There seems to be a whole bunch of challenge-related stuff coming in lately, but I have another one.  I was sent this link by my friend who plays a lot of disc golf, https://youtu.be/J-td1obxYa4.  He hasn't tried it himself yet, but he's planning to as soon as weather allows.  Basically you stand 10 feet (approximately 3 m) from the basket (or target) and take your shot.  Every time you make it, you back up another 10 feet.  You keep going for 1 hour and see how far away you can get.

I think this would translate to slinging quite well.  Again, with all the challenges we already have on the horizon, and with everyone currently needing to stay home, this might be one for a little while down the road.  But it's definitely something I'm going to try.

or if you want to make it more challenging (because you are gonna run out of space) move on when you get 2 consecutive hits [smiley=evil.gif]

Maybe we'll call that Level 2.  ;)

I was able to give this a try.  At least until I was interrupted by the weather.

This was a blast even though the session was short-lived.  I will definitely give it another try when I have a chance.  I got farther back more quickly than I was expecting.

https://youtu.be/n1nbQ6UJSAM

Nice stuff joe.
Is your range also your yard?

I might give this a go today. The weather's beautiful so it would be a good time for it. :D

Done mine :D I only went to 30 feet. I didn't have much time, it was darn windy and I don't have all that much space on the range and it still be safe to sling rocks. Oh and also I did terribly :D 10 and 20 were fine but 30 took ages. I'll get the video done today hopefully.

dont start over just continue from 60ft I want to see the continuing story.

I think I'll try again sometime soon and move the log I use to hold up the pan beforehand (not looking forward to that... it weighs a ton). That should give me some more space.

I only have about 12ft to play with- I'm always at maximum range!

Mersa wrote on Apr 7^th, 2020 at 12:10am:

Nice stuff joe. Is your range also your yard?

Thanks!  And yes.  I have just over an acre of ground.  So the upper part of my yard is a little over 200 feet across.  It's a pain to keep the grass mowed, but I love having the space for slinging, bow shooting, etc.



Kick wrote on Apr 7^th, 2020 at 5:15am:

Done mine :D I only went to 30 feet. I didn't have much time, it was darn windy and I don't have all that much space on the range and it still be safe to sling rocks. Oh and also I did terribly :D 10 and 20 were fine but 30 took ages. I'll get the video done today hopefully.

I wasn't expecting someone else to have a go at this so soon.  Awesome!  I can't wait to see that video.



Sarosh wrote on Apr 7^th, 2020 at 5:23am:

dont start over just continue from 60ft I want to see the continuing story.

That's probably what I'll do.  I'll likely go through the shorter distances to warm up and get in the swing of things.  Then just pick up where I left off for the actual recording.  I do hope to tighten things up the next time.  I had so many throws that were off to the left.



JudoP wrote on Apr 7^th, 2020 at 6:30am:

I only have about 12ft to play with- I'm always at maximum range!

I do feel very lucky that social distancing hasn't affected my slinging at all.  Because I literally just walk outside.  As with everyone, if you ever find yourself in the States and near western Pennsylvania, you're welcome to come sling at my house any time!

I have space for some archery in my backyard but usually just practice with a light 30pound kids bow, my 55 pound bow almost always breaks an arrow if I miss the target, plus I can only get a 22m shot max so the kids bows point on works perfect.  Wish I had space for slinging something more than a ping pong ball.

Any chance you can redo the challenge but with a bow , love to see the comparison. Think you’ll be smashing it out to 100 pretty fast

Mersa wrote on Apr 7^th, 2020 at 7:03pm:

redo the challenge but with a bow

That's a pretty sweet idea.  I'd have to do a little practicing first.  I didn't do much bow shooting at all last year.  None so far this year either.  It's on the list now though.  As soon as I get the sling done.

This is how I practice with a bow and sling. You can find it in "The Witchery of Archery" except you have to hit 4 or 5 times before you move back.
When I got serious about archery in the mid eighties, it took a full month (shooting an hour or two every morning) to get to 55 feet with a 65 lb bow :-?

