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General >> Project Goliath - The History of The Sling >> Rate of fire
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Message started by NeilG on Oct 26th, 2012 at 8:54am

Title: Rate of fire
Post by NeilG on Oct 26th, 2012 at 8:54am
Historically, is there any indication of what kind of rate of fire military slingers acheived?

Has anyone here pushed themselves to see what kind of continuous rate they can achieve (seconds per shot, or shots per minute?)

What kind of rate is feasible for
a) sending a load of rocks at a crowd of soldiers 'over there' (long range but moderate accuracy)
b) sending rocks at a target with accuracy (say 1.2m target at 30m)
- assuming there's any difference in shooting rate between the two scenarios

Which techniques for loading and shooting would help increase fire rate?

Anyone going to try how many shots they can get off in a minute and post their results?

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by Teg on Oct 26th, 2012 at 9:27am
Have a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LKipMT85fc

It's one of Tint's videos. Have fun with counting ;-)

There was once the proposal of putting a little weight at the end of the release cord to simplify the retrieval.
I never tried this myself and I'm also no fast shooter myself, so I won't make any estimates about the rate of fire.

I think there is also a further fast shooting video of someone else but I don't remember his name anymoore.... He was slinging stones towards the sea with underhand and a little weight at the release cord if I remember correctly.

Modified: spelling
And he shoots 10 shots in 32 seconds, so each 3 seconds one shot.

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by Caldou on Oct 26th, 2012 at 9:37am
There is a video of C_A. If I'm not mistaken, he was slinging 10 tennis balls in 1 minute...

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by David Morningstar on Oct 26th, 2012 at 9:45am
That's Aussie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NARB5Flg7Ls

I am good for a shot every six seconds in sustained fire. I have beaten two experienced archers using speed shooting techniques in a side by side shoot-off.

Reload by using this method:

http://www.zinfinium.net/index.php?id=157



Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by David Morningstar on Oct 26th, 2012 at 12:14pm

I am not at all sure this topic should have been moved. It isnt adding new historical information and the responses are all about contemporary slinging.

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by Brett on Oct 26th, 2012 at 2:35pm
I've got some historical information for you -

The tutorial shows grabbing and placing  hte rock with the *right* hand while holding the pouch in the left hand.
The video of tennis balls shows he tennis balls to the *right* of the slinger.

BTW, I was paying attention to this recently, and i generally have the pouch in the left hand by the time the stone has gone about 25ish yards downrange.

This all seems to mean that the pouch must be on the *right* side for ease of use.

OK, you history types out there, what do historial images show? - which side is the pouch on?  In contemporary (curent) illustrations I note the sling bag is often on the left hip, and this just does not work as well.  Do we have clear historical information on pouch-sidedness?



Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by timann on Oct 27th, 2012 at 6:55am
I load as DMs link suggest, and keep my ammo in front or to the right.   If I has to use ammo from left side pocket I shift it from left to right hand before it goes in the pouch.  When the ammo is in the pouch I stretch left hand with the pouch forward, right hand goes to right hip.  Then I`m in the figure8 starting stance and can just drop the pouch.  
I realized this first time I pondered the issue speed slinging.  I tried to load and sling in all sorts of combinations.  But some shots went off by instinct, so fast I at first could not comprehend what really happened.  When I slowed down and back-tracked my movements I had the load with right hand/figure8 combo ready for use.

I sling 10 bandy balls, what I can carry comfortably, in within 50 seconds, should give 12 or 13  each minute.  I have not yet attempted to speed it up, I want to keep accuracy and power intact.  
If I gave up those I bet I could sling a bit faster.  But why? :D

Irregular ammo which my be carefully loaded will take longer time, obviously.

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by curious_aardvark on Oct 31st, 2012 at 6:45pm
why speed up ?
why not :-)

Actually the main reasons would be:

1) because there is no current world speed slinging record and being in the guinness bokk of records would be pretty cool.

2) just because you can :-)

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by timann on Nov 1st, 2012 at 12:18pm
Thanks, c_a, I`ll take those reasons into consideration :)

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by squirrelslinger on Nov 2nd, 2012 at 11:55pm
what about some sort of sling that auto-reloads?

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by woodssj on Nov 3rd, 2012 at 10:10pm
To throw in something else to the original discussion:
  Rate of fire is not considered nearly as much in the ancient world as it is today. Effective Volley Fire is the main concern, due to the nature of the warfare, tactics, and psychological effects it can have.  Massed fire is only given in a coordinated manner, and at the most opportune moments, as you may not get another chance to have the maximum killing and psychological effect.
  In the case of a defense of a fortified position, this changes slightly towards volume of fire, but it is considered more important to have well-directed fire than fast fire.  You want to control the ground with your fire, not necessarily kill all the people with it. To accomplish one, the other is not necessary, so why bother?
  That's your dose of ancient tactics for the day.  Well directed fire is better than careless fast fire. Both speed and effect are best, admittedly, but speed is secondary.

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by timann on Nov 4th, 2012 at 6:24am

squirrelslinger wrote on Nov 2nd, 2012 at 11:55pm:
what about some sort of sling that auto-reloads?

You could try to invent one as a cool project, but the manually loaded sling is fast enough after a little practice.

woodssj, I`m sure your right.  In the old days it would have ben a clever idea, but suicide, to increase rate of fire when the enemy close in to try to take them all out.  Better for the slingers to run.

Title: Re: Rate of fire
Post by squirrelslinger on Dec 28th, 2012 at 7:24pm
hm....... maybe i will try. But those vids are pretty cool.
and i do not have a ton of practice time

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