Spent an interesting evening Thursday, talking slings with a member of the sealed knot. The English civil war society.

He basically is putting together a talk on what the common soldier would have had in his everyday pack.

Now because they had gunpowder and flintlocks, we tend to forget that the majority if soldiers were peasants, and the sling would still have been a part of their everyday lives.

When hunting provisions, you would not waste powder and shot.
And most would not have room in their pack for bows and arrows.
But many of them would still have carried slings.

So I showed tiny a variety of historically possible slings, and got him to the point where he could make a stone go forward more often than it went backwards.

At some point I'll meet up with a bunch of reenactors and we'll have a proper session.

The sling tonybfell in love with was a flat braided shepherd's sling (Apache).

It's pretty much the only sling I did not make that I use regularly.
It's just a fantastic piece of work.
The cords are as supple as paracorf, the pouch fits a tennis ball perfectly.
The length is great and it uses a sliding finger loop, so you never get any chafing.
Plus it lions great :-)

As soon as I got it out of my bag, tonys eyes lit up :-)

I cannot remember who I got it off. :-(
It might be one of judop's or it might not.

I'm not even sure whether or not it's a sith sling.
Probably, but I might have acquired it at an international.
I've probably had it 4 or 5 years.

Tony would like to make his own, damned if I can find a tutorial anywhere for a flat braided shepherd/Apache sling.

It's a sling that could be dropped into any historical era of the last 10,000 years and be considered historically accurate.

Plus versatile enough to be used by soldiers and shepherd's alike.

Pics attached.

If you made it, let me know as I'd like to get a few more.
Or if you know if a tutorial u can point tony at, that would also be useful.

Once we've got the sealed knot up to speed with slings, I fancy moving on to staff slings and grenades :-)

---

If you do meet up with them, make a short video of it, so the rest of us can live vicariously through you!

No sweat, a video of a bunch of hairy arsed re-enactors trying to kill each other with slings and sock balls, is definitely on the cards :-)

I also presented tony with a couple packets of pigeon breast jerky.

I actually meant it for eating, but I think he's using it in his talk, to go alongside his piece of old cheese, hardtack and pouch of barley.

Also brings up a future opportunity to do some jerky making demos at a camp at some point.

Always got pigeon breasts in the freezer.

Mind you it'd be more fun to show them how to start with a dead bird and process it without using a knife.
It's not for the squeamish, but I can break down a pigeon in about a minute.

They're also the easiest birds to pluck on the planet.

So, flat braid sling tutorials, any ideas ?