I remember you mentioning that book before in another topic.  It peaked my interest so I jumped online and bought a copy.  I haven't read it yet, but I really need to pull it out and do that.

I completely agree, this feels like a great practice technique.  It has a similarity with something else I like to do.  I have my target somewhere in the yard, and constantly move around to different positions.  There are never two shots/throws in a row from the same position.

@ joe_meadmaker

Its great all round practice. Shooting from dif elevations, kneeling on one knee and sitting :)

I do the same. Always standing in the same spot gets boring and changing it up I've found can help accuracy.

Oh yeah and the video is taking a while. Work keeps getting in the way.

https://youtu.be/pby-1C5Xpio

Ok got it done! I need to do a Part 2, but this wasn't too bad an attempt I think.

woah! 10ft is 3m not 10m
kick you did roughly 30-60-90ft good shooting.

Wait. Hold on. I'm terrible at numbers (I actually have a learning disability with numbers, dyscalculia) so I often mess stuff like this up. To be completely precise, I took 10 steps from the target, then 10 steps from there, then 10 steps from there. Wouldn't I have done 10ft, 20ft and 30ft (I guess paces is more accurate as I wasn't measuring precisely) so 3m, 6m and 9m? Have I done this completely wrong?

Curse you maths!

Ok yes I completely screwed up :D All the times I say meters I mean paces/feet. It's super late over here so this will have to be edited in the morning. OOPS. MY BAD.

Ok so I blame the Imperial measurement system and my own incompetence.

Darn!  I missed it before you took it down.  I will calmly wait for the updated version.  Sounds like you did pretty well though. :)

I know on this forum we're located all over the place (which is extremely cool).  I always try to include imperial and metric for measurements.

Somehow I've been thinking for who knows how long, that 1 foot and 1 metre are almost equivalent. How did I come to think that? New video up soon.

RIGHT.

HERE is the video, corrected and improved actually. I found a few things that I missed before so it's a better video overall now.

https://youtu.be/Ea6XfNhMUE0

if you want to be more accurate in distance measuring use a measuring tape or a string with knots or a length of pre-measured string e.g. 10ft string.
paces are not equal to feet ( my step is ~0.5m  and my double step 1.1-1.4m depending on terrain and speed)

@joe there is a mistake on your 1st post on 10ft, maybe that caused the confusion.

The confusion was mine :D I'll take out a tape measure next time.

Sarosh wrote on Apr 10^th, 2020 at 4:18am:

@joe there is a mistake on your 1st post on 10ft, maybe that caused the confusion.

Oh wow!  It's been corrected in case someone else reads though that for the first time.  Thanks!

Nice slinging Kick!  Awesome to see someone else give this a try.  I'm hoping to get out and complete my challenge on Sunday.  One difference we have is that my target is a little bit bigger.  That pallet I've been throwing at (for a while now) is about 2 ft (61 cm) by 2.5 ft (76 cm).

I'm curious what changed in the video from your first posting.  The first distance that pops up still says "10 feet (3.05 metres)".

I wrote I was slinging at 10, 20 and 30 meters rather than feet. Too many long shifts I think :D

This is very similar to the old archery technique of shoot and hit take two steps back and if you miss take a step forward. I have to say I like this better though because with a sling it’s hard to make headway you just keep going back and then forward unless you’re having a good day. Can’t wait to try some of these challenges as well!

We've had heavy snow this morning. Most of it melted really quickly but now everything is soaked so it'll be a few days before I can useaccept my practice area.

Good news and bad news.  The good news is I was able to get the full challenge in today.  This challenge was absolutely exhausting.  The bad news is that the video is going to take a little while to put together.  I don't have any time tonight but will start working on it tomorrow.  It should be ready in a couple days.

Looking forward to it

This was the longest video edit I've ever done, by far.  But it's done. :)

My full Back-Up-10-Feet challenge.

https://youtu.be/4iD4RTBBIPI

Great stuff joe. I’m hoping I can get an attempt at this .
I don’t think my video skills are up to yours but, might just be a time lapse or a few clips.
Roughly what size is your target??

