magnumslinger
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I don't sling a thing if I ain't got my sling!
Posts: 188
United Arab Emirates
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This question had to come up sooner or later, but i think it's like asking, who would win: Batman Or Spiderman? Or, the articles in firearms magazines with titles like, "Which is more powerful: .30-06 or .308 heavy loads?" It's thought-provoking, and great to consider and discuss, but my dad can still whip your dad, no matter which side I take! The Bow is USUALLY better in confined spaces, but there are certain techniques which allow the sling to ALSO be just as useful in most cramped areas, such as the straight over-the-head "bowing centerline" technique I've described, as well as one or two others that come to mind. There's a great website sometwhere that talks all about the ancient Mongols, and says that they sometimes used bows as strong as 300 pounds or more, and the draw weight was customised to match the strength of the archer. They had to used a full fisted grip, and symmetrical "Sampson-between-the-pillars"-type drawing motion to draw the bows, and a "thumb ring" (which resembled a sawed-off version of a modern-day guitar) slide to allow the bowstring to slip out of the hand on release without injuring the thumb. The draw weight was so strong that modern ways of drawing and holding bowstrings would never have worked for the Mongols. The string was pulled past the ear, and the arrow was held, and shot off of the opposite side of the bow than is done by right-handed archers today.
Another interesting thing is that bows and slings are BOTH difficult to guarantee hits with on small kill zones at long distances using point-type shooting. If you read the debates on "maximum humane sporting distances" for taking deer, they are surprisingly short (inside of 40m, usually, even for master masksmen.), although people have taken game and killed enemies far in excess of these distances.
The Benjaminites used both the sling AND the bow, and so would I, given a choice. Versatility is always preferable. They are both great weapons, and my mopney in a duel between a slinger and an archer would be on whoever scored the first disabling shot into a vital area of his opponent's body, regardless of the weapon he prefered.
I personally like slings better, but I also really like bows.
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