As you all have to know by now, I just got back from camping in the Alleghenies.  I brought along six war slings.  I only brought big slings because I knew from previous experience that there's only broken shale to sling on the mountains there.
   Of the six all worked reasonably well except for the top one, a Rockman, which is made completely of hemp.  There's nothing at all wrong with hemp or Rockmans, but the sling is just too thick and heavy.  It's very cumbersome to use.  The best of the bunch was the TS3 at the bottom.  It kicked butt and cracked like thunder.  It's cords are polypropylene and the pouch is nylon.  The whipping is jute.  Next up is a pj that worked well too.  It's pouch and cords are polypropylene and its whipping is jute.  Next is a tape pouch sling made from a crappy piece of used clothes line.  I have a few slings like this and they're great.  The cords of #4 from the bottom, a Rockman, are made of nylon (white) and polypropylene (red) with mason line whipping and a nylon pouch.  5th from the bottom, another pj,  has a hemp pouch, jute whipping, and polypropylene cords.

Here's another view.  The tape on the staff sling was a temporary measure.  I'll replace it with glue now that it's home.  I've made about a half dozen staff slings now and the length of the sling really doesn't seem to matter at all. 

This is from a 6th cent BC Etruscan tomb in Tarquinia . It's called the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing. The second chamber has this painting on it

People in the boat are fishing. The man on the shore is the only one slinging. Because of the age, pieces of the paint have flaked off, so I had to go with the interpretation of the archeologists. The person leanin over on the boat is net fishing.

Rat Man wrote on May 23^rd, 2012 at 8:19pm:


I like that pop up camper, how old is it, nice staff sling, how accurate are those compared to the hand sling?

canteskuyaOMD wrote on Jun 9^th, 2012 at 11:12am:


staff slings are actually way more accurate as they pretty much just sling in  a direct straight line.
Adjustig the height of release takes a wee bit of practice.
But I'd have to say that a small one handed staff sling should be a lot more accurate than just a sling.

I went out last night with my nephew and got some more practice in. Only delema was that we did not have any ammo aside from a tennis ball. My nephew found a baseball on the way to the school atheltics field. We found another on the field which we lost on a stray shot down into the treeline.

This morning I hit the field again for more practice before work and went in search of the ball we lost in the treeline when it was too dark to find it. In the course of that hunt I found all but one of the balls pictured.

Here is my second Mescalero Apache reproduction, i used hemp, a vegetable tanned leather, and button thread.