Ok I am a middle level member of my local branch of the SCA. Last weekend we were holding our fun and games event. The week before one of the siege engine guys was mentioning he was going to bring his 8' trebuchet to this event and him and his crew were going to fully load the counterweight and see what kind of range they would get.
He knew I was working with the staff sling and wanted me to bring it and show them what it could do.

Well it rained extremely hard the night before and it drizzled off and on the next day so they left the trebuchet at home. I showed up the next day with my fusstibalus and handsling and a approximately 30-40 pound bag of limestone marble I use for ammunition.

We moved down to the archery range and I start setting up while he went to round up his crew. I start a test fire on the fustibalus when a very oblivious lady walks right in front of me about 8 feet away just before the sling slips off of the staff. Lets just say it hurt redirecting the sling. I exchanged some words with the lady who obviously wasn't aware she was walking into a  missle fire area. >:(

Anyway, he showed up saying the crew wasn't intrested. I described to him the fustibalus and showed him how it worked. I loaded up a stone into the pouch and with him and me both looking at the range we determined that both the boundries were clear and away went the rock. It sailed about 50 meters with a "WHOOOSH" as i was rewinding from the toss all my buddy was saying was "WHOA" ;D

I tossed a few more with the staff sling and turned it over to him. It took him a bit before he got (somewhat) the hang of it. He did manage to send a few rocks in the right direction. Now we were firing for distance not really accuracy.

At this time I broke out the handsling and let it fly. Now currently I use an underhand sling style with almost no windup. I basicly hold the sling fully extended in front of me. I then let the sling drop and once it goes 180 degrees behind me I bring it forward. at the same time i take a step forward and snap my wrist at moment of release.
The first thing that he asked was why i didn't use the "classic" helicopter windup and then he expressed amazement at the distance I got off the toss again about 75-100 meters with a high arc.
I showed him a few more tosses then I turned it over to him.
He wound it up like me and let fly and tossed the rock about 10 meters. then he looked at me puzzled and said where the sling go ? :o
Yes he had let go of the retention loop when he made the cast. Grumble

He spent about 30 minutes looking for a brown leather sling in the dark wet grass. He found it next to a pile of horse droppings.

he did a few more tosses then told me he was going to find somebody. I tossed quite few of my ammunition trying to get a little more practice in when he shows up with the unofficial branch photographer :)
We did a few tosses with the hand sling, one of which went almost 150 meters. My friend then decided that he wanted to have a shot taken if him using the fustibalus. Three bad shots ( 45+ degrees ) later I repossessed my fustibalus, took my last big rock and the staff sling and hurled the rock about 75-100 meters. The wet dirt flew when the rock hit. :)

I think I can safely say a good time was had by me, the buddy and the photographer.

Now when I get these digital photos I will post them to the group

Marc Adkins

 winkleried!                                                                            
                                                                                                     
      :D Hot damn, that was a good yarn! One of the things I really like about Slinging.org is that I often get a chance to do a little "vicarious slinging" courtesy of other guys and gals on the forum. Thanks for the great post and I very much look forward to seeing the pictures.          
        Too bad about the horse droppings, though. :P                          
                                                                                  .......Dan  

Sounds great.
I know what he means I felt like I was right there with ya.
I finally found someone with a digital camra, and some nice web savy.
Looking forward to getting some postings online

-Unsapien

well the good news was the sling was near the horse droppings not in it
Marc Adkins


wrote on May 13^th, 2006 at 1:13am:

winkleried!                                                                                                                                                                                         :D Hot damn, that was a good yarn! One of the things I really like about Slinging.org is that I often get a chance to do a little "vicarious slinging" courtesy of other guys and gals on the forum. Thanks for the great post and I very much look forward to seeing the pictures.                   Too bad about the horse droppings, though. :P                                                                                                             .......Dan

                                                                                                     
    Uh.......if the sling is brown how can you be sure?

                                                                                                   
                             Messy, messy.

