By now most of you have seen photos of glandes, the leaden sling bullets of the Romans. Even though they are of lead, they seem to be fairly light weight for a sling. I figured that they used them as a multiple projectile load against massed infantry. If launched high enough that would increase firepower quite a bit and increase the chances of a single pellet falling through an opening in armor to softer areas of the body. The biconical section of the projectile would wobble intitially on launching but should eventually level out into a point forward landing.

It's true that I have no proof of it. I've seen impact studies of shuttle cock type projectiles(shotgun slugs) that have little or no spin and will fly point forward due to tail drag if it flies far enough. A biconical projectile is basically a shuttle cock type projectile that just happens to have another point on the end of the tail. Most of the projectiles like this tend to wobble a bit as they are moving and then starts to stabilize with one end flying forward due to air drag. A football is similar and I've seen them wobble when thrown with no spin, but if they fall far enough don't they start to still the wobble so that one end comes point down? I can't imagine that the shape of the glandes are an accident. Balls or ovals are much easier to cut into molds and cast than oblong biconicals.

To take a bit of a broader view of the period, look at the armor and shields of the armies opposing the Romans.  Leather was the primary component, with some chainmaille (very limited), some metal plates, and wood.  All of these things could stop even a fast missile.  I think that the shape was just as Chris said, a way to put more psi on the impact point.  Just like a flail had spikes or ridges, you have a relatively good flight missile with two points to cause some damage.  Add to the fact that it was heavy and could throw well if it got a spin (maybe with a course leather pouch and a certain release techique) and you have a good chance of hitting an exposed bit of flesh or skull, especially from the top.

When the Germanic tribes were at war with Rome, they used a few throwing axes each (double bladed, crudely designed) as the first attack into an advancing Roman line.  These axes normally hit shields or armor, being nothing more than a small pain to the Romans, but they got some hits in before they ever had to touch the enemy with there main battle gear.  The same could be said about the slings used by the Romans, a sapper weapon.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

Ron

My take is that the sling is much like long range machine gun fire. Meant to throw confusion and fear into the enemy and throw the abillity to keep a formation together off. You have a variety of missles coming in at various trajectories, true most bouncing off of armor or shielding but some sinking through gaps in the same. Small heavy projectiles coming in at sufficient velocity will sink into the body. Most bullet studies that I have seen have the bullet tumbling after impact so that the blunt end is traveling forward after swapping (if the bullet doesn't fragment during the first effort to tumble) Being able to toss multiple projectiles with each throw gets more ligther weight projectiles up into the air causing more disorientation. There were hundreds of glandes found at Roman military battle sites volume of fire must have been a consideration.

Sweet photos!!    I especially like the first one.  Those lead ones look as though they could make some serious dents in the armor.

Rob

Kiwi,

Culd you tell what improvment (%) of a range the lead projectiles give towards regular stones?

Ben mentioned about the uranium darts. Uranium is almost 2 times more desnse than lead, so that must be real fun with it!

Jurek

This subject is very interesting. Kiwi, you are something right with respect to the point-first flight of the projectils rugby shaped. It is clear for projectils of clay or stone. The technique that I use consists of turning around in a  45º plane and launching in horizontal plane to the height of the hip. In that position the projectil leaves just with the point forwards, whenever we have held the ends of the sling with a little separation among them. Thus, in the turning around, the axis of the projectile is changing of position successively and the firing must be done when oriented forwards. In addition, as when releasing the projectile always leaves turning because it rolls on the pouch, it acquires a giroscopic effect that holds the position of the spin axis in the flight. Nevertheless,  this techniquie of launching is difficult to obtain with glandes due to its small size, that makes very difficult the control of its position in the firing. But it is not impossible, and in fact the Romans used to alter glandes, sharpening one of their ends, to facilitate the point-first flight. With it, they  attained to move the center of gravity towards an end and to stabilize better the projectile. I have some Roman glandes altered this way, if you want to see them I can put the image. Nevertheless, as you say JeffH, what they often wanted was precisely the opposite,  that the glandes flew in a erratic way, since then the destruction with its points was greater. There were many adjustments that the slingers made in glandes to obtain different effects.

Jesús

For your purposes (the Guiness) we will have to think about the best way. It dont´t think to try the end forwards flight is a good idea because this technique decrease something  the launching energy . It is better to shoot with all the power and that the projectile flies as it wants. Although you think that spherical projectiles would be the best ones because they would have a more regular flight, in practice it has been demonstrated through the history that are the elongated ones, rugby shaped, which attain more range.This shape was adopted yet with clay projectiles, when nothing about ballistic theory  was still known. Today we know that for the same weight of the projectile, the air dragging is proportional to the surface shown to the advance, and for that reason an elongated projectile, even flying not completely straight,  shows a smaller surface to the air than a spherical one and get more range. And although the axis of the projectile can oscillate something in the flight,  usually takes a more or less inclined position due to the gyroscopic effect that it acquires in the launching. The difficulty is to control that position, but never mind the position, it tends to stay unless we use a technique for launching it in a erratic way. So I think the typical glande is the best option to beat that record you are close. According my calculations, if I´m not wrong, with a glande the same weight your 320 meters stone projectil , you could increase the range in 35 %.
Animo, valiente
Jesús