I think I need to make attempt two this week. Indoor challenge number two is coming as well. One thing that might slow me down is that hay fever has hit hard so being outside for extended periods isn't so good for my breathing which is funny to think about during this corona pandemic. I have antihistamines but they make me feel super slow and dumb so expect me to mix up meters and feet again :D

Mersa wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2020 at 12:15am:

Roughly what size is your target??

It's the same pallet I've been using for a while.  I have it leaning up against my archery target.  The pallet is about 2 ft (62 cm) high and 2.5 ft (76 cm) wide.



Kick wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2020 at 3:48am:

they make me feel super slow and dumb so expect me to mix up meters and feet again :D

That made me laugh so hard.  ;D

How did you make that many ice-balls? Do you have several freezers? or is it just really cold at night? Also, how do you make them?

No, just one freezer.  I have two spherical ice molds that make 6 each.  Through the week I try to refill them in the morning and at night, so on a good day I get 2 dozen ice balls.  I just have dedicated space in my freezer to store them.  One of the bonuses of living alone.

There's lots of companies that make them.  If you run a search online for 'sphere ice mold' you'll find them.  They're usually marketed for whiskey.  The ones I use the most are 2.5 inch diameter.  Although I have molds for 1.1 inch and 1.8 inch as well.

It was edited out of the video, but twice I ran out behind the target and looked through the brush to recover unbroken ice balls.  My hits for 100 and 110 feet were both done with a wet and melting ice ball. :D

It's surprising how long those ice balls last even on a kind of warm day. I've slung the same ice ball 3 times before it got too small and broken to use. I have a 6 ball and a 4 ball mould. I ordered another 6 ball one but it still hasn't turned up. I assume because of corona messing up production and shipping in China.

Great Challange to practice  daily.Good excersie and will push you to learn fundamentals you wouldn't learn in a short sling session.Fun Fun Fun
Thanks for the challange Joe.
https://youtu.be/fzDAgnOEx-0

https://youtu.be/yWLnezi34Gc

Nice stuff!! Both of you!!
I’m really hoping to get an attempt in somewhere.
Videos are going to be horrible compared to these but.
Wish I was computer savvy and had an editing program.

Seems like 100ft starts getting pretty difficult, that’s roughly 30m?? I’m hoping I’ll make it to that distance in a hour.

If you use Windows 10, you can easily get Movie maker, you just have to download it from the Microsoft app store. That is what I use, and it's fine.

PracticalParacord wrote on Apr 25^th, 2020 at 4:55am:

Great Challange to practice  daily.Good excersie and will push you to learn fundamentals you wouldn't learn in a short sling session.Fun Fun Fun Thanks for the challange Joe. https://youtu.be/fzDAgnOEx-0 https://youtu.be/yWLnezi34Gc

I saw your videos a few days ago, I ran into your channel out of the blue. It's good stuff. I love all of your videos so far.

Just out of curiosity, did you see Simon Lizotte's video first, or Joe's challenge first?  I saw Simon's video first, like only a few days before Joe put up the challenge, so it was kind of strange, since I just started following Simon's videos.

Also, what is that disc made out of? it doesn't seem as heavy as steel, but it seems more robust than aluminum (or aluminium for all the non-Americans).

PracticalParacord wrote on Apr 25^th, 2020 at 4:55am:

Great Challange to practice  daily.Good excersie and will push you to learn fundamentals you wouldn't learn in a short sling session.Fun Fun Fun Thanks for the challange Joe. https://youtu.be/fzDAgnOEx-0 https://youtu.be/yWLnezi34Gc

Good stuff man!  Good to see others trying this out.  Totally agree, it's great fun!



Mersa wrote on Apr 25^th, 2020 at 8:13pm:

Seems like 100ft starts getting pretty difficult, that’s roughly 30m?? I’m hoping I’ll make it to that distance in a hour.

I think one of the big things is that when you get out to 100 feet, you've been slinging for a while.  And because of the time limit, not really giving yourself a break.  So your muscles definitely start to get tired.  At least that was the case for me.

