There have been a few new YouTube clips of staff slinging, especially some very nice slow motion shots, which I thought were very interesting. I was especially impressed by the simple, neat, straight forward sweeping motion which would have allowed a company of staff slingers to stand quite close together and shoot volleys like musketmen. I imagine they would be as least as effective.

Does anyone know if staff slings were used this way in open warfare or were they limited to siege and naval applications?

They were used in open warfare too. Carolingian armies used to have specialty staff slingers,  that were used to help guard baggage trains, and general  combat.with cartloads of stones.  In combat, they used packhorses loaded with stones for greater mobility. Also, they were used for chemical/incendiary attacks on the battlefields.  

Aussie wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2009 at 6:48pm:


I don't know of any source explicitly mentioning staff slingers in open field battle (if we talk about war before modern times and skip the grenade launching staff slings in the First World War or the Spanish Civil War). But, as you said, it would have been very effective to use them like mortars against masses of enemy soldiers .

Also the contemporary pictures I remember show fustibalists (fustibalians, fustibalers?) only during sieges or aboard ships, not in the field. Maybe they were often thrown together with normal slingers and referred to as such in the sources.

@slingbadger, do you remember where the Saxon staff slingers were mentioned? Sounds very interesting. The decisive weapon against King Arthur? 

Franks? Or allies?

OK, the original source for this came from De Procenti Romancae Milicae, by Rhabanaus Maurus, ( 780-850 AD)
  He said the range for a Carolingian slinger was 600 ft.
  I got this from Early Carolingian Warfare by Bernard Bachrach
  Time to drive the librarians crazy.

Aussie wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 5:46am:

depends, for pin-point accuracy, definately archers, at a long range into a group of people, probobly slingers

Aussie wrote on Jun 6^th, 2009 at 1:16am:


I (occasional longbowman, though far from the top 1.000.000 ranks ) agree.

There may (have) be(en) superbowmen and superslingers with superaccuracy and superranges, but generally your suggestion sounds convincing to me. Even a very good bowman with the ability to hit a (static) target at > 100 m would behave differently in a battle situation than when hunting or shooting at straw targets.

In battle, it is surely more effective to shower the enemy with volleys at greater distances than to search for an individual aim. Searching and aiming takes more time than letting off quickly arrow after arrow in the general direction of the adversary. Accuracy becomes important when the bowman sees somebody (let's say a horseman) coming up towards him with the specific intention to take him (or his comrades) out, and that intention would be only obvious at a distance <100 or even <70 m. And as we are talking about moving (no static) targets here, an "individual kill distance" of 50 m or less sounds reasonable for me.

There may be exceptions, for example when the archers can identify a special person crucial to the enemy's army (king, general). It would then of course be only reasonable to try to hit him even at greater distances and perhaps end the battle quickly.

Is anyone out there able to quote a description of staff slings being used by Greek forces?