The kung-fu meteor hammer style was a joke, but it sort of achieves this same effect by rotating the pouch around a decreasing radius.

The timing is definitely going to be tricky.  You basically put all the energy into the weight in the middle, and then some of that momentum is transferred to the ammo when the second stage pouch is released.  The longer radius is compensated for somewhat by the relatively small mass of the projectile.

I do have a sling that's had some pouch adjustments made to serve a particular purpose.  I can't post any pics yet because it's going to be featured in an upcoming video (very soon) and don't want to drop any spoilers here.  But I'll upload a picture as soon as the video is posted.

When I first started making the pouch adjustments, I wasn't sure if it would work.  Initial tests look good, but I'm still not certain if it will survive an actual throw.  I'll know soon.

This should all (meaning tests and video) be within the next week or so.

I experimented with a few more Y-sling designs, but the perfection of the design adds too much complexity that takes away from the neat simplicity of slings, while the benefit that it all adds is still doubtful in comparison to the simple design and to put it plainly, not well enough documented / proven or by me

One problem I have with Y-slings is getting a relaxed grip. This for me requires a large overhand knot or a big round bead. But a round bead is not something you can quickly recreate in nature.

My preferred release on a normal sling is a knotless release cord end, but I can only get this to work with conventional slings (with rough natural plant cordage. ) due to the inherent design, this sling type has only 50% of the load on the release cord (with the other 50% on the retention). This in turn allows a more relaxed grip by default which adds to the power of the cast.

But the Y-sling has nearly all load on the release end, so when I use a smooth release end, a) the stone will be out before the tail is out of my hand completely, b) I can't relax my grip and this interferes with accuracy so the solution c) a big release knot, but this delays the release from my hand significantly, to the point of being equal or worse than a rifled shot with a conventional sling with smooth release end -- in terms of timing.

So for the Y-sling I would need some sort of mechanical trigger release to relax. I've always drawn the line at such innovations. In the past I tried something simple but it wasn't adequate. I don't intend to pursue this anymore because it adds too much complexity ++ simplicity is better. If all cultures stayed with the simple design they probably had a good reason to and didn't see a need for improvement. The accuracy achieved as shown by Sarosh and Albion and Jaegoor and other expert slingers are proof enough that the simple design is excellent in terms of effectiveness.

To sum it up, I concluded there are 2 things that are important for a clean sling cast in my opinion. 1) a smooth exit of the stone from the sling pouch and 2) a smooth exit of the release end from the hand.

1) and 2) can both be achieved with the simple conventional sling, with proper pouch angling and a well designed release tail/tassle, all the while keeping a very simple construction.

but so far I've only achieved 1) comfortably with a Y-sling and not 2) without sacrificing power of the cast and/or the stone weight. Others may have different experiences, I am not saying my conclusion on the Y-sling is definite but I am not motivated to exploit the design any further, due to the increasing complexities required in the construction thereof

There ''is'' one low-tech solution to not needing a mechanical trigger or a big release knot / bead  on a Y-sling that I am aware of. That is the loop-release. I have tried that in the past and it worked. But it requires a lot of adaptation and practice compared to the smooth release cord grip of the conventional sling and I have not used it enough  to come to a sound conclusion and whether this can be used accurately enough. If the Achaeans used the Y-sling, I could imagine that they used this loop-release. The release of the release-loop from the hand in this way is very similar to the release of a bow-string with 3 or 2 fingers (depending on the width of the projectile, one would swap width placing the release loop over 2 or 3 release fingers.). When one uses this one easily can see how they made the connection to the shot of an arrow with a bow in the historical description, in combination with the release of the projectile through the pouch. This also gives good pouch orientation control. That the Y-sling can rifle a shot I am convinced of. This is dependent on projectile placement in the pouch and the angle of the pouch upon release. But the spinrate is a lot less. When this is used one will have to make good use of the wrist to ensure that the projectile will not escape the pouch before release similarily how one uses the wrist with a conventional sling and cord-spacing between the fingers.  But I don't know yet if this style of loop release from the hand can give consistent results. One has to open the hand in order for the loop to slide off the fingers (like a bowstring.) and thus there is some drag and new ''mental timing'' required. It also adds more aerodynamic drag when 3 cords are used and the Y-style pouch also seems to be worse aerodynamically. Whther any of this is superior to the well proven and old simple tested design is doubtful. In the past my enthusiasm for ''something new'' lead to too-quick conclusions. ''keep it simple - stupid ! '' is a good principe for sling design and many other things in life.

joe_meadmaker wrote on Feb 5^th, 2023 at 7:43pm:


That looks a lot like what I did on my cotton fishtail braided sling.  I used a thin silicone slurry instead of wax, but very similar approach:

Yes, I have tried woven release tabs and whipped sling ends as well. But the fact remains that the weight on a Y-sling release end is, in my case, basically >95% of the projectile weight and 5% or less on the retention end. Thus a 500g stone is 500g pulling on the releasing ''trigger'' fingers. As I said, this is the case with my designs, with the retention cord only having the function of retaining the sling after a cast and hinging the pouch sideways so to drop the stone.

When there is slack in the retention cord of the Y-sling this causes release inconsistencies. Different ammo sizes fit differently in the pouch thus this slack is either greater or less depending on the projectile size. Ideally there would be no slack and no tension in my case, so neutrality. Achieving this after every cast with different stone sizes is a hassle and reduces loading speed significantly. Solution would be uniform ammo but this is not always achieveable. In contrast, with the conventional sling, it does not matter the stone size, it immediately provides equal tension on both release and retention cord (50/50). The lack of a third cord simply provides less things to take into consideration with reloading.

With the conventional sling, this 500g stone feels like a 250g stone on the releasing fingers, with the other 250g being on the retention loop/fingers. Thus the load on the releasing fingers is cut in half.