So I attempted this challenge today.
Went pretty well considering the few problems I had with filming, cameras falling over, batteries going flat and cross wind. I was using my rubber practice ball and my backstop wasn’t ideal either, I’m going to attempt this again with a smaller target and a better backstop. All my distances past 70ft were stepped out and could have been slightly more than 10ft apart. I cashed out at 100ft because my phone battery was on 5% like I said I’m going to redo this challenge and set it up better.

I’ve only just finished reviewing all my footage and will hopefully find a way to edit it so I can put a few clips up but I thought I’d share my data from the review.

10ft: throw 3 , 00:32
20ft: throw 9 , 01:15
30ft: throw 16 , 02:15
40ft: throw 20 , 02:55
50ft: throw 26 , 04:26
60ft: throw 33 , 06:36
70ft: throw 62 , 15:23
80ft: throw 65 , 16:36
90ft: throw 70 , 19:03
100ft: throw 106 , 38:45

As you can see I had some trouble at 70ft and 100ft.
70 was when I started to feel tired and 100 was heavily effected by crosswind probably a 10ft plus drift over that distance.
Overall I’m fairly happy with my attempt but now I really want to try again for the full hour and with any luck I’ll hit 100ft in under 100 throws.
My target was similar size to joes
Might go back with a measuring tape and get the exact size or even do my remaining 20minutes.
None the less it was fun and I totally understand the fatigue side of things now.
Great challenge and good practice.

That's really good! Nice job. I need to redo this challenge and do the indoor challenge.

That's great Mersa!  You did quite a bit better than I did.  I'm going to keep working with this over the summer and, like you mentioned, hope to get a hit at 100 feet in 100 throws or less.  You're already so close to that.  My 100 foot hit was number 143, so I've got some work to do.  Fantastic job my friend!

Sorry about the quality of filming and editing this is the best I can do

---

Nice!

Here is my attempt. Only made it back to 120 ft. I got stuck at 90 ft for like 30 minutes. When I finally made the 90 ft hit, I made it back to 120 in about 10 minutes.  Sorry, the video doesn't have the times, I neglected to look at them since I was using my phone to film. 

I had a cross/head-wind the entire hour. It was very irritating. I was also using my 10 m target sling which holds my practice lacrosse balls very nicely, but it imparts a wicked spin to them (apparently). When I switched slings, to a flatter pouch, I started doing a lot better.

I think I might try this again...

https://youtu.be/EvfubWzk0vo

IronGoober wrote on Jun 14^th, 2020 at 2:19am:

Here is my attempt. Only made it back to 120 ft. I got stuck at 90 ft for like 30 minutes. When I finally made the 90 ft hit, I made it back to 120 in about 10 minutes.  Sorry, the video doesn't have the times, I neglected to look at them since I was using my phone to film.  I had a cross/head-wind the entire hour. It was very irritating. I was also using my 10 m target sling which holds my practice lacrosse balls very nicely, but it imparts a wicked spin to them (apparently). When I switched slings, to a flatter pouch, I started doing a lot better. I think I might try this again... https://youtu.be/EvfubWzk0vo

You always undersell your very impressive slinging videos IG.  ;D That was definitely top tier slinging. You answered the question I had about spin here.

Seems like they are wanting to drop pretty sharply at around the 25-30m mark.  When I noticed myself having the same issue I turned my palm upwards a bit during the throw instead of it being more parallel to the direction of the throw. It helped immensely. Instant laser straight shots and they didn’t lose power nearly as fast due to not fighting against the drift caused by the spin.

Have you been to the Balearic Islands yet? Seems like you could do really good there.

@IronGoober - Great to see someone else giving this a try.  Awesome video man!  Great slinging! :thumb:

Quote:

You always undersell your very impressive slinging videos IG.  Grin That was definitely top tier slinging. You answered the question I had about spin here. Seems like they are wanting to drop pretty sharply at around the 25-30m mark.  When I noticed myself having the same issue I turned my palm upwards a bit during the throw instead of it being more parallel to the direction of the throw. It helped immensely. Instant laser straight shots and they didn’t lose power nearly as fast due to not fighting against the drift caused by the spin. Have you been to the Balearic Islands yet? Seems like you could do really good there.

