Hi people,

Question: for the ones who have read "The Earth Children" by Jean Auel. The main character of the book (Ayla) learns to use the sling and becomes really good at it. She invents this double shot technique in which she throws 2 rocks after each other with increadible speed. They said she could shoot the first stone and place the second one almost without stopping the swinging of her sling.

Does anybody know what I mean? And does anybody have any experience trying this? Any tips?

Greetings
Rachel

This isn't possible.  You have to stop the motion of the sling to reload.  When you release the free cord to throw the rock, inertia carries the end away from the center of rotation.  To recover the release cord, you have to stop the motion (unless you have like 4-5 ft long arms...).  It is possible to reload very quickly, but not as quickly as this character would have.  

This is as quick as it gets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSslvqt_cis#t=1m42s

He has another ball ready in is off hand and catches the pouch around it after the first throw, grabs the release cord and throws again.

I'm afraid Clan of the Cave Bear is a work of fiction.

Wow, thanks for the video's. This looks great!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NARB5Flg7Ls&feature=related      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD6hOrW0iNk
With a bit of practice it is possible to sling relatively fast without any special tecniques :)
timann

Hello, rmiranda;
   Welcome to slinging.org.  One of our members, Fundibularius, has invented some very ingenious two shot slings.  Message him and I'm sure he'll be glad to show them to you.

Double sling in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0cFLvyoLEM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
And a picture of it http://slinging.org/forum/yabbfiles/Attachments/kman2.JPG (the video and the sling are made by Fundibularius)

Wow!!! nice. thanks.

Thanks, gentlemen! There are two types of the double-barrelled sling: a "vertical" and a "horizontal" one.

You can see the vertical (or storey-) sling in action here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMEcSR3OWY.

There is another vid of the "horizontal" (or "twin" or "catamaran" or...) sling in use here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY4Y6TbsPLA

But, surely, they are very different from the sling that Ayla used.  ;)

---

Quote:

I'm afraid Clan of the Cave Bear is a work of fiction.

A badly researched work of fiction at that.

HOLD THE PHONE !
when did the double barrelled sling appear ???

Ah so it just shoots 2 stones at once ?
You can't sling them consequtively then ?

'Cos that would be totally cool if you could.

Yep tint with the tennis balls is about as close as it gets - mind you david's got some fast repeating skills himself :-)

Putting two stones in the air at the same time with two consequetive throws isn't hard. You just need to make sure the first throw stays up there long enough lol

An interesting design i like it, Fundibularius. A simpler version of it could be two or three common slings grabbed together.

Yurek wrote on May 11^th, 2011 at 9:32am:

A simpler version of it could be two or three common slings grabbed together.

That's exactly how I got the idea for the two-storey-sling: one shorter and one longer sling held together. It works quite well. As for the "twin" sling, I suppose that two slings of equal length might get tangled up with each other during the wind-up. But it's surely worth a try.

I did a try of two slings at once today, but only once and stones were rough. They went in different directions - too much. The slings were exactly of the same length and they didn't get tangled despite of multi windups. I use a wide grip so the retention and release cords were separated. I think your double sling works better. Probably tying of the retention cords together just near the pouches could help.

it would not be hard for me to put 5-6 stones in the air witha hard sidearm and my long sling

paracordslinger wrote on May 11^th, 2011 at 5:27pm:

it would not be hard for me to put 5-6 stones in the air witha hard sidearm and my long sling

It would not be hard, or it is not hard? Have you actually done it?

paracordslinger wrote on May 11^th, 2011 at 5:27pm:

it would not be hard for me to put 5-6 stones in the air witha hard sidearm and my long sling

So, you can throw  ~1 stone/second? That's pretty quick...(skeptical look)

my rocks go so far i cannot see them any more. i sling golf ball sized rocks for distance

The original question was about Ayla's, "double shot". In the story she kills the marauding wolverine with it and sees the two wounds inflicted by the two separate stones. What she allegedly does is akin to two quick shots fired from a pistol. This is clearly a fiction as repeat slinging is not going to be ever faster than repeat throwing by hand, as both loading the sling and recovering the release cord do take some small finite time.

From the videos above it appears that 5 seconds between shots is quite realistic and a really practised slinger may perhaps as much as halve this. So with very high lofted underarm shots a slinger could possibly have three stones airborne simultaneously. However such a trick shot would be just that, a trick shot; not really useful at all.

Yurek wrote on May 11^th, 2011 at 4:37pm:

I did a try of two slings at once today, but only once and stones were rough. They went in different directions - too much. The slings were exactly of the same length and they didn't get tangled despite of multi windups. I use a wide grip so the retention and release cords were separated. I think your double sling works better. Probably tying of the retention cords together just near the pouches could help.