What's a little wet horse poop.Put some in your sling and toss it at someone! ;D

Glad to see a fellow SCAdian doing slings! Here I thought I was the only one! Now I can say I am one of the few.. the proud..
 Seriously, I am trying to gain sling acceptence here in AEthelmearc. I am trying to get it accepted as a targeted thrown weapon. I know it will not work in a fighting aspect. At least not right now.
 I'm also working on a Compleat Anachronist for slings.

Cool Ansteroria here,
One of our grant level fighters used the sling as a combat missle weapon during a Gulf Wars. Check out the Florigium for details. or i could find the post and post it if ya want. I belive Meridies has regs for it's use on the field.. might be a place to start. also th TI had an article on the use of the sling back in the mid '90s I belive. it's what got me back into slinging after reading a hard copy of Lynn Ballard's article in the Mother Earth News. Let me know when you get the Anachronist article done. With te pictures that were taking the powers that be around here are wanting a sling/slinging artile put out for our local newsletter.
But hey that's a whole diffrent thread

Marc Adkins
Another of the few..the proud...and the twisted :)


wrote on May 14^th, 2006 at 10:23am:

Glad to see a fellow SCAdian doing slings! Here I thought I was the only one! Now I can say I am one of the few.. the proud..  Seriously, I am trying to gain sling acceptence here in AEthelmearc. I am trying to get it accepted as a targeted thrown weapon. I know it will not work in a fighting aspect. At least not right now.  I'm also working on a Compleat Anachronist for slings.

Here'sthe post I was refering to.

Subject: RE: ANST - Combat slings at Gulf Wars?
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 99 15:44:37 MST
From: "Christopher D. Baran" <rrhms@texoma.net>
To: "'ansteorra@Ansteorra.ORG'" <ansteorra@Ansteorra.ORG>

Last year I was allowed to sling during Gulf Wars. I have been
using a sling in the SCA for about 6 years now and have found that using a
regular split tennis ball I can get as great a range as an archer, though
not as great as accuracy. I am able to hit a man sized target at about 35
yards (when I am in practice). Meridies has a set of rules for the creation
of slings. They may only be of a certain length due to the amount of power
the weapon generates. As for them being accepted in this Kingdom, I believe
they are able to be used on a case by case basis. (Keef, please tell me if
I am wrong on this) Besides myself I do not know of any other slingers in
the Kingdom. I would be happy to show you my sling at Gulf Wars since I
will be going and slinging there.

Centurion Romanius





wrote on May 14^th, 2006 at 1:24pm:

, One of our grant level fighters used the sling as a combat missle weapon during a Gulf Wars. Check out the Florigium for details. or i could find the post and post it if ya want. Marc Adkins Another of the few..the proud...and the twisted :)

I finally recieved the pics from the photographer, I'll be sending them to chris so he can psot them to this thread.

Marc Adkins

sca ?
sling in Gulf wars ? I'm assuming this wasn't actually in 'eye-rak' or iraq for the non republicans amongst you :-)

Sounds like fun though. So why'd the guy with the treb wimp out then ? it's not as if it's reliant on dry wether for the sinew.
Can't see how a bit of rain would effect it.

Yep SCA, see sling badgers post for more info about this group.

Don't ask me why they left the treb at home, could have been due to the rain swelling the wood posts but then again I'm not a siege engine person... Nor am I on this particular crew so I don't really know. The closest I come is my work with the fustibulas. I was just showing it to them so they would have a more complete understanding of thier science/art.

The treb is  counterweight driven there is not any sinew in the construction of this particular engine,



wrote on Nov 25^th, 2006 at 9:03am:

sca ? sling in Gulf wars ? I'm assuming this wasn't actually in 'eye-rak' or iraq for the non republicans amongst you :-) Sounds like fun though. So why'd the guy with the treb wimp out then ? it's not as if it's reliant on dry wether for the sinew. Can't see how a bit of rain would effect it.

