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Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing. (Read 4590 times)
Chucker
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Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Jun 18th, 2004 at 2:14pm
 
Having learned to throw at an early age in the same style as nwmanitou video shows, I have found that certian style of rocks when thrown hard enough will sing as they leave the sling.  This style for lack of a name we shall call it a "figure 8 overhand" will impart a terific spin on the projectile making sound like a large bumble bee.
Have any of you had this happen?

Your friend, Chucker.








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nwmanitou
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #1 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 2:56pm
 
all the time. Rocks with a flater profile will buzz as they exit the sling. It happens with just about any style cast. The backspin on a rock is a fun thing to watch. If the rock is just right and the backspin is oriented vertically the rock will look like it's hovering. I've actually had them drop to about 3 feet off the ground then gain altitude and float at head level for 100 yards.
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Chucker
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #2 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 3:20pm
 
Due to the back spin on the rock, do you find the best ammo to be the round or oval type?

I usually search for the ones which are just a little smaller than a golf ball, hopefuly round also.

I like to go to the lake and throw at the round steel target anchored in the water.  They will gong pretty good if you can hit them.

Have a great day.

Chucker.
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Jandro
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #3 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 3:32pm
 
Yes, I have heard it, specially when I throw the rock with an underhand shot.

Chucker
If you were talking in plural, I like the rounded ammo the best because it is 100% aerodynamical and it never tends to change the direction where you shot it.

Jandro A.K.A. Ra
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #4 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 4:20pm
 
Usually it is only irregularly shaped rocks that sing.  I think mwmanitou has it right when he says this is due to spin.  Some rock shapes can produce a sound that is like an old-style western movie rifle ricochete.

I sometimes do demos.  During the demo I show both close-up "accuracy" slinging and distance slinging.  It would be really cool to have some ammo that would predictably make this sound during the distance casts.

Anybody ever tried to intentionally create molded glandes that make a racket? 

I realize that the sound means that the projectile is aerodynamically inefficient and so distance and accuracy would suffer,  but it would still be a cool effect.

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Like one who binds a stone in a sling, So is he who gives honor to a fool. Proverbs 26:8
 
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #5 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 5:39pm
 
Welcome all new members!

Usually I don't like the "singing shots", feel them as muffs due to both poor distances and accuracy. But sometimes they give a beautiful effect, indeed. Most often reason of it is in an unclean release or poor shaped stones or both together. In these cases stones can fly along very weird trajectory and each of them gives own peculiar melody.

Sometimes granite stones brust during hard shot, especially elongated ones. A few times I had the case that stone exploded to two or three pieces after flying some distance.

Jurek
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In the shape, structure and position of each stone, there is recorded a small piece of history. So, slinging them, we add a bit of our history to them.
 
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #6 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 6:17pm
 
I have a theory that the shape peculiarity is the same that causes a bullroarer to work.  For those that are unfamiliar with it this is a toy made by some aboriginal peoples.  Basically a paddle attached to a string.  The paddle is shaped like an airfoil -- flat on one side, curved on the other.  Swinging it round and round causes the foil to toggle directions very rapidly causing a roaring sound.

It may be possible to reproduce using hemispherical glandes.  Idea -- half a tennis ball molded concrete glandes.  If I get a chance to make some round glandes this weekend (as I was planning) I'll try it.

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Like one who binds a stone in a sling, So is he who gives honor to a fool. Proverbs 26:8
 
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #7 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 7:45pm
 
Remember, if you use just rocks you find that are irregular, they WILL tear your pouch very quickly. Hear in Arkansas I usally throw the irregular rocks. So, don't take any sling that your are to proud of, like a braided sling. Cry
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #8 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 7:48pm
 
Hey there Weaver,

Have you seen some of Jeff H's Bullroarers he posted under Other Primative Weaons and Such? They sound really neat. I want to make one someday.
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JeffH
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #9 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 9:39pm
 
Well, I can get into this post; boy howdy!!!!

Yes, indeed, the rocks sing for the very same reason bullroarers roar.  In fact, the sharper the edges on the rock, the louder it will sing.

