My dad made a sling for me out of a rag and shoestrings when I was about 10 years old. Played with it a little and then lost interest. About 5 years ago, I built a house on a hill covered with rocks. I made a quick sling out of leather and began throwing those rock into the empty lot next to mine. I noticed that my aim was improving as well as my distance. I was then hooked. My son and I started to go down to the creek everyday in the summer to gather rocks and hurl them. Haven't stopped since!!
Johnny

nwmanitou, ....maybe little description of your slinging style??  Seems like styles run in x3 types:

1/ Overhead w near horizontal spin, 1 full turn at least before launch
2/ "Baseball pitch" w no spin.  Motion can be horizontal or vertical or almost anyplace in between
3/ Underhand w near vertical spin, 1 full turn at least before launch

I favor #3 w 630deg of spin before launch.  Better accuracy for me & easy on old shoulder.

mgreenfield

WalkingBird learned to sling by slinging. I was a young kid when I must have read how to make a sling. Using it was a different story, took awhile to work up a technique that worked, after that it was lots of fun. I can't remember a time when I didn't own at least one sling. I've showed others how to throw with one. I never was deadly accurate, but sending a stone nearly out of sight as a kid was a gas. To bad my arm isn't as loose as then. I'm challanged by you folks to really start working on accuracy. A shorter sling would be in order here. One thing I do know you can learn to sling just by slinging, and this forum really helps because of the posts and movie clips.

WalkingBird

I got into slings by browsing the internet, finding this site, making a sling, figuring out how to use it and then using it  FUN FUN FUN!