Here are the long awaited pictures for this event, Oh well better late than never :)

http://www.slinging.org/images/adkins/DSC08913


This is my friend John. He is the local siege engine guru. He is holding my (then) experimental Staff-Sling. Based on the observations of this day some changes were made to the staff-sling. This particular sling is a 48 inch Poplar Dowel Rod. I have since shaved both sides of the handle to advoid wobble in the cast. I have also made the notch on the staff a bit deeper and have split the pouch. I have also trimmed the extra white nylon string hanging off the pouch. Now also keep in mind this particular staff-sling has a very steep angle of attack.


http://www.slinging.org/images/adkins/DSC08914

Ok here is john doing a very ugly cast. The blur directly over the staff is the pouch and the blur about 45 degrees from that is the rock going sideways :(
A lot of this has been corrected with the changes in the experimental model. The next one I build is going to be based off of a 36 inch Oak Dowel with a leather thong and a cupped and split pouch. Also some of the problems John had with this weapon is due to plain inexperience with it.


http://www.slinging.org/images/adkins/DSC08916


A far more gracefull cast with the handsling. I use what I call a Inverse Apache Casting style. I start off holding the pouch in front of me. I then let it drop till the pouch is about 180 degrees behind me I then snap it forward realeasing the stone when it is somewhere around 90 to 85 degrees from the original position.


http://www.slinging.org/images/adkins/DSC08917


John, Trying another cast with the staff sling


http://www.slinging.org/images/adkins/DSC08918


At this point there were some very ugly casts from John. At this point I have taken my last large stone and am in the process of casting it. The staff sling has just released the rock. This particular cast took off like a cruise missle and landed just as dramaticly about 150 meters away in the very soft mud.


http://www.slinging.org/images/adkins/DSC08919


Here I am in in the recovery phase of the previous cast. The small one in the pic is my youngest son Carl. Both Carl and his older sister have slings that I am working on teaching them how to use.


http://www.slinging.org/images/adkins/DSC08920


Here are the closeups of the implements of stone age ballistics. I am holding the staff-sling and John is holding my handsling. Carl is behind John wanting to go back to the tent now that all the fun and games with the slings is now over.

Looks like a lot of fun!  Awesome pics!

Your outfits made it all the better.  If i were living in that time I'd be carring a staff sling and a sling everywhere I go.

Thanks Tint,
Actually amazingly me and john are about a century apart. He portrays a 15th century German landsneckt (Although he has been known to portray a Tudor era English nobleman) and I portray a 14th century Swiss landowner( And a 14th century Kievan Rus when the mood strikes)

Neither one of us would normaly be playing with the sling and/or staff sling (In our main time periods). We would both be carrying crossbows ( which we both own) for missle weapons. For hand weapons I would be carrying a halbred ( Yep, I have one) and a baselard ( Ditto) as a back up weapon and he would be carrying a pike ( Which he owns) and a katzbalger or a dagger as his sidearm.

But we definately have side intrests as well, Mine is obviously the sling/staffsling along with a few other weapon styles outside of my area of portrayal.  His is siege engines/warfare.

All in all it makes us a very intresting group.

Marc Adkins


wrote on Nov 26^th, 2006 at 8:13pm:

Looks like a lot of fun!  Awesome pics! Your outfits made it all the better.  If i were living in that time I'd be carring a staff sling and a sling everywhere I go.

great pics i must talk to the local SCA folks & see if they have slingers  .well done ;)

Me and Badger are finding out that we are a rare breed. So Ya might be the one and only in your particular branch.
Now if you are in Oklahoma or the surounding areas there is going to be a class in Tulsa this weekend.

Marc Adkins


barcid wrote on Dec 7^th, 2008 at 11:16pm:

great pics i must talk to the local SCA folks & see if they have slingers  .well done ;)

Not quite, I have trained the next generation of slingers in my group. I have at least 4 kids, age 9-16 who are turning into fair slingers.
Also in the neighboring Barony (Thescorre) is a group of Roman soldiers who want me to teach them in the spring . I can have my own battle company soon.

I said rare, not extinct.
right now I ma trying to get some slinging started in my group. Just need to be in town more. :(

Marc


slingbadger wrote on Dec 8^th, 2008 at 9:37pm:

Not quite, I have trained the next generation of slingers in my group. I have at least 4 kids, age 9-16 who are turning into fair slingers. Also in the neighboring Barony (Thescorre) is a group of Roman soldiers who want me to teach them in the spring . I can have my own battle company soon.