That sounds like a good idea. Or unifying the two retention cords by wrapping them with a string from the loops to the pouches. If the cords are not too thick each, it might work out pretty well. There could be a certain loss of momentum due to the tying or wrapping compared to one single retention cord for both releases, though.

Well, only an experiment can show.  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=966tyGsqgEc&feature=BFa&list=PL7BBD90FF21246461&index=5

Just about as fast as I can sling.  I can do a bit faster now.  My best can get to 2 second a shot.

I saw the video already once.
Am still impressed about the speed of the shooting.
I did not try it up to now yet in this kind.

I havnt tried speed slinging yet but after seeing it done i may have to give it a try  ;)

David Morningstar wrote on May 7^th, 2011 at 10:18pm:

This is as quick as it gets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSslvqt_cis#t=1m42s He has another ball ready in is off hand and catches the pouch around it after the first throw, grabs the release cord and throws again.

Thank you lots, Tint and David.  I've been wanting to see this done for a while.

As for the book, it might be possible to throw (by hand) a stone in the air, have it catch in the pouch and grab the cord, without stopping the spin, if you were a master juggler.  However, throwing the stone with useful force itself interrupts the spin, because you make a motion when you throw.  You don't just spin it at the target -- that won't hurt anyone. So "no" is my vote too.

Oh and I'm on Tint's team if a sling war breaks out.

Hi guys,

thanks for al the replies. Tint you are really good!!!
I also like this guy someone mentioned before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSslvqt_cis#t=1m42s
look at 1:42 min.

Super guys!!!

Thanks for the kind words, Miranda, slingingrat and Jeegoor.  I am the guy in both videos.  The one without the pouch was filmed in 2006.  It took me a while to realize using a pouch to hold the ammo allow me to repeat fire more than two shots.  :-[

fattybones, You can be my teammate anytime  ;).  let's get Timann on board too!  His reloading technique with the figure 8 style is genius!   There is another member here, magnumslinger, who inspired me to sling fast.  He had a thread about rapid fire with a video of him slinging but I can't find it now somehow.

I have to agree that the Clan of the Great Bear books were badly researched as far as using the sling is concern.

Hi Tint,

Yesterday I also have myself once in the quick one shoot skilledly. It works very well. Will soon make once a video.
Thank you for the idea.

Tint wrote on May 20^th, 2011 at 11:10am:

I have to agree that the Clan of the Great Bear books were badly researched as far as using the sling is concern.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Aussie wrote on May 21^st, 2011 at 6:28am:

Tint wrote on May 20th, 2011 at 11:10am: I have to agree that the Clan of the Great Bear books were badly researched as far as using the sling is concern. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I don`t read it as too exagregated, the reloading/double shot is described as similar to the Tint method with just a couple of stones picked up from the ammo pouch with the off hand, and Forsyth claimed Apache Grandfather was as accurate as Ayla.

Tint, thanks.  I would happily join the team ;)
My method is incredibly natural and easy, when using figure8 and loading the ammo with the slinging hand it`s in fact impossible not to do it. Aussie does the same in his video, sans the waist pouch, but the ammo should be as close at hand and accessible as possible.  
Then it is just to to practice a lot to get rid of hesitation, fumbling and superfluous movements (zen, empty mind, whaddayacallitt :D)
I focus on smoot and efficient, I prefer not to rush and hurry, as I`ll not let my accuracy (as it is) decrease in favor of speed.
timann

I read one of the Cave Bear books many years ago, and the major impression I got was that from the way Ayla invented stuff by the time she retired she might have had a working electic elevator. She was a paleo-daVinci except her stuff actually (in the books as opposed to real-life) worked.

Very empowering to female readers, I suppose, and that was the target audience.

HurlinThom wrote on May 23^rd, 2011 at 12:24pm:

Very empowering to female readers, I suppose, and that was the target audience.

Intentionally or not she's certainly had that effect. The only people I've come across who actually liked the book were women.

Aussie wrote on May 23^rd, 2011 at 6:27pm:

HurlinThom wrote on May 23rd, 2011 at 12:24pm: Very empowering to female readers, I suppose, and that was the target audience. Intentionally or not she's certainly had that effect. The only people I've come across who actually liked the book were women.

I liked the first one, and am male. The rest of the series can go die in a fire.

Knaight wrote on May 23^rd, 2011 at 6:49pm:

Aussie wrote on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:27pm: HurlinThom wrote on May 23rd, 2011 at 12:24pm: Very empowering to female readers, I suppose, and that was the target audience. Intentionally or not she's certainly had that effect. The only people I've come across who actually liked the book were women. I liked the first one, and am male. The rest of the series can go die in a fire.

Strictly speaking, I haven't met you so it still holds I guess :)