Well, I woke up way to early this morning, and with nothing to do I decided to fool around with weapons... (always a good idea for a partially awake adolescent in a grumpy mood)

Anyways, I took some (now illegal) fishing depth testers (illegal only for fishing because they are lead, lead is poisonous to waterfowl, especially small sinkers that may be picked up with gravel by loons and other waterfowl for use in their crop, a.k.a. gizard in place of teeth. The lead then kills them... :-/)
Hence illegal when fishing. However, the tall pyramid shape of them and the little hook-eye makes them perfect for bolas weights.
So I took out some rather slippery nylon string, tied 1 inch of round sennit, left 18 inches of string and attached four weights.
It works beautifully. I throw it just like a sling, it opens, wraps around my target and deals a bit of blunt damage. Plus, the fact the the string is slippery nylon means that it is virtually impossible to tangle badly, in such a way that I can't undo it in 30 seconds or less.

I will trade these beauties as long as my former fishing supplies hold out, but I just figured I would tell everyone what can happen if you play with weapons too early in the morning.

I will try to get some pics up soon too.

~Ethan

My bolas are made from 40 lb test nylon line (which is 1/8 of inch wide) and golf balls. I use the single weight bolas for sling practice, the two weight bolas for target practice and the three weight bolas for more serious bola training. it all works especially since i prefer 1 1/2 oz stones for slinging and that is the weight of a golf ball  ;D

Loki

The one string bola sounds like the dart-on-a-string used in Kill Bill by O-Ren Ishi.

A week ago I made something like a one-string bola, using the monkey's fist knot, which I wanted to learn. It's a easy way to make such things and you get quite a power with this stuff. Not long ago, there was a video with the meteor hammer and a dart rope demonstration. I tried to use this thing in the same way and resigned because for me it's too dangerous (for myself  ;)) and requiers to much training. So I opened the knot and stored this idea for future use.

can you sling the bola from your sling ?

Someone already did it with tiny bolas. You can look in the General Discussion for the post.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2007 at 11:38am:

can you sling the bola from your sling ?

Hmmm... I don't know about this...

I'll give it a try tomorrow! It may not fit into the pouch very well, but I bet I could work something out...

yep ethan got it right - it was a specific question about his bola not a general one :-)

But I'm still curious how you go about throwing a bola like a sling as I don't as a rule throw slings ?
I throw with them...

I throw my bolas like I use my slings for shorter distances. I have the sling at my side hanging down, I then bring it up and across the front of my body going to the left (I am right handed), then do half rotation above my head and step into the throw with my right foot.

Loki

Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2007 at 12:51pm:

But I'm still curious how you go about throwing a bola like a sling as I don't as a rule throw slings ? I throw with them...

If there's one thing worse than a pommy bastard it's a smart alex pommy bastard.

lol - you are so not the first person to bring that up ;-)
but it is a valid question, whenever I've seen gauchos on the telly using bolas they tend to swing them round their head like a lariat and then throw.

Lol, Aussie said it  ;)

I hold it like a sling, and when it comes around to the point where one would release the aptly named Release Cord on the sling, you just let the whole apparatus fly off, probably into some twigs somewhere...

Anyways, it doesn't sling to well. Its a bit to big, but I think I'm going to try to put together a smaller one for that purpose.

I hold mine by a knot about 2-3 inches from the center, by one of the lines. My bolas are 6 feet in length.

Loki

Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 4^th, 2007 at 8:35am:

lol - you are so not the first person to bring that up ;-) but it is a valid question, whenever I've seen gauchos on the telly using bolas they tend to swing them round their head like a lariat and then throw.

Sorry, couldn't resist such a great set up.

Not overly familiar with bolas mysef, but I think the gaucho is just spinning to pick his moment to throw. The distance seems to be very close, and as the weights spread out a lot I don't think superb accuracy is required, only good timing. (Not to mention good horsemanship and nerves of steel.)

Well, the philosophy behind the bolas is that you don't really need to be extremely accurate, as long as one length of string or weight hits the desired target, because whatever the name for the physics that take place is, the others will wind around that point until the target is all snarled up in rope or thunked by a weight or two.

I can't wait to make a large one like Loki mentioned... Gotta get some bowling balls...

Bowling balls?  :-? what are gonna throw it with? a trebachet?

Loki

Loki wrote on Aug 5^th, 2007 at 9:34pm:

Bowling balls?  :-? what are gonna throw it with? a trebachet? Loki

Just kidding...

That is a cool idea though... Anyone with a decent trebuchet in their back pocket around?

I still think you need to be accurate, in my case my bolas are about 3 foot across, but that is only in the horizontal plane.  the vertical plane is still the same size as a sling rock.  I have missed my target many a time.  Even when I hit the target it doesn't always wrap around it properly or hit it with the weighted end.  And finally any little bush or stick can diflect them.

Monster wrote on Aug 6^th, 2007 at 12:46am:

I still think you need to be accurate, in my case my bolas are about 3 foot across, but that is only in the horizontal plane.  the vertical plane is still the same size as a sling rock.  I have missed my target many a time.  Even when I hit the target it doesn't always wrap around it properly or hit it with the weighted end.  And finally any little bush or stick can diflect them.

How many weights does your bolas have? I find that with four, mine spreads out quite nicely in every direction from the center.
It is definately true that the bolas is most effective when used in a field or other open area, throwing in the woods is just horrible, when it catches up just short of the target...

there is a traditional sikh weapon that looks like a mad bolas maker went crazy. I posted a video of it somewhere (probably). It's kind of like a chandelier with lots of weights and chains that they spin.

The talk of more than three weights reminded me :-)

The bola I generally use has 3 weights on it.  I made one with 5 and it just kept getting tangled so I spent most of the time untangling it, but it was also of lighter string.  I might make a 4 weight one of stiffer line and see how that goes.

I used nylon cord, its really slippery, s anytime the bolas gets twisted in itsself, I just lift one string right out and the others unwind. Virtually no serious tangles.

Isn't nylon great?

lovely stuff, Nylon...

Its a good thing I don't care about using only natural materials I make myself.  Telfon coated sounds like it would be even better.

How thick is the cord you use?

Mine? Pah, I don't know. I grabbed it in some store, it was extremely cheap and looked useful. Turns out its much stronger than expected, and very nylony too.  ;D

If I were to venture a guess (its not close enough for me to measure right now, late night laziness and so on...), I would say about 1/4 inch or so; maybe a bit thinner...

The nylon I use is 1/8" thick.

Once I thought about making a bola using pool or billiard balls and 1/8th inch paracord.  Never got around to it.  Then again, I never got around to making my trebuchet that would throw a hen's egg half a mile.

Trebuchet

Trebuchet wrote on Sep 19^th, 2007 at 9:03pm:

Once I thought about making a bola using pool or billiard balls and 1/8th inch paracord.  Never got around to it.  Then again, I never got around to making my trebuchet that would throw a hen's egg half a mile. Trebuchet

Man, just think how far that trebuchet might sling a bola made of pool balls ::)