AncientCraftwork wrote on Aug 3
rd, 2020 at 7:53am:
I don't think the argument for more tearing damage to flesh is a good argument for what makes a good sling projectile. There are other shapes that will do even more damage to flesh.
I am not saying the glande is not a good projectile, but I don't believe it is the best projectile to be slung.
Because in order for a glande (or any ovoid) to have good rifled release accuracy, the pouch orientation must be controlled in a consistent way that is nearly impossible with a sling. That's why they make the slings fatter and stiffer, which reduces the efficiency of the sling as a lever, but also why they need a delayed release (otherwise it can't fly point first in the first place). And even then the yaw angles of the glandes are almost never equal.
None of this means glandes can't be slung or aren't effective as a volley weapon, which is what they used it for. Its very effective as a volley projectile, also because it can whistle. I mean, they slung arrows/darts too. Like darts, the glande or ovoid is a specific sling projectile that requires a specific sling. It just happens to be the case that this specific sling is usually the easiest type of sling to make, since it has a flat pouch or a split pouch, and therefore it is also the most popular sling type. There are plenty of elongated stones in nature that are retained well in these poorly designed slings. Sadly this type of sling has become the dominant type and is one of the reasons for the slings legendary high skill level and therefore an overshadowing of the sling by other primitive technologies, such as the atlatl and the bow, and even the staff sling. But in cultures that utilized round balls as projectiles (and therefore designed their sling around this projectile), the sling stayed popular as the bow and atlatl for very good reasons.
The optimal and most natural proectile for the sling is the sphere, or in ancient times, the most round stone you can find or clay balls. And most likely their glande slings would not have been able to hold perfect round balls or stones, otherwise they wouldn't have flattened out their glandes either. If a sling requires any flattening of a projectile to retain it properly, it is a rather poorly designed sling.
I've thrown quite elongated glandes with a light, floppy 28" sling, and I can attest that with a bit of practice, one can consistently get a practically perfect release. The reason historical glandes are short and also slightly squashed in one dimension is so that the projectile has a high rate of spin on release, and at extreme ranges still has enough spin to remain stable. There is no doubt in my mind that they would have experimented with all sorts of shapes, and settled on what was best for their purposes (and that goes for sling design as well).
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Sling bullets (Read 12737 times)