Musically speaking, a bullroarer is known as a free aerophone.  This means that it causes the air to vibrate outside the instrument.  The bull roarer does this by spinning fast enough that the air vibrates as it crosses the edge of the blade.  When a stone spins fast enough and has a good edge or two, it, too, becomes a free aerophone.

When I was just a boy, I would shoot rocks from my Saunders Folding Falcon slingshot.  My grandmother lived on a gravel road so ammunition was plentiful, but rarely round and smooth, even though it was river stone.  Over the years of being driven on and having some chert mixed in, the stones tended to have sharp edges.

I would sometimes shoot stones onto the road at about 30 deg. down from horizontal.  When the richocheted, the sound was as cool as it gets.  Indescribable in text except that it was obviously caused by the spinning stone.  Certainly it was doing several thousand revolutions per minute.  A really good one would sing for a hundred yards until it went into the woods.

Jeff <><
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So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. (1 Samuel 17:50)
 
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JeffH
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #10 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 9:46pm
 
Also,

Stones with good edges that spin fast enough do indeed get a fair amound of lift.  The other day I threw several stones that exhibited this behavior quite well.

My release is mostly sideways, about 20 or 25 degrees up from horizontal.  I was throwing stones into a borrow pit and was standing on the ground about 15 feet up from the water.  The stones were going well out into the pit (at least 300 feet, and often more).  Some of the stones curved in the air as much as 30 or 40 yards (always to my right).

This was pretty cool.

jeff <><
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So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. (1 Samuel 17:50)
 
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #11 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 10:05pm
 
Cool!

I used to make bullroarers for craftfairs.  Sold like hotcakes as unusual Christmas gifts.

Based on your description of the theory of operation the optimal "singing stone" would be flat, thin and have sharp edges.  I think that pretty well fits with my own experience.  Unfortunately this is also the shape of stone that is most squirelly when you throw it.

Have you ever experimented with what variable controls the pitch?  I suspect it would be the width but always made my bullroarers one-size-fits-all.  Seems like rotation speed might play a roll as well.

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Like one who binds a stone in a sling, So is he who gives honor to a fool. Proverbs 26:8
 
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #12 - Jun 18th, 2004 at 10:18pm
 
Weaver,

See my posts on bullroarers in the "other weapons" section.  Yes, I know it is not a weapon, but it was the only place to put it.

Pitch is controlled by the length of the edge.  Volume is controlled by the rate of spin and rate of rotation and to a much smaller degree by the size (width, length) of the roarer.

The longer the edge, the deeper the pitch.  If you make two 12" long and one is 2" wide and straight and the other 4" wide and eliptical, the second will be a bit deeper in pitch.

The one I made that is 22" long (red and blond) is really deep and loud, but works me out to much to swing often.  In fact, it broke the string one day and I have not swung it since.  There were children about and one could have been hurt.

jeff <><
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So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. (1 Samuel 17:50)
 
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A. M. Taylor
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #13 - Jun 22nd, 2004 at 8:30am
 
The real fun begins when your aim reaches the point that you can send those 'singers' about 10 feet overhead of your target.  I've done this several times while camping.  After you've send a few of them nicely humming over the picnic table area in the next campground over... then try to convince the happy campers that you're a scientist from a local university, studying the effects of prozac and caffeine on humming birds -- ask them if they've seen or heard any humming birds that seem to be behaving abnormally energetic etc.... Smiley

Just be sure your aim is good enough by this point that you won't send any insanely-happy humming birds through a tent or car window!
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Shaun
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Re: Throwing hard enough to make the rocks sing.
Reply #14 - Jun 27th, 2004 at 11:20pm
 
I really like the "singing" effect, but it makes it really hard to practice accuracy when the rocks are turning before they're halfway to the target. most of the  rocks in my area are like obsidian when broken (sharp edges)
only denser. I remember one that I chucked that was about 5" long and 1-2 wide with an almost perfect rectangular cross-section. Made the coolest low hum when thrown. Almost helicopter like. But the angular sharpness of the rocks makes them well suited to the shotgun throw as long as they are roughly circular.
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