Thanks Morphy. I noticed the drop too. I kept hitting right under the target and whenever I tried to adjust up, It would alter the rest of the shot and it would go up and left.  I will definitely give the wrist position thing a chance, sounds interesting.

And no, I haven't been. I would love to go. I am always nervous to go somewhere that English isn't the first language though, not because I don't think they will speak English, but because I feel like a philistine for not knowing their language.


Quote:

@IronGoober - Great to see someone else giving this a try.  Awesome video man!  Great slinging! Thumbs Up

Thanks Joe, it was fun. I think I might try again, maybe make a shorter video.  I just like having honest videos that show my misses as much as the hits, so viewers get a real sense of what using a sling is like. 

Great slinging IG and on a small target, impressive!!

Quote:

As you can see I had some trouble at 70ft and 100ft. 70 was when I started to feel tired and 100 was heavily effected by crosswind probably a 10ft plus drift over that distance.

I can attest, cross-winds make it much harder, so I feel your pain/annoyance.


Quote:

Great slinging IG and on a small target, impressive!!

Thanks Mersa. I liked your inclusion of the times directly in your video. I tried to figure out a way to do that, but am not that clever (or motivated). 

I gave it a second try and did much better. There was much less wind this time around. I tried turning my palm up like you suggested, Morphy, and that did seem to help some. 
I made it back to 150 ft within the hour, including talking to some guy for 5 minutes about slinging.

I tried some balearic style at the end (I rarely practice this) and seemed to get some extra power! I was surprised, usually, I don't with this style.  The trajectory was much flatter, but I'm unsure if it was due to spin, or power, or both. Fun though! I might try practicing this a bit more after this attempt.

https://youtu.be/rkJETV8-Bmk

Great slinging! I need to have another go at this challenge. I've been  working a hell of a lot and haven't had much time to sling or edit videos.

Hit at 140'!  Awesome!  I think you have the current record for the slinging version of this challenge.

I’d like to revisit it but need to find a better backstop and a good way to edit it

joe_meadmaker wrote on Jun 15^th, 2020 at 8:36am:

Hit at 140'!  Awesome!  I think you have the current record for the slinging version of this challenge.

So 42 meters. That’s some serious airtime right there. What I love about those shots is you get to watch the projectile for a little bit before it actually hits. Especially with a crosswind where you are aiming off the target you sort of watch it drift over to it. Very cool.

Ooh, ouch. Over an hour to get one hit at 42m. Yikes. I'll have to get to practicing if I want to reach my goal of an indigenous person's accuracy hitting fruit bats from 60 paces 2 out of 3...(fat chance)

I was watching the release frame by frame, my palm is actually too far up. I need to turn it over sooner. Instead of a rifled release, I'm almost getting spin almost on a vertical axis on some shots. It's like I'm launching a little version of the earth, vertical axis spin with a wobble...

Got back to the spot I attempted the challenge. The target was 50cm wide and 90cm high, so very similar area to joes target. Also found an amazing backstop just need to make a target for it .

Looking forward to your attempt.  I love watching those hits!!!

IronGoober wrote on Jun 17^th, 2020 at 12:59am:

Looking forward to your attempt.  I love watching those hits!!!

+1 bring on those very sexy hits Mersa!

Mersa wrote on Apr 7^th, 2020 at 7:03pm:

Any chance you can redo the challenge but with a bow , love to see the comparison.

This has been a while in the works.  I've never been a very good archer, so I wasn't too worried about shot accuracy.  But shooting over and over and over for an hour is tough!

My goal was to empty my quiver (15 arrows) 15 times in an hour.  Today I made it.  225 shots in 59 minutes and 58 seconds.  Next up is the Back-Up-10-Feet challenge.  I'm hoping to make an attempt this coming weekend.

http://beehatmead.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Archery10FeetChallengePreview.jpg

Awesome! Is there a video in the works?

