I want to thank those who have contributed material on slinging on slinging.org and for the sling sent after my contribution to the website.

I wanted to pass on the results of a successful experiment.

Next month, I will be teaching at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for IT (top high school students from around the state).  I will be surprising the students by teaching the class in a first century AD Legionnaire impression.  The students will learn a little about the information networks of the Roman Republic and Empire and the other technology that they used (along with discussion of the impact on technological change on society and the importance personal discipline and civic responsibility).

One item that I will use as an example in the class will be the Roman sling.  I hope to make a sling of proper materials ready for the class.   The Romans often had the Legionnaires learn the sling and carry it as an auxillary weapon (they also used professional slingers as auxillary troops).

I don't like to teach what I don't have direct experience with.  So, in preparation for this class, I took the sling that I received from slinging.org (parachute cord and leather) and contacted a local golf driving range.  They agreed to let me practice with the sling (it was a slow day).  I bought a large bucket ($6) of balls and took the farthest left hand lane.  There was no parking or people directly to the rear or to the side of me. 

I then tried the sling for about three fourths of the bucket (about 60 balls) until I ran out of time (and my arm began to tire).  This was great fun, though I am a wretched shot.  The balls went about 70 - 80 yards underhand and about fifty overhand (with great driving force into the ground).  I intend to try this again and believe that I will get better with practice.  Like instinctive bow shooting, the secret is likely to be many, many shots and going with the natural flow.

If you all are interested in learning the art of the sling, a golf driving might be the best, safest place to do so.  You don't even have to collect the ammunition. 

In the future, I may even try this in the Roman lorica segmentata and helment.  Though I am more interested in bagging squirrels in hunting season a few years from now.

E-mail me directly with any comments, I don't have the opportunity to monitor this list.

Regards,

Jim Craft

I'm surprised... with the slings I've used, and the technique I've learned... I can now reliably put golfball size/weight objects well in excess of 200 yards down range.   Golfballs, when supplied with the proper back-spin, create their own lift, and have slightly increased range, despite their lighter weight.  I've got three different slings.. all of them completely constructed of leather and artificial sinew.   All of them function well enough to send golf-balls out of sight down range.  I've won several bets as to whether or not I could throw a rock across the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and the Green River near Moab Utah.  Each place where I won those bets looked to be about 150+ yards wide.      I'm curious, is 50-80 yards the considered maximum effective range of slung projectiles?

Regards,

A. M. Taylor

My technique appears to be the very same one that Nwmanitou uses in his video.   I was ALSO taught in person by someone who had been taught by his father, etcetera. 

It seems to be most commonly called the 'figure-8' style... where the pocket starts in the front, held by your weak-hand, with the loop and release strings held in your strong hand... the pocket is released, allowed to fall slightly downwards while being drawn backwards, and then upwards after it passes your calves, traveling in an inverted arch until it reaches about waist level, from which the pocket is drawn out and away from your torso (bending the axis of the arc outwards) until the pocket is traveling nearly parallel to the ground in front of you at about the heighth of your head.  This is where the "whip" is applied.   Nwmanitou's video does justice to this technique when my words fall short.   

When practiced, this technique will indeed allow you to achieve thrown-ranges in excess of 150+ yards with not much effort.  Imagine keeping a sling mixed in among your collection of golf clubs for your next trip down to the club house.   Par 5 courses are humbled to par 2, and never again will your caddy smirk at your technique... especially when you ask him to retrieve your golfball which was 'accidentally' embedded (by your deft use of a sling) in a tree 50 yards away.   

Regards,

A. M. Taylor

I've got a golf course within walking distance of my house.  Maybe I'll give that a try.

Squirrels are yummy!!   When I was a kid, we'd get a couple with a .22.   Recipe is this.  

Skin & clean 'em.  Toss the skin, but save the tail to tie on your car radio antenna.   Cut the tail off with little tab of back skin (maybe 1"x 1") to make a loop that slips over the antenna.    Impresses chicks.

Take the critters apart much like you would a whole frying chicken.   Keep "drumsticks" & thighs together because they're pretty small, etc.

Get a paper sack & put in it about 1/2cup of white flour & 1/2cup cornmeal, plus a half-teaspoon salt.   I like a lot of black pepper, too.   These amounts aren't critical.

Toss the squirrel pieces in the bag & shake til covered with the flour/cornmeal/etc mix.

Skillet fry in oil until done, then serve to your very appreciative friends.   Same recipe works for rabbit, and lots of other small game, including fish.   You can add other seasonings to the mix in the paper bag.

mgreenfield

Indeed, squirrels are yummy. Squirrels and Rabbits make up some of the most popular small game to hunt, at least in the more rural areas of the US.

On that note, I got tired of just running on the treadmill for my daily workout today(my wife and I decided it was time to get back in shape, particularily for hiking later this summer). So I borrowed a raquet ball and volley ball from the office in our little apartment gym and proceed to "Kill da wabbit" (Elmer Fudd). The Volleyball was the rabbit  . I bounced it around the raquetball court and slung the raquet ball at it. I was surprised at how many times I hit it even when it was on the move.  This always seems to happen when I'm "hunting." Even with my archery practice. I just imagine I'm stalking the target and the arrows seem to find the bulls eye. I think what's happening is that you quit thinking about your shot and concentrate more on your prey. At that point muscle memory and the part of your brain that instinctively aims takes over making the shot while the worrysome "I think my forms off, and what if I miss?" part of the brain is distracted.

I have seen plenty of recipes for squirrel.  I don't mean to be rude to anyone who does in fact eat squirrel, but they were in something called the "White Trash Cookbook".  Honestly.  I got it for my uncle as a birthday present.  It had everything you might imagine Elvis eating in it; basically, fried sweet things and roadkill.  It was intended as a joke, and so the recipes, although authentic and possible, were a bit... odd.  I have always thought squirrel might be nice in a soup or pie, just like rabbit.
Anyway, back to the thread....
There are no golf driving ranges anywhere near me.  The only one I have seen on this island was in Scotland.  A bit far to go just to sling stones.  Nice idea though.

If I can pipe up, check out Wildwood Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger, THE classic outdoor guide.