire.)  A stone hung in the pouch.  I will never forget the icy feeling in my stomach as I watched the stone whiz by her head.  I nearly gave up slinging.  Even today I am leary of slinging with others around and always conscious of where they are with respect to the line of fire.  It is best not to have anyone downstream of the spin direction.  Rogues rarely get released early, and seem to be a result of hang-ups.  (ie for me as a righty I try to avoid having spectators to the left when doing an over-hand cast.)

Never do anything with a sling that you wouldn't do with a gun.  And even without doing things we shouldn't the sling can still be dangerous.

Let me again recommend the vertical underhand delivery.  The missile may go high or low, but almost never very far to the left or right of the target.    mgreenfield

And friend of mine and I have both tried underhand deliveries and, even thought we've got it down now, we both tended to hook our stones far to the left when we were first learning -- more so than I ever did with an overhand cast.  I guess it depends on the individual.  Then again, using the overhead "helicopter" style was sure to send everyone diving for cover.  

....you're hooking the shots because you're bringing your hand across your chest when you release.   Think "bowling", and dont try to muscle the shots, and they'll straighten right out for you.     mgreenfield

In general, I use different casts for different purposes.  An underhand cast works great for tossing a rock at a tree a hundred yards away.  But to hit a coffee can at thirty feet I prefer the overhand "helecopter".  

I still find that made one out of every few hundred or so casts is a potential rogue.  The scary thing is that with the underhand cast this means that the stone may go straight up or even land behind you.

This makes it absolutely imperative that you know where your spectators are BEFORE you cast.

I forgot one last point, ...use standard ammo.

Golfballs - pretty light & unless you put backspin on them in a great overhand delivery, they seem to take a dive.

Tennis balls - weight better, fly true & unlikely to do damage, but need sling with a "fat" pocket.   The big pocket gives tennis-ball slinging a "big glande" feel.

Racquet balls, etc - Dont know because never tried them.

"Roll-your-own" glandes in rounds or footballs in clay, lead, etc, at standard weights.  I like 65-grams.   These are absolutely THE best.  Almost scarey, the range and consistency you can get.

Run of the mill rocks are just too irregular to give predictable slinging results.

mgreenfield

I typically use stream-tumbled quartzite cobbles.  The road that I live on was made by laying down a thick base of these before it was gravelled. So the bar-ditch is full of them for about a mile on either side.  In other words a life-time supply.  I usually collect these by the bucket-full, selecting by round smooth stones that fit the palm of my hand.  In general I get very consistant results from this ammo.

You guys have really inspired me to try man-made glandes.  I hope to get around to making some from concrete in tennis ball molds in the next couple of weeks.  I'll post the results of my comparison.  (After that I may try cast lead.)

Not much of anything more beautiful than a football-shaped glande heading downrange like a small rocket, point-first with rifle-spin & not a wobble on it.   Almost make an old slingster get all chokey  ;D

Easy to do with vertical underhand delivery.   mgreenfield