Well, I'd like to start this off like pretty much all new people. Hello all, and what a great forum. I was kinda worried I was one of only a handful of slingers worldwide, but I guess not. Anyways, on to the story. Slinging isn't a popluar passtime or the star of any media coverage. So how exactly did everyone on this forum discover the sling? For me, it all started around the age of 8 or so. My father bought a new computer, and installed on it was a game called pitfall. I'll spare you the storyline of the game but I'll tell you that the character you play uses a long peice of cloth to throw rocks. I found this fascinating and tryed this in my front yard. Unfortunately the stone flew backwards during my windup and hit my kitchen window. Luckily, it survived the accident. Like any other 8 year old I gave up on this project after only one try. But the sling wasnt done with me yet. About 2 years later I was given a minature copy of the SAS survival handbook for surviving the Scout's winter campout (a quite brutal trial by fire where all first years are driven into the mountains and left to survive the weekend). In the book was a brief description of the sling so I decided to give it another try. So, I constructed a sling out of old jean material and nylon string, and headed to my front yard. Again, during my windup, the stone flew free and hit my kitchen window. Window 2-Stones 0. So i gave up again. Finally, around 5 years ago the sling struck again. While playing Caesar 2 I was very angry that the only missile troops I could use were these puney slingers. They were so pathetic that I searched the internet to find out if the Romans actually used such a useless weapon. I didnt find much, but it wet my appetite again. Using my more mature mind I built a sling out of leather scraps and nylon rope. It works incredibly and I still use it to this day. I hope this hasnt been too long for you all, but I just wanted to tell you my story. I hope you all enjoyed it.

The sling found me though welding. I was taking classes at the local voteck school. One day one of the welders there busted out his sling and i was greatly inpressed what he could do with a golf ball. I have been hooked ever since.

Books got me.  I read a series of fantasy novels in which a weapon based on staff-slings was used.  I couldn't quite visualize how the weapon worked, so I decided to try and design one.  I did some research on staff-slings to see how the real ones were used, and everything I read said they worked like slings.  More research led to a poorly made leather sling, and that was that.  Now I'm into slings, braiding, staff-slings and, of course, the fictional weapon that I finally got working.