Can’t wait to see it

Kick wrote on Sep 15^th, 2020 at 5:01am:

Is there a video in the works?

Definitely!  I'll be recording the attempt and have a video (hopefully) within a few days afterward.

And here we are.  The editing of these Back-Up-10-Feet challenges is such a pain.  But I think it came out pretty good.  A lot of fun, just like the slinging version.  No where near as tiring though.

https://youtu.be/QSpsR48ZdmQ

Great stuff Joe! I really need to have another go at this one with the sling and maybe the staff sling too. That could be interesting to see how I do.

I wish I had 60 yards in my yard! Good stuff Joe.

Yeah joe,good stuff,  are you a gap shooter , or instinctual?? I was a instinctive shooter for years but recently changed to a higher anchor and started using my point and face walking.
What’s your poundage too??

Thanks guys!


Kick wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2020 at 11:58pm:

I really need to have another go at this one with the sling and maybe the staff sling too. That could be interesting to see how I do.

That makes two of us.  I've been meaning to do this again with a sling, just haven't done it.  Maybe after the pumpkin challenge.  A staff sling comparison would be cool!



IronGoober wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2020 at 12:58am:

I wish I had 60 yards in my yard!

When I bought my house, that was one of the things I was looking for.  I wasn't slinging at that time, but I was making bows and wanted to be able to shoot them in the yard.



Mersa wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2020 at 4:00am:

are you a gap shooter , or instinctual?

Generally I'm an instinctual shooter.  Although when doing this video I switched to gap once I reached some of the longer shots.  This is the farthest distance I have ever shot this bow, and the lack of practice at 100+ feet made instinctual shooting almost impossible.



Mersa wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2020 at 4:00am:

What’s your poundage too?

The bow in the video is 44 lb. @ 28 inches.  The length is 64.25 in (163 cm) from nock to nock.

I find a close distances I’m better probably just gripping and ripping it but at longer distances I’m much better using my point as a reference, face walking has been a game changer also, I might try copy you and do this with my bow too , what’s the target size ?

Yep, I'm definitely with you on the technique change for different distances.  Especially when shooting far and trying to get the angle dialed in.  I've never used face walking.  But just getting a consistent anchor point is probably one of my biggest problems.  I'm usually pretty close, but it tends to vary a bit for close vs. far shots.

Target size is 2 ft X 2 ft.  So about 61 cm X 61 cm.  It would be very cool to see you give this a shot.  I think I mentioned before, my biggest concern was shooting constantly for that amount of time.  I didn't want to have terrible shots at the end because of fatigue.  The long practice sessions worked great because at the end of the challenge I would have had no problem shooting another 100 arrows.

One more thing I'll mention, the backstop was invaluable.  I think I had about 7 or 8 shots clear the top, but it saved so much time when gathering up arrows.  I was looking at getting an actual arrow catch, but opted to just use a piece of plywood.

Joe, we should give this another go. I think we could both do better. But you need to get a golf net to speed up recovering ammo.

This was a fun challenge. But for now I’m TRYING to get back into slinging random stones.

I would be game.  As soon as my yard dries up or freezes.  All through the holidays it has been mild and rainy in my area.  I've had nothing but mud and puddles of water for a few weeks.  The temperature has dropped off though so hopefully that's going to be done.

I don't think I'll need a net.  I'll 100% be going with ice.  If it's really cold, I should be able to gather up anything around the target.  The rest can be left where it falls.

Are you thinking we switch to a balearic target?  That's pretty much my easiest option right now.  Although it is a lot bigger than that little pallet I used to use.  It does have the advantage that a round could be done where any hit is good, and another round where a diana is needed to back up farther.  It will be interesting to see how much difference there is.


@Mersa - Why back to random stones?  Had enough of those tennis balls?  ;)

Yeah I’ve been training almost exclusively with tennis balls for a while now. Wanna get back into some stone slinging and just